Tourism What you should know about Nova Gorica and Gorizia
For the first time, a cross-border city pair presents itself as a European cultural metropolis. Central European baroque and socialist urban utopia promise an eclectic mix.
09.12.2024, 03:07
SDA
In addition to the German city of Chemnitz, the city pair of Nova Gorica (Slovenia) and Gorizia (Italy) will hold the title of European Capital of Culture in 2025. Under the motto "Go! Borderless", this is the first time that an urban settlement area spanning two different countries has presented itself as a European Capital of Culture.
Around 400 events on the topics of war and peace, reconstruction, the economy of smuggling and green sustainability are planned after the opening ceremony on February 8. What should you know about the Slovenian-Italian project that promises borderlessness?
Border between EU states - does it still exist?
Italy is a founding member of the EU. Slovenia - formerly part of Yugoslavia - joined the EU in 2004. When Slovenia joined Schengen in 2007, the country became part of the EU zone within which there are no internal border controls. As a result, the visible features of a controlled national border also disappeared between Nova Gorica and Gorizia. However, since the large refugee movements in 2015, Italy has reserved the right to carry out checks at the road border crossing between the two towns.
In the beginning was Gorizia - an Austrian county
The County of Gorizia belonged to the Habsburg Empire from the 16th century. After the First World War (1914-1918), the area was awarded to Italy. The baroque town of Gorizia became the Italian Gorizia, which now belonged to the region of Julian Veneto (Venezia Giulia) with the capital Trieste. Around 60 percent of the population of the Gorizia region were Slovenians, who mainly lived in the countryside and villages.
The town of Gorizia was dominated by the Italian element, which was helped to achieve exclusive dominance through a campaign of "Italianization". The Slovenes in Julian Veneto looked wistfully at the newly formed Yugoslavia after the World War, which was initially even called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
How Nova Gorica emerged as a socialist utopia
After the Second World War (1939-1945), a new border was drawn in the region. The now communist Yugoslavia was awarded large parts of the surrounding area of Gorizia, while the town itself remained with Italy, contrary to Yugoslavian demands.
In 1947, the communist government of Yugoslavia decided to build its own town. Nova Gorica (New Gorizia) - as it was called - was to act as a showcase for the West, with which it was ideologically hostile. Chief architect Edvard Ravnikar, a student of Le Corbusier, created a city that was modern in the sense of the time. The apartment blocks were not oversized, with a number of interspersed green spaces to break them up.
System boundary cut through station forecourt
From 1947, the border between western capitalist Italy and communist Yugoslavia ran right through the square in front of the station, which belonged to Yugoslavia. Pictures from the time show a wire fence marking the border. However, Yugoslavia's President Josip Broz Tito broke with Soviet dictator Stalin in 1948 and initiated a détente with the West. The border between Gorizia and Nova Gorica became increasingly porous.
Slovenia celebrated its accession to the EU with the then EU Commission President Romano Prodi on the square in front of Nova Gorica's train station. But the border still shapes the people and the cityscape to this day. "In Gorizia, you're in Italy in one fell swoop," says Slovenian journalist Ervin Hladnik, who comes from Nova Gorica himself. "Buildings, stores, everything looks different. Even the cats are different. Nova Gorica is characterized by practicality, functionalism, it was the last outpost to the West."
What the city couple want to show Europeans
With the motto "Borderless", the focus is on the border and its changes. "There was never a Berlin Wall here," says program director Stojan Pelko to the German Press Agency. "People had a complex relationship with the border. We want to show this complexity." In socialist Yugoslavia, it was also a smuggling border: citizens imported consumer goods from Italy in the trunks of their cars that were not available in their own country. In turn, Italians liked to come to Nova Gorica, where people ate well and cheaply in restaurants and enjoyed themselves in casinos.
Burdened past
The Isonzo Valley (Slovene: Soca) was one of the most brutal sites of the First World War. In a total of twelve battles in the Isonzo, the armies of Austria-Hungary and Italy fought each other, sometimes on snow-covered mountain heights. Afterwards, the Slovenes complained of persecution and repression due to the forced "Italianization" in Gorizia, while the Italians who remained in Yugoslavia suffered persecution and repression by the communist authorities.
The wars and the burdened past are an important focus of the Capital of Culture year. The new European Platform for the Interpretation of the 20th Century (Epic) is being built in a former train station warehouse. "It is a joint proposal for how to remain open to the interpretation of the other," says Kaja Sirok, the designated director of Epic, to dpa.
What visitors can expect
The opening on 8 February 2025 will begin with a colorful parade from the train station in Gorizia to the one in Nova Gorica. It will continue with an artistic program in front of the mayor's office in Nova Gorica. A "peace march" is planned in the Isonzo Valley to mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Another highlight is the concert by Sting on July 9 at Villa Manin in Passariano, Italy.
Opportunities and prospects
"The cross-border European Capital of Culture is not just a series of events," says Marco Marinuzzi, the project manager of the Italian Capital of Culture programs. "It is unique. It could become a model for the future that could be applied to other difficult borders - in Europe and also worldwide."
The Slovenian programme maker Pelko, a film aesthete and student of the philosopher Slavoj Zizek, emphasizes the transformative character of the Capital of Culture project. He refers to the conversion of the station: "Superfluous tracks will be removed. In their place, a campus for the University of Nova Gorica is being built. Warehouses will become community and exhibition spaces. Infrastructure from the industrial age that is no longer needed is making way for infrastructure for the digital age." European Capital of Culture: this is "always also the reappropriation of empty spaces, the filling of empty spaces with new content"
