TheTrieste National HallorSlovene Cultural Centre[1][2][3](Slovene:Narodni dom)[4]inTriestewas a multimodal building that served for 15 years as a social and economic centre[5]for theSlovene minorityin the city. It included theSlovene theatre in Trieste,a hotel, a restaurant, a gym[5]and numerous cultural associations. It is notable for having been burned in 1920 byItalian Fascists,which made it a symbol of the Italian repression of theSlovene minority in Italy.[6] The building was restored from 1988 to 1990.[7]and later used as a hotel (Hotel Regina). Around 2010 it has been renovated according to the original plans.[5]
Building
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Such institutions were typical inSlovenian ethnic territoryin the decades around 1900. It was built by the Slovenian architectMax Fabianibetween 1901 and 1904.[5]Fabiani designed the building with the concept of technical-rational structure, with the facade of monumental stone. It was completed in 1904.[8][9]It had an ornate facade and state-of-the-art equipment, including anelectric generatorandcentral heating.[7]
Fascist attack
editOn 13 July 1920, at the end of a violent anti-Slovenian demonstration[5]as a reaction to theJuly 11 Split incident,the building was burned by the FascistBlackshirts,led byFrancesco Giunta.[10]The act was praised byBenito Mussolini,who had not yet assumed power, as a "masterpiece of the Triestine Fascism" (Italian:capolavoro del fascismo triestino).[6]It was part of a widerpogromagainst theSlovenesand otherSlavsin the very centre of Trieste and the harbinger of the ensuing violence against the Slovenes and Croats in theJulian March.[10]
On 15 May 1921, less than a year after the arson attack, the architect Fabiani became a member of theItalian Fascist movement.The reason for his joining the party and his political activity in the following years remains unclear.[11][12]
Legacy
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Boris Pahor's autobiographical novelTrg Oberdan[Note 1]describes how he witnessed the Fascists burning the building.
Further reading
edit- Kacin Wohinz, Milica(2010):Alle origini del fascismo di confine – Gli sloveni della Venezia Giulia sotto l'occupazione italiana 1918–1921,ISBN8890342285,Gorica, p. 307
Notes
edit- ^Boris Pahor's novel has been translated into German under the titlePiazza Oberdan.
References
edit- ^Sluga, Glenda(2001).The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe.New York: State University of New York Press. p. 208.
- ^Hametz, Maura Elise (2005).Making Trieste Italian, 1918–1954.Rochester, NY: Woodbridge. p. 21.
- ^Kmecl, Matjaž; Žnidaršič, Joco (1987).Treasure Chest of Slovenia.Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba. p. 316.
- ^Sluga, Glenda (2001).The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe.Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 50.
- ^abcdeOpara, Corinna (2013).Three Days in Trieste.Trieste: Beit Casa Editrice. p. 104.
- ^abSestani, Armando, ed. (10 February 2012). "Il confine orientale: una terra, molti esodi" [The Eastern Border: One Land, Multiple Exoduses].I profugi istriani, dalmati e fiumani a Lucca[The Istrian, Dalmatian and Rijeka Refugees in Lucca](PDF)(in Italian). Instituto storico della Resistenca e dell'Età Contemporanea in Provincia di Lucca. pp. 12–13.
- ^ab"Maks Fabiani: arhitekt Anaksimandrove zakonitosti večnega porajanja in uničevanja"[Max Fabiani: The Architect of the Anaximander's Law of Eternal Rising and Destruction].MMC RTV Slovenia(in Slovenian).
- ^Rožič, Janko (2010). "Nacionalni slog v arhitekturi" [National Style in Architecture].46. seminar slovenskega jezika, literature in kulture: Slovanstvo v slovenskem jeziku, literaturi in kulturi[The 46th Seminar of the Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture: Slavism in the Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture](PDF)(in Slovenian). p. 135.ISBN978-961-237-363-4.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-06-04.
- ^Pahor, Milan (2010)."90 let od požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu"[90 Years From the Arson of National Hall in Trieste].Primorski dnevnik [The Littoral Daily](in Slovenian). pp. 14–15.COBISS11683661.Retrieved28 February2012.
- ^ab"90 let od požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu"[90 Years From the Arson of National Hall in Trieste].Primorski dnevnik(in Slovenian). 2010. pp. 14–15.COBISS11683661.Retrieved28 February2012.
- ^"Kdo je bil Maks Fabiani"[Who Was Max Fabiani] (in Slovenian). Radio Koper. 27 February 2015.
- ^Mezinec, Petra (20 February 2015)."Je bil zagrizen fašist ali pa so ga v to vlogo potisnili?"[Was He a Fierce Fascist or Was He Forced into This Role?].Primorske novice(in Slovenian).