The Duchy of Carniola (, , ) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carniola in 1364. A hereditary land of the Habsburg monarchy, it became a constituent land of the Austrian Empire in 1804 and part of the Kingdom of Illyria until 1849. A separate crown land from 1849, it was incorporated into the Cisleithanian territories of Austria-Hungary from 1867 until the state's dissolution in 1918. Its capital was Ljubljana (). Geography The borders of the historic Carniola region had varied over the centuries. From the time of the duchy's establishment, it was located in the southeastern periphery of the Holy Roman Empire, where the Gorjanci Mountains and the Kolpa River formed the border with the Kingdom of Croatia. In the north, it bordered the Imperial Duchy of Carinthia, from the Predil Pass and Fusine (Fužine) along the main ridge of the Karawanks range up to Jezersko. In the northeast and east, it bordered on the Duchy of Styria, i.e., the present-day Štajerska or Lower Styrian lands beyond the Sava River, which until 1456 were held by the Counts of Celje. In the west, the peaks of the Julian Alps high above Lake Bohinj marked the border with the historic Friulian region, initially held by the Patriarchs of Aquileia, but gradually conquered by the Republic of Venice and incorporated into the Domini di Terraferma by 1433. In the southwest, beyond the Dinaric Alps, the Counts of Görz held the remaining Friulian territory, which in 1754 became the Austrian crown land of Gorizia and Gradisca (part of the present-day Slovenian Littoral). The remains of the Margraviate of Istria south of the Karst Plateau and the Brkini Hills were also administered from Carniola. In its final extent, re-established in 1815, the duchy had an area of . In 1914, before the beginning of World War I, it had a population of a little under 530,000 inhabitants. Administrative divisions According to the topography The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola written by the scholar Johann Weikhard von Valvasor (1641–1693), the territory was traditionally divided into three sub-regions: Upper Carniola (Gorenjska), the mountainous part in the north, with the towns of Kranj and Kamnik Lower Carniola (Dolenjska), in the southeast, with Novo Mesto, Kočevje (Gottschee) and Krško, including White Carniola and the former Windic March Inner Carniola