The
Illyrian Provinces was a short-lived autonomous province of the Napoleonic
French Empire, established in 1809 on the territories along the north and east coasts of the
Adriatic Sea, which had been conquered in the
War of the Fifth Coalition. Its capital was established at
Ljubljana (
Laybach). The name "Illyrian" was used to refer to ancient
Illyrian tribes who once lived in the area and constitutes a
Neoclassicist relabeling of the Dalmatian coast, which was known as
Illyria in antiquity.