Here’s a trivia question for you: During the Cold War, what central European city was divided between a democratic west side and a communist east side by a long security fence?

If you answered “Berlin,” give yourself one point. If you answered “Gorizia,” give yourself ten points and a certificate for outstanding achievement in the field of historic excellence. Not many people know about Gorizia/Nova Gorica, the city is now meshing together after decades of straddling between Yugoslavia and Italy. It’s unfortunate, because the story is a good one.

The tale begins, like so many others, at the Paris Peace Conference of 1946, when European borders were redrawn and war reparations were calculated. Yugoslavia, as a triumphant ally, did pretty well when it came to reparations: a hundred million dollars from Italy and Hungary, plus 25 million from Bulgaria for good measure. It didn’t do too well when it came to drawing the new borders.

Marshall Tito had a hankering for the Austrian cities of Klagenfurt and Villach, plus the Italian Adriatic port of Trieste and the town of Gorizia.

He didn’t get them. But Tito was never one to be discouraged, so he came up with a cunning (and slightly crazy) plan.

Gorizia/Nova Gorica: Europe’s other, sorta, kinda Berlin.

His plan was this: If Yugoslavia couldn’t have Gorizia, it would invent it. By which I mean it would build its own version — directly next to the old one. And the new one (or so the communists hoped) would be bigger, faster, stronger: a living monument to the glory of socialism. That’s how, in 1948, Nova Gorica (lit. new Gorica) was born. Around the same time, a fence was erected to divide the two cities.

Luckily for everyone, it never became the flashpoint that Berlin was, nor was it as strictly separated. After Slovenia abandoned Yugoslavia and communism in 1991, the two cities began their inevitable fusion. As I type these words, in fact, the security fence between Nova Gorica and Gorizia is being physically dismantled, and after Slovenia joins the European Union on May 1, flowers will be planted on its remains. After that, Gorizia/Nova Gorica will be free to follow the example of Berlin and join together in harmony.

I love happy endings.

The Slovenia Times, Slovenia’s English-language newspaper, has more about the Nova Gorica/Gorizia story here.