by vineyards and fields mostly belonging to the rural area of Solkan. In 1952, the City of Nova Gorica was created and Solkan was incorporated into it. Since then, it has gradually merged with the modern town of Nova Gorica, although it has been since 1988 an autonomous settlement and has a pronounced local identity. Language, ethnicity and culture Solkan has been a largely Slovene settlement. It has however also had different ethnic and linguistic minorities. Since the Middle Ages, many Friulians have lived in Solkan, but they have been now mostly assimilated. Italians lived here mostly between the late 19th and early 20th century, but after 1947 they mostly fled to Italy or assimilated to the Slovene majority. Immigrants from other regions of former Yugoslavia started settling in Solkan from early 1970s. Today, Slovenes represent around 90% of the population, the remaining 10% are mostly Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians, together with smaller numbers of Italians and Albanians. According to the census of 1991, 91% of the population spoke Slovene as their first language. Serbo-Croatian came second with a little less than 8%. The native inhabitants of Solkan speak a variant of the Karst dialect of Slovene. The Solkan variant of the dialect served as the basis for the development of the urban dialect of Nova Gorica, which emerged with the second generation of settlers of the town. The Solkan dialect has become well known throughout Slovenia since the early 1990s because the singer-songwriter Iztok Mlakar uses it in the lyrics of his songs. The culture of Solkan has been strongly influenced by the contacts with neighbouring Italian region of Friuli. The influence can be felt in the local cuisine, language, customs and traditions. Its most prominent landmark is the Solkan Bridge, built between 1904 and 1905. It is a bridge over the Soča on the Jesenice-to-Nova Gorica railway. It is 220 m long with a central arch spanning 85 m, making it the longest stone arch spanning a river and the longest stone-arch railway bridge in the world. The original bridge railing was designed by Otto Wagner. People People who were born or lived in Solkan include: Jure Franko, skier Ivo Hvalica, politician (Slovenian Democratic Party) Klement Jug, philosopher and mountaineer Boris Kalin, sculptor Zdenko Kalin, sculptor Milan Klemenčič, Slovene puppeteer Andrej Komel Sočebran, officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army and creator of Slovenian military terminology Branko Marušič, historian Fedja