Slavia Friulana, which means Friulian Slavia (Slovene: Beneška Slovenija), is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy and it is so called because of its Slavic population which settled here in the 8th century AD. The territory is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, between the town of Cividale del Friuli (not included) and the Slovenian border.

The term Slavia Friulana could possibly be used to refer to all Friulian territories with a Slavic presence, including the municipalities of Lusevera, Taipana, Torreano, Resia and the mountainous areas of the municipalities of Tarcento, Nimis, Attimis, Faedis, Prepotto and Montenars. Despite that, in the last decades the name has been used to indicate the area also known as Valli del Natisone (Natisone Valleys) which was called Antro in the Middle Ages and then Schiavonìa during the Venetian domination: nowadays, the area is divided into the municipalities of San Pietro al Natisone, San Leonardo, Pulfero, Drenchia, Grimacco, Stregna, Savogna.

Since the beginning of the 8th century AD (c. 720), Slavic people settled in this area and in the Middle Ages they would have been called Sclavons. In the early 16th century, the Venetian authorities dubbed this border region of their Republic as Schiavonia Veneta, meaning "Venetian Slav-land". The Venetian words Schiavoni and Schiavonia were general terms used for all South Slavic peoples with which they came in direct contact, Slovenes as well as for Croats and Serbs from Dalmatia. The corresponding Latin term, Sclavonia, was also the source for the name of the region of Slavonia in present-day Croatia. In 1884 the local historian Carlo Podrecca named the area Slavia Italiana.

In Slovene, the traditional term has been Beneška Slovenija, which is a literal translation of Schiavonia Veneta. Until the early 19th century, there was no distinction between the terms "Slav" and "Slovene" in Slovenian. However, from the times of Romantic nationalism onward, the term Slovenija, which had been sporadically used to denote lands inhabited by Slovenes/Slavs, took over a new meaning, denoting the idea of modern Slovenia. The old term Beneška Slovenija was thus assimilated to a new meaning, as its name now meant "Venetian Slovenia". As a more neutral colloquial term, the name Benečija came into usage, which however also means Veneto in Slovene.

After World War I, as soon as the Italian kingdom expanded its borders eastwards (including slavophone territories in Istria and in the so-called Habsburgic Illyrian kingdom), the region started to be commonly called Slavia Friulana instead of a generic Slavia Italiana.

Most people in Slavia Friulana (considering the whole slavophone area) speak four different Slovene dialects, named after the major valleys that form those territories: first of all the Natisone Valley dialect, the Torre Valley dialect, the Resian dialect and the Iudrio Valleys. The first three are closely related to each other and Resian, instead, has its own peculiar characteristics. On the other hand, the Slovene spoken in the province of Gorizia is part of the Littoral dialect group.

Almost all of the inhabitants are fluent in Italian, which is taught in schools and present in the media and in the administration. Friulian is also widespread, especially in the municipalities of Montenars, Tarcento, Nimis, Attimis, Torreano, and Prepotto; in many villages in these municipalities, the Friulian language has already replaced Slovene as the first language of communication. Because of the lack of education in Slovene, most of the inhabitants do not master standard Slovene. Many do not understand it either, especially in the areas where the Slovenian TV and radio are not accessible, since standard Slovene is not entirely intelligible with the languages spoken in the region. They are however partially intelligible with the neighbouring Slovene dialects spoken in the Slovenian Littoral, especially the Soča and Brda dialects, which actually were parts of the ancient Venetian Schiavonia and annexed to Habsburgs' county of Gorizia in the early 19th century.

The vast majority of the people belong to the Roman Catholic Church and the religion plays an important role in the local culture. The Roman Catholic priests have traditionally been the most important promoters of the Slovene language and culture in Slavia Friulana. Anyway, the linguistic matter hasn't been clarified yet. In the late 19th century, the Polish linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay considered the four local languages as different Slavic ones, rich in Slavic archaisms which make them often sound closer to Serbian. He classified the four Friulian Slav groups as those of the Resia Valley, Torre Valleys, Natisone Valleys, and Judrio Valleys.

In the last decades some local politicians have been asking for a popular referendum concerning the self-ethnic definition of these people, but the project has never been possible to carry out because it has been boycotted by the most ideologized groups. The referendum itself has been recently demanded by the European Union and in the meanwhile the first scientific studies about local languages have finally been published for a transparent debate.

Slavia Friulana is known for its rich folk traditions. Numerous folk and ethno music bands come from the region, and many of them are extremely popular throughout Slovenia and the Friuli Venezia Giulia. The best-known of these bands are probably the Beneški fantje ("Venetian Lads"), which are considered to be oldest still existing Slovene band. Besides its archaic traditional music and dances, the Resia valley is also known for its folk tales, which were edited and translated into standard Slovene by the Slovene scholar Milko Matičetov and published by the largest publishing house in Slovenia, Mladinska knjiga, in 1976. They have been re-published in eight editions since, and have had a huge impact in popularizing the Friulian Slav folk culture in Slovenia.

Since the late 1980s, Slavia Friulana has also emerged as one of the major centres of high quality Slovene dialect poetry. The best-known poets from the region are Silvana Paletti, Francesco Bergnach and Marina Cernetig.

Since 1994, the artistic project Stazione di Topolò – Postaja Topolove or "Topolò Station" takes place every summer in the small village of Topolò (Slovene: Topolovo, known as Topolove or Topoluove in the local dialect). The project, which is the most important cultural and artistic event in the region, is an attempt to bring together contemporary visual art with and the local folk traditions.

• Carlo Podrecca, historian
• Francesco Musoni, ethnographer
• Anton Klodič Sabladoski, philologian, linguist and poet
• Aldo Specogna, Alpini Colonel, Silver Military Valour Medals
• Francesco Bergnach, Slovene dialect poet
• Edi Bucovaz, musician
• Marina Cernetig, Slovene dialect poet
• Luigi Faidutti, Friulian politician in Austria-Hungary
• Gianni Osgnach, sculptor
• Silvana Paletti, poet in the Resian dialect
• Graziano Podrecca, fotographer
• Stefano Podrecca, physician
• Pietro Podrecca, author
• Rudi Šimac, politician and author (from Breginj)
• Jožef Školč, politician (from Breginj), founder and first president of the Liberal Democratic Party
• Ivan Trinko, Roman Catholic prelate, translator and author
• Natalino Božo Zuanella, priest, historian and activist
• Pietro Fanna, professional soccer player
• Lorenzo Crisetig, professional footballer
• Roberto Chiacig, professional basket player
• Tedoldi Guerino-Vojmir, journalist

• Friuli
• Patriarchate of Aquileia
• Slovene Lands
• Slovene Union
• Resian dialect

• Carlo Podrecca, Slavia italiana, Cividale 1884
• Carlo Podrecca, Slavia italiana – Polemica, Cividale 1885
• Carlo Podrecca, Le vicinìe, Cividale 1887
• Bonessa et al., Slavia friulana, Cormons 2013; you can read the text here
• Marinelli et al., Guida delle Prealpi Giulie, Udine 1912
• Nino Špehonja, Nediška gramatika, Cormons 2012
• Nino Špehonja, Besednjak Nediško-Taljansko, Cormons 2012
• Nino Špehonja, Vocabolario Italiano-Nediško, Cormons 2012
• Giuseppe Jaculin, Gli Slavi del Natisone, Tavagnacco 1996
• Bogo Grafenauer, "The Autonomy of Venetian Slovenia" in Slovenci v Italiji po drugi svetovni vojni (Ljubljana, Koper, Trieste: Cankarjeva založba, Primorski tisk, Založništvo tržaškega tiska, 1975), 105–109.
• Svetozar Ilešič, "Beneška Slovenija" in Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia, ed. by Miroslav Krleža (Zagreb: Leksikografski zavod FNRJ, 1955–1971).
• Simon Rutar, Beneška Slovenija (Ljubljana: Slovenska matica, 1899).
• Gaetano Salvemini, Racial minorities under fascism in Italy (Chicago : The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1934).
• Henrik Tuma, Avtonomna uprava Beneška Slovenije (Ljubljana: Slovenski pravnik, 1933).
• Sergij Vilfan, L'autonomia della Slavia Italiana nel periodo patriarcale e veneto (Trieste-San Pietro: Quaderni Nadiža, 1987).
• Fran Zwitter, The Venetian Slovenes (Ljubljana: Institute for Ethnic Studies, 1946).
• Tadej Koren, Beneška Slovenija po drugi svetovni vojni: fenomen paravojaških enot (Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, 2005).
• Branko Marušič, Primorski čas pretekli (Koper, Trieste, Nova Gorica: Lipa – Založništvo tržaškega tiska – Goriški muzej, 1985).
• Venezia, una republica ai confini (Mariano del Friuli: Edizioni della Laguna, 2004).
• Faustino Nazzi, Alle origini della "Gladio": la questione della lingua slovena nella vita religiosa della Slavia Friulana nel secondo dopoguerra (Udine: La Patrie dal Friûl, 1997).
• Natalino Zuanella, Gli anni bui della Slavia: attività delle organizzazioni segrete nel Friuli orientale (Cividale del Friuli: Società Cooperativa Editrice Dom, 1996).