Native name | |
---|---|
Namesake | Transalpina Railway [1] [2] Europe |
Location | Gorizia, Italy Nova Gorica, Slovenia |
Coordinates | 45°57′18″N13°38′05″E / 45.95500°N 13.63472°E |
Transalpina Square (Italian : Piazza della Transalpina, [3] meaning "Square of the Transalpina [Railway Line])"; Slovene : Trg Evrope, [4] meaning "Europe Square"), is a square divided between the towns of Gorizia, northeastern Italy, and Nova Gorica, southwestern Slovenia. The railway station of Nova Gorica is located at the eastern end of the square, on the Slovenian side.
From 1947 (Treaty of Paris) an international border between Italy and Yugoslavia (Slovenia since 1991) crosses the square. [5] Until 2004 the square was divided by a border wall; [6] movement on the square is now free because both Italy and Slovenia are EU members and part of the Schengen Area. [7] Before 21 December 2007, free movement was only allowed within the square provided that a person that entered the square from one country returned to that country. An approved border crossing was located 100 m (330 feet; 110 yards) from the square. It is now no longer needed and has not been in use since 2007.
The square, in which is located Nova Gorica station, until 1947 Gorizia Montesanto, [3] was named after the Transalpine Railway, [1] [2] Jesenice-Trieste. The naming of the square is somewhat controversial because Slovenia suggested "Europe Square", but Italy has preferred to use the old historical name Piazza della Transalpina.
In the Slovenian side the square is crossed, parallelly to the station building, by a road named "Kolodvorska pot". The partly parallel Italian road is "Via Ugo Foscolo", that continues as "Via Caterina Percoto". Always on the Italian side, "Via Giuseppe Caprin", that starts in "Via Montesanto" ends in front of the station.
In summers, the square is regularly used for concerts, public meetings, and public demonstrations or protests against local politics or current events.[ citation needed ]
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the regional decentralization entity of Trieste.
Gorizia, colloquially stara Gorica 'old Gorizia' to distinguish it from Nova Gorica, is a town and comune (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located at the foot of the Julian Alps, bordering Slovenia. It is the capital of the Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia and is a local center of tourism, industry, and commerce. Since 1947, a twin town of Nova Gorica has developed on the other side of the modern-day Italy–Slovenia border. The region was subject to territorial dispute between Italy and Yugoslavia after World War II: after the new boundaries were established in 1947 and the old town was left to Italy, Nova Gorica was built on the Yugoslav side. The two towns constitute a conurbation, which also includes the Slovenian municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba. Since May 2011, these three towns have been joined in a common trans-border metropolitan zone, administered by a joint administration board.
Nova Gorica is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica. Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Paris Peace Treaty established a new border between Yugoslavia and Italy, leaving nearby Gorizia outside the borders of Yugoslavia and thus cutting off the Soča Valley, the Vipava Valley, the Gorizia Hills and the northwestern Karst Plateau from their traditional regional urban centre. Since 1948, Nova Gorica has replaced Gorizia as the principal urban center of the Gorizia region, as the northern part of the Slovenian Littoral has been traditionally called.
The Slovene Littoral, or simply Littoral, is one of the traditional regions of Slovenia. The littoral in its name – for a coastal-adjacent area – recalls the former Austrian Littoral, the Habsburg possessions on the upper Adriatic coast, of which the Slovene Littoral was part. Today, the Littoral is often associated with the Slovenian ethnic territory that, in the first half of the 20th century, found itself in Italy to the west of the Rapallo Border, which separated a quarter of Slovenes from the rest of the nation, and was strongly influenced by Italian fascism.
The Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, historically sometimes shortened to and spelled "Goritz", was a crown land of the Habsburg dynasty within the Austrian Littoral on the Adriatic Sea, in what is now a multilingual border area of Italy and Slovenia. It was named for its two major urban centers, Gorizia and Gradisca d'Isonzo.
The Municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba is a municipality in Slovenia. The municipality comprises the town and municipal seat of Šempeter pri Gorici and the adjacent village of Vrtojba. It borders Italy.
The Morgan Line was the line of demarcation set up after World War II in the region known as Julian March which prior to the war belonged to the Kingdom of Italy. The Morgan Line was the border between two military administrations in the region: the Yugoslav on the east, and that of the Allied Military Government on the west. After 15 September 1947, the Allied Military Government was composed of both the British Element Trieste Forces (BETFOR) troops from the United Kingdom and the Trieste United States Troops (TRUST) from the United States.
The Bohinj Railway is a railway in Slovenia and Italy. It connects Jesenice in Slovenia with Trieste in Italy. It was built by Austria-Hungary from 1900 to 1906 as a part of a new strategic railway, the Neue Alpenbahnen, that would connect Western Austria and Southern Germany with the then Austro-Hungarian port of Trieste. The line starts in Jesenice, at the southern end of the Karawanks Tunnel; it then crosses the Julian Alps through the Bohinj Tunnel, and passes the border town of Nova Gorica before crossing the Italian border and reaching Trieste.
The Vipava Valley is a valley in the Slovenian Littoral, roughly between the village of Podnanos to the east and the border with Italy to the west. The main towns are Ajdovščina and Vipava.
Alojz Gradnik was a Slovenian poet and translator.
The Solkan Bridge is a 219.7-meter (721 ft) arch bridge over the Soča River near Nova Gorica in western Slovenia. With an arch span of 85 meters (279 ft), it is the world's longest stone arch railroad bridge. It holds this record because later construction technology used reinforced concrete to build bridges. It was originally built to carry the Bohinj Railway in the time of the Vienna Secession, between 1900 and 1905, and officially opened in 1906.
Tomaž Marušič was a Slovenian lawyer and politician.
Solkan is a settlement in the Municipality of Nova Gorica in the Gorizia region of western Slovenia, at the border with Italy. Although it forms a single urban area with the city of Nova Gorica today, it has maintained the status of a separate urban settlement due to its history and the strong local identity of its residents.
Šempeter pri Gorici is a town and the administrative seat of the Municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba in the Slovene Littoral region of Slovenia. There is a border crossing into the Italian town of Gorizia.
Branko Marušič is a Slovenian historian.
The Kostanjevica Monastery with Annunciation Church stands on a 143 m (469 ft)-tall hill dividing the town of Nova Gorica and the settlement of Pristava. It is located in Slovenia just 200 m (660 ft) from the Italy–Slovenia border. It is the burial place of Charles X of France and his family.
Nova Gorica railway station serves the town and municipality of Nova Gorica, in the Slovenian Littoral region of Slovenia, and is also accessible from the town of Gorizia, Italy.
Italian-Slovene relations are foreign relations between Italy and Slovenia.
Slovene minority in Italy, also known as Slovenes in Italy is the name given to Italian citizens who belong to the autochthonous Slovene ethnic and linguistic minority living in the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The vast majority of members of the Slovene ethnic minority live in the Provinces of Trieste, Gorizia, and Udine. Estimates of their number vary significantly; the official figures show 52,194 Slovenian speakers in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as per the 1971 census, but Slovenian estimates speak of 83,000 to 100,000 people.
Slavia Friulana, which means Friulian Slavia, 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 and the Slovenian border.