I fear, however, that Trst is unlikely to fully recapture the glory it enjoyed as the main port of the Austro-Hungarian empire if it stays quite so far from the sea…

     by des on April 14, 2004 at 11:56 am

Indeed. I’m quite surprised that Slovenia now possesses the ability to raise vast amounts of land out of the sea.

But still, long live Trst!

     by Randy McDonald on April 14, 2004 at 11:24 pm

To all foreigners in Slovenia that are reading this; a friendly tip.

When you are at party and everyone are already little “tipsy” stand up and say (LOUDly): “TRST JE NAÅ !”

You wil instantly get a million point respect an popularity bonus from all Slovenians and gazillion if done in Primorska region.

This concludes tonights’ lesson.

     by Kranjec on April 16, 2004 at 10:17 pm

sorry im a little ignorant but this seems interesting… great site by the way… what was the whole background between Slovenia and Trieste?

     by Anonymous on April 17, 2004 at 9:03 am

although trieste is italian it has a large slovenian minority. (trst is the slovenian name for the city. “trst je naÅ¡!” means “trieste is ours!”)

after second world war the city almost went to yugoslavia, but didn’t. it was a free territory for a while and then went back to italy.

     by trstÄ?an on April 17, 2004 at 2:47 pm

Trst (Trieste) was main Austo-Hungarian port, with large German, Slovenian minorities, but mostly Italians. Suburbs and surroundings, however, were mostly Slovenian (90% or so).

After World War I. Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed and almost half of Slovenia was given as “prize” to Italy from the Antant (spelling?).
Basically Italy joined war on antant side only after it was given territories in Slovenia and Dalmatian islands and coast. Of course nobody asked Slovenians (or after that Yugoslavia) for opinion and British and French had no problem giving territories that were not theirs anyway.

At the start of World War II. Italy occupied the rest of the half, including Ljubljana, Germany got the rest of Slovenia (border was river Sava), while most North-Eastern part was given to Hungary.

Guerilla resistance against occupation started in 41, in 43 Italy capitulated and partisans freed Primorska and eventually Trst (Trieste).

However, Allies were not happy with this and partisans had to retreat from Trst. Free zone was established and at the end, obviously, Trst with surroundings (and withl large Slovenian minority) was given to Italy.

If you look at the map above you can see (from the map itself) small coridor with Trst which shortens already minimal Slovenian coast.

Unfortunately, that is the life when you are Mr. Nobody and Club Big Powers divides the world without asking small ants.

     by Kranjec on April 17, 2004 at 5:14 pm

so how did slovenia get trieste back?

     by Anonymous on April 17, 2004 at 7:16 pm

so is this map incorrect?

     by Anonymous on April 27, 2004 at 5:43 am

Completely incorrect… for now.

     by Michael M. on April 27, 2004 at 11:03 am

I have read the slavic minority in Trieste (in English the word Trst does not exists) amounts merely a poor 8 % of the population of the municipality, all living in the rural suburbs , but the slovakian Governement teached them to speak very loudly to give the impression being much more.

     by Jhonny on June 1, 2004 at 1:49 pm

Why should the slovakian government bother about Trieste?

Andreja

     by Andreja on July 9, 2004 at 7:58 am

triest will be ours, it is just a meather of time when comunists go down from the goverment. btw, we lost almost half of our land because of comunist. f*** it

     by blaž on July 10, 2004 at 8:59 pm

Calm down, Blaž. We are now in the European Union.
So it is already ours too.
Btw: how are you going to get it??

David

     by David on July 11, 2004 at 10:56 am

Trieste is part of Italy, and won’t go back to Slovenia, even if it used to be ‘part’ of it (really to austro-hungarian empire). Part of Croatia used to have large Italian minorities, but those areas aren’t going back to Italy.

     by Dom on July 12, 2004 at 6:19 pm

Trieste is Italian, the majority of the population is Italian. Italia and Slovenia are part of EU anyways, so everyone is friends, whether you’re italian, slovenian, or whatever. let the past stay in the past.

     by Dom on July 12, 2004 at 8:16 pm

trieste will forever be italian, because we the citizens of trieste feel and are italian!! Also, Koper is slovenian now, but lets face it its history is italian!

     by a man who knows on September 8, 2004 at 3:07 pm

TRIESTE E’ NOSTRA!!!
VIVA L’ITALIA!!!
TRIESTE PER SEMPRE!!!

     by TRIESTE (ITALIA) IS OURS on October 28, 2004 at 8:03 pm

Why after 50 years people discussed if Trieste is Yugoslav (now slovenian) or Italian?Now Trieste (italia) and Slovenia are part of European Union; the problem doesn’t exist. i don’t now because people in 2004 make new frontiers or don’t break down old -mind frontirers…i don’t know.Comunism or socialism are another kind of problem..Are part of past.. I think the real problem are nationalism… italian or slovenian.. Finally (for the firs time in hystory) we have the opportunity to leave in peace..But someone tell “trieste is Italian” another tell”trieste is slovenian”..Like children…….Maybe someone dosn’t remember hystory… Fascist have perseguitated slovenian people..slovenian people can’t speak or write in slovenian, many people was deportated.. Yugoslav army make trieste free.. but many italians died in foibe…was deported in Goli Otok or come in Italy from Istria.. after during comunism people aren’t free to speak, to whrite, to travel.. I think to much blood fall down in carso.Why we are masochist and we continued to leave in past? why we hate different people? Why we make difference, and stress it, between italian,slovenian, croat,serb… Hystory don’t teach nothing? If people continued to have this kind of mind war is near the corner… limes are only in mind…

     by simone on November 2, 2004 at 10:13 pm

The problem still exists because the large (100,000 strong) indigenous Slovenian minority in Italy has few rights. The Slovenian language has not even been granted official status in Trst/Trieste and Gorica/Gorizia.

Further, many Italians in Gorica and Trst today are ethnic Slovenians and can’t speak Slovenian because their parents were forced to Italianize their surnames and speak only Italian during and after the war.

In contrast, look at all the rights Slovenia has bestowed on the puny (numbering just 3000) Italian minority in Slovenia. Italian is an official language in Istria, the city names are written in both Slovenian and Italian (i.e. Koper-Capodistria, Piran-Pirano, Portoroz-Portoroze, etc), and the Italian minority even has the privilege of sending their own representative to parliament.

100,000 thousands indigenous Slovenians in Italy. That’s 5% of the entire population of Slovenia separated from the rest of the country and having no significant rights! That is the crime and why there is a problem.

     by blank on November 20, 2004 at 4:15 pm

It’s a fact, that Trst was founded by Slovenians. It’s name comes from a Slovenian word “tržiÅ¡Ä?e” which means market. As a matter of fact, all land to Benetke/Venice is ethnic Slovenian land. Like KoroÅ¡ka/Kärnten and Å tajerska/Steyer in Austria.

But i don’t worry so much about these lost lands. Sooner or later we’ll get Trst/Triest back, cos’ Italians are a bunch of pussies and everybody knows that. It’s just a matter of time…

Trst je naš!
Triest is Slovenian!

     by Antifashist on November 28, 2004 at 10:47 pm

IX. korpus had Trst for 40 days. Those were fine man! I salute them.

     by trst je nas on November 29, 2004 at 3:55 pm

Trst je naš!
Trieste is Slovenian!
Small nations always get the shaft.
Slovenia is such a beautiful country - I hope to visit someday. Wonder why my ancestors left.

     by Dolentz (Dolenc) on January 31, 2005 at 8:16 am

Maybe they were extreme cowards. Oh, the shame!!! I will now cry myself to sleep.

     by Dolentz (Dolenc) on January 31, 2005 at 8:27 am

You have written a lot of liars, blogger! Italy is a democratic nation and the minority are tutelated; bilinguism is secured for the Slovenian minority in Trieste & Gorizia. Instead, the Slovenians (and the Croatian)don’t want that the indigenous Italian minority in the ex-Jugoslavia have their rights. There were more than 350.000 Italians in Istria and were expelled from the slave “hero” “Tito”.And about Trieste,
please, study the history of Trieste, blogger! Trieste is clearly an Italian city and during the Tito occupation has clearly showed its Italianity.

     by Trieste Italiana on February 10, 2005 at 6:48 pm

I’m sure that Trieste’s history had a gread impact on how the people think now. What i relly want to know is if there are any nationalist patterns in the behaviour of the people that live there today? are there any discriminations of any kind concerning the minorities? have the people forgot the past? or could it be said that Trieste is the most nationalist town in Italy????

     by anca ionescu on March 28, 2005 at 4:08 pm

This is a very intersting Site.
My ancestors named Stinco came from Trieste circa 1885 to Uruguay and Argentina.
The History of Trst is amaizng!.
I want to learn more thanks to this site.
If some person know something about Stinco family I will appreciate this.
Cheers
Sergio Rudini Stinco
Patagonia, Argentina

     by Sergio Stinco on April 5, 2005 at 4:31 am

Trieste historically has always been a predominantly Italian city. Slovenians had inhabited the rural countryside surrounding the city for centuries but never really affirmed themselves among the ruling eiltes of the city. They mostly occupied positions of authority among the clergy and the landowning classes. It wasn’t until the 18th century that Slovenes started immigrating en masse to the city, attracted by the many opportunities that Trieste offered as the main port of the Austrian Empire. The demographics of the city changed significantly during the 19th century and at one point Trieste’s Slovenian population was even greater than Ljubljana’s. Culturally, however, the Italian dominance in the city was never really in question. Despite my Slovenian origins and my love for the country, I was born in Trieste and I am growing tired of having to explain to the world that I am no less Italian than I am Slovenian. These two cultures can, and do indeed go together hand in hand. The most shameful aspect about this shameful region is its shockingly low amount of good-natured individuals. We should all be working together for a better future now that we have been given a chance to put our past behind us. Unfortunately the politics of the city, still to this day, are tarnished by outright racism and an overwhelming fascist presence in the city.

     by Slovenehero on July 1, 2005 at 12:58 pm

To tell the truth, some 300.000 Italian (by language and culture) were forced to flee from Istria (Istra), Fiume (Rijeka), Zara (Zadar), Spalato (Split) etc. They suffered mass slaughter, their goods were stolen. They never came back.

     by Anonymous on November 4, 2005 at 1:04 pm

Someone did write that Trieste was founded by Slovenians but
Slovenia (as people on a land) was born
only in the 1800 and become an independent state only at the end of
1900. To say that Trieste is italian in his very nature you must forget that
Italy was born in the middle of 1800 too. It is a theory about the very
Slave nature of all the Venetian
people but it start from the opinion
that if people A was living in the same place people B was
living
into *then* the two peoples are the same even if the first did live
some century before the second. Those who write this are treating
things like human migration from Asia into Europe as it would been a
matter of weeks and not milleniums … When
Tito did come into
Trieste his IX corpus did start an ethnic "cleaning" that is well
remembered still today and is considered like what Nazist did against
the Hebrews. Italian fascists did nearly the same against rural slave
populations. Until there will be voices crying loud for rage, from both
sides, there will be only flowing blood … it’s only a matter of time.The world is inhabited by just a bunch of idiots …   

     by Anonymous on January 30, 2006 at 4:44 pm

It seems the point Slovenians like to make is that for centuries Trieste was an (mostly Italian speaking) "enclave" within a Slovene speaking region. So the most reasonable territorial claim they can make would be this narrow coastal strip of land between Friuli in Italy and Trieste. And I guess that would fit well into Slovene territory? Trieste would be an enclave (just like Spanish Ceuta or Mellila within Marocco) which would make perfect historic and geographic sense to me. Trieste  is a border town with - I was told - 5 intersecting language groups: Italian, Friuli, Austrian, Croatian and Slovene. Could Trieste become something like multilingual EU-Brussels or Luxembourg?

     by my name on February 20, 2006 at 7:35 pm

Hello I am doing a geneology of my family and I have found that my grandfather came from Trieste in 1862. Could you please tell me who claimed Trieste im 1862. Was it part of Italy, Slovenia or who? I need to know what is my ancestory background. My grandfather died in 1906. Please write me if you know. Our last name was Vescovo. If you know anything about the name or where it originated. Please tell me. Also I was told the family had a bakery in Trieste. This was back at the same time 1862,Does anyone knw about the bakery?Thank you

     by SHIRLEY ANN PAULUS on May 13, 2006 at 9:54 am

Vescovo means “bishop” in Italian. You are certainly Italian.

     by Alfredo on June 3, 2006 at 11:30 pm

Shirley

In 1862 Trieste was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and remained so until 1918, well after the death of your grandfather. Hope this helps.

     by Marino on June 17, 2006 at 1:15 pm