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Though a border city, Gorizia was not crossed by the border with [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] as often erroneously claimed. This image stems mainly from the presence in Yugoslav territory of old buildings once belonging to Gorizia: these include the old railway station of the line that connected the town of Gorizia to the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] capital [[Vienna]]. Although the situation in Gorizia was often compared with that of [[Berlin]] during the [[Cold War]], Italy and Yugoslavia had good relations regarding Gorizia. These included [[Culture|cultural]] and [[Sports|sporting]] events that favoured the spirit of harmonious coexistance that still exists today.
Though a border city, Gorizia was not crossed by the border with [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] as often erroneously claimed. This image stems mainly from the presence in Yugoslav territory of old buildings once belonging to Gorizia: these include the old railway station of the line that connected the town of Gorizia to the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] capital [[Vienna]]. Although the situation in Gorizia was often compared with that of [[Berlin]] during the [[Cold War]], Italy and Yugoslavia had good relations regarding Gorizia. These included [[Culture|cultural]] and [[Sports|sporting]] events that favoured the spirit of harmonious coexistance that still exists today.


With the breakup of Yugoslavia, the frontier remained as the division between Italy and Slovenia until the implementation of the Schengen agreement by Slovenia on [[21 December 2007]].
With the breakup of Yugoslavia, the frontier remained as the division between Italy and Slovenia until the implementation of the [[Schengen Agreement]] by Slovenia on [[21 December 2007]].


== Historical demography==
== Historical demography==

Revision as of 06:24, 13 August 2008

Comune di Gorizia
Comune
Castle of Gorizia
Castle of Gorizia
Location of {{{name}}}
Map
Comune di Gorizia is located in Italy
Comune di Gorizia
Comune di Gorizia
Location of Comune di Gorizia in Italy
Comune di Gorizia is located in Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Comune di Gorizia
Comune di Gorizia
Comune di Gorizia (Friuli-Venezia Giulia)
Coordinates: 45°56′23″N 13°37′24″E / 45.9398°N 13.6234°E / 45.9398; 13.6234
CountryItaly
RegionFriuli-Venezia Giulia
ProvinceGorizia (GO)
FrazioniCastello, Lucinico, Oslavia (Oslavje), Piuma (Pevma), San Mauro (Šmaver), Sant’Andrea (Štandrež), Straccis (Stražišče), Vallone dell'Acqua, Gradiscutta, Piedimonte (Podgora)
Government
 • MayorEttore Romoli
 (Forza Italia, elected 2007-05-27)
Area
[1]
 • Total41 km2 (16 sq mi)
Elevation
84 m (276 ft)
Population
 (December 31, 2004)[2]
 • Total39,615
 • Density970/km2 (2,500/sq mi)
Demonym(s)Goriziani, Goričani
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
34170
Dialing code0481
Patron saintSaints Ilario and Taziano
Saint daymarch 16
Websitewww.comune.gorizia.it

Gorizia (Friulian: Gurize, German: Görz, Slovene: Gorica) is a town in northeastern Italy, at the foot of the Alps and bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Province of Gorizia, and is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. In Slovene, Gorica means "little hill." The city is located at the confluence of the valleys of Isonzo and Vipacco rivers. It lies in a plain overlooked by the Collio hills, which are renowned for the production of outstanding wines. Being sheltered from the north by a mountain ridge, Gorizia is not touched by the cold winds coming from there. And although the Bora can blow from the east, the city still retains a mild climate.

History

Middle ages

See also County of Gorizia

Originally a watchtower or a prehistoric castle, Gorizia soon became a little village near the fords of the river Isonzo. It was not far from one of the most important Roman travelways linking Aquileia and Emona (Ljubljana). The name of Gorizia was for the first time recorded in a document dated AD April 28 1001: "Villa quae Sclavorum lingua vocatur Goriza " ("The village, known in the language of the Slavs as Goriza"). This stated the donation of the castle and village of Gorizia made by Emperor Otto III to Patriarch Giovanni II and to Count Verihen Eppenstein of Friuli. The Eppensteins were succedeed by the Palatine counts of Bavaria.

From the 11th century, the town had two different development plans: the castellan hamlet or superior land and the village or inferior land. The first played a political-administrative role and the second a rural-commercial role. From the 12th century to the early 16th century Gorizia was the capital of an essentially independent County, whose changeable dominions extended for a short while up to Aquileia and Tyrol.

Habsburg rule

See also Gorizia and Gradisca, Inner Austria

In 1500 the County of Gorizia passed to Austrian Habsburg rule and the city spread out at the foot of the castle becoming, in the middle of the 18th century, an archiepiscopal see with jurisdiction over the diocese of Trieste, Trento, Como and Pedena. Around the Baroque cathedral where many treasures of the Basilica of Aquileia had been transferred, a new quarter developed; it had a typically 18th century appearance and inside there was also a synagogue, one of the many examples of the town's multi-ethnic nature. The Habsburg suzerainty was interrupted briefly by the Venetians in 1508–1509 and the French during the Napoleonic Wars, in which it belonged to the Illyrian Provinces. When restored to the Austrian Empire, the county was part of the subject Kingdom of Illyria until 1849 when it was made a part of the Austrian Littoral along with Trieste and Istria. In 1861, Gorizia along with Gradisca d'Isonzo was reorganized as the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca within Austria. During Austrian rule, Gorizia was known as the "Austrian Nice" and was a destination which the Austrian noblemen came to sojourn in the summer months.

The central square in Gorizia around 1900.

At the time, Gorizia was a multiethnic town: Italian and Venetian, Slovenian, Friulian and German were spoken in the town centre, while in the suburbs, Slovenian and Friulian prevailed. Although some tensions between the Italian-Friulian and the Slovenian population were felt, the town continued to maintain a relatively tolerant climate until WWI, in which both Slovenian and Italian-Friulian culture flourished.

Italy entered World War I on the Allied side and conflict began with Austria-Hungary on 24 May 1915 with Italy soon taking Gorizia. Gorizia was seriously damaged and changed hands again in 1916 as the front line ran in its area for two years with several battles fought nearby until the Battle of Caporetto in late 1917, when the Central Powers pushed the Italians back to the Piave River.

After the battle of Caporetto the political life in Austria-Hungary resumed and Gorizia became the center of three competing political camps: the Slovenes, who united to demand an autonomous Yugoslav state within Austria-Hungary, the Friulian conservatives who demanded a separate and autonomous East Friulian County, and the underground Italian irredentist, who wished the unification with Italy. At the end of World war I, in late October 1918, the Slovenes unilaterally declared their independence within the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, while the Friulians continued to demand an autonomous region under Habsburg rule. Gorizia became a contested town. By early November 1918, the town was occupied by Italian troops again, which dissolved the two competing authorities.

Part of Italy

At first, Gorizia was included in the Governorate of Venezia Giulia (1918-1919). In 1920, the town and the whole region became officially part of Italy. The eutnomous County of Gorizia and Gradisca was dissolved in 1922, and in 1924 it was annexed to the Province of Udine (then called the Province of Friuli). In 1927 Gorizia became a provincial capital within Venezia Giulia. During the fascist regime, all Slovenian organizations were dissolved and the public use of Slovenian language was prohibited. Illegal Slovenian organizations, with an anti-Fascist and often irredentist agenda, such as the TIGR, emerged as a result. Many Slovenes emigrated to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and to South America, especially to Argentina.

After the Italian armistice in September 1943, the town was shortly occupied by the Slovene partisan resistance, but soon fell under Nazi German administration. Between 1943 and 1945 it was incorporated into the Operational Zone Adriatic Littoral. After a brief occupation by the Yugoslav partisans in May and June 1945, the administration was transferred to the Allies until September 1947, when it was fully incorporated into Italy again. Several peripherical districts of the Gorizia municipality (Solkan, Pristava, Rožna Dolina, Kromberk and Šempeter-Vrtojba) were handed over to the Socialist Yugoslavia, together with much of the Province of Gorizia's territory. The national border was thus drawn just off the town centre, putting Gorizia into a peripheral zone. The Yugoslav Slovenian authorities (with president Tito's special support) built a new town called Nova Gorica ("New Gorizia") from 1948 on, on their side of the border.

The railway square viewed from the Slovenian railway station in Nova Gorica

Though a border city, Gorizia was not crossed by the border with Yugoslavia as often erroneously claimed. This image stems mainly from the presence in Yugoslav territory of old buildings once belonging to Gorizia: these include the old railway station of the line that connected the town of Gorizia to the Austro-Hungarian capital Vienna. Although the situation in Gorizia was often compared with that of Berlin during the Cold War, Italy and Yugoslavia had good relations regarding Gorizia. These included cultural and sporting events that favoured the spirit of harmonious coexistance that still exists today.

With the breakup of Yugoslavia, the frontier remained as the division between Italy and Slovenia until the implementation of the Schengen Agreement by Slovenia on 21 December 2007.

Historical demography

The chart shows the historical development of the population of Gorizia from the late 18th century to the eve of World War One, according to official Austrian censuses. The figures show the population of the municipality of Gorizia in the boundiaries of the time. The criteria for the definition of the ethnical structure were changing over the years: in 1789, only the religious affiliation of the population was taken into account; in 1869 the ethnic affiliation was also recorded, with Jews counted as a separate category; in 1880 the category of ethnicity was replaced by the mother tongue, and from 1890 to 1910 only the "language of everyday communication" (German: Umgangsprache) was recorded. After 1869, the Jews were only recorded as a religious community, under the official category of "Israelites".

Census[3] Ethnical structure
Year Population of
Gorizia 		Italians and Friulians Slovenes other Slavs Germans Jews
1789 7.639 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. 300
1850 10.581 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
1857 13.297 n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a.
1869 16.659 11.100 3.500 n.a. 1.800 300
1880 19.113 13.517 3.411 56 2.149 (260)
1890 20.019 14.860 3.567 94 1.497 n.a.
1900 23.765 16.112 4.754 133 2.760 n.a.
1910 29.291 14.812 10.790 376 3.238 (260)

Culture and education

Although the majority of the population identifies with the Italian culture, Gorizia is an important center of Friulian and Slovene culture. Before 1918, the tri-lingual Gorizia Grammar School was one of the most important educational institutions in the Slovene Lands and for the Italians in the Austrian Littoral.

Nowadays, Gorizia hosts several important scientific and educational institutions. Both the University of Trieste and the University of Udine have part of their campuses and faculties located in Gorizia. Other institutes of international renomation from Gorizia are the Institute of International Sociology Gorizia, the Institute for Central European Cultural Encounters and the International University Instiute for European Studies.

Gorizia is also the site of one of the most important choral competitions, the "C. A. Seghizzi" International Choir Competition, which is a member of the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing.

Religion

The majority of the population of Gorizia is of Roman Catholic denomination. The town is the seat of the Archbishops of Gorizia, who were one of the three legal descentants of the Patriarchate of Aquileia (along with the Patriarchate of Venice and the Archdiocese of Udine). Between mid 18th century and 1920, Gorizia was thus the center of a Metropolitan bishopric that comprised the Dioceses of Ljubljana, Trieste, Poreč-Pula and Krk. Several important religious figures lived and worked in Gorizia during this period, including cardinal Jakob Missia, bishop Frančišek Borgia Sedej, theologians Anton Mahnič and Josip Srebrnič, and Franciscan monk and philologian Stanislav Škrabec. There are many important Roman Catholic sacral buildings in the area, among them the sancturies of Sveta Gora ("Holy Mountain") and the monastery of Kostanjevica, both of which are now located in Slovenia.

Until 1943, Gorizia was also home of a small but significant Jewish minority. Most of its members however perished in the Holocaust. An important Evangelical community also exists in Gorizia.

Main sights

The Castle of Gorizia.
  • The Castle, built within the Middle Ages walls, was once the seat of the administrative and judiciary power of the county. It is divided into the Corte dei Lanzi (with foundings of a high tower demolished in the 16th century), the Palazzetto dei Conti (13th century) and the Palazzetto Veneto. The Lanzi were the armed guards, the term being an Italian form of Landsknecht. The palatine chapel, entitled to Saint Bartholomew houses canvases of the Venetian school of painting and traces of Renaissance frescoes. There is also a Museum of the Goritian Middle Ages.
  • The Cathedral (originally erected in the 14th century), like many of the city's buildings, was almost entirely destroyed during World War I. It has been rebuilt following the forms of the 1682 edifice, a Baroque church with splendid stucco decoration. A Gothic chapel of San Acatius is annexed to the nave.
  • The most important church of Gorizia is that of St. Ignatius, built by the Jesuits in 1680–1725. It has a single nave with precious sculptures at the altars of the side chapels. In the presbytery Christoph Tausch painted a Glory of St. Ignatius in 1721.
  • The Palazzo Attems Petzenstein (19th century), designed by Nicolò Pacassi.
  • The church of San Rocco.
  • Palazzo Cobenzl, today seat of the archbishops.
  • The Earls of Lantieri's house, which housed emperors and popes in his history.
  • The Palazzo Coronini Cronberg, including an art gallery.
  • The Transalpina railway square, divided by an international border.
  • The Department of International and Diplomatic Sciences of the University of Trieste, hosted in the beautiful "Seminario Minore", is the most prestigious academic course in Foreign Affairs in Italy.

Famous natives and residents

Authors

Artists and architects

Politicians and public servants

Religious figures

Scholars

Sportsmen

Others

Pictures

  • Gorizia's Castle
    Gorizia's Castle
  • Saint Ignatius Church
    Saint Ignatius Church
  • Chappel of the Holy Spirit on the Castle Hill
    Chappel of the Holy Spirit on the Castle Hill
  • The border between Italy (Gorizia) and Slovenia (Nova Gorica)
    The border between Italy (Gorizia) and Slovenia (Nova Gorica)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gorizia.

Twin towns

Gorizia is twinned with:

External links


  1. ^ "Superficie di Comuni Province e Regioni italiane al 9 ottobre 2011". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Popolazione Residente al 1° Gennaio 2018". Italian National Institute of Statistics. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  3. ^ Branko Marušič, Pregled politične zgodovine Slovencev na Goriškem (Nova Gorica: Goriški muzej, 2005)
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