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80th anniversary of the martyrdom of Blessed Don Bonifacio
September 7, 2026 - A ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of Blessed Don Bonifacio will take place on Thursday, September 10, at 4:30 PM in Largo Don Bonifacio in Trieste. It was September 11, 1946, when the young Istrian parish priest Francesco Bonifacio was kidnapped near Krasica by the Popular Guards, who killed him and then hid his body. The search for the priest's body is still ongoing. He has since been beatified for his martyrdom in hatred of the faith: his apostolic fervor, his constant presence among his parishioners, and his faith were unwelcome to the communist militias raging in Zone B.
Research by the University of Florence and the National Association of Italian Students (ANVGD) to rediscover the stories of exiled students
The dramatic geopolitical shifts of recent years, ongoing wars, and international tensions increasingly tell us of exoduses of entire populations, fleeing weapons, persecution, or hunger. The current images bring to mind the memory of the Julian-Dalmatian exodus, when hundreds of thousands of Italians were forced to emigrate from Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia between 1945 and the following decade, following the climate of intimidation and violence that culminated in the tragedy of the Foibe massacres. Many of the exiled students from Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia found refuge in Florence and sought enrollment and scholarships at the University of Florence in order to...
The new Julian Voice of September 2026
The September 2026 issue of La nuova Voce Giuliana, the monthly magazine of the Association of Istrian Communities, can be freely consulted online or downloaded in PDF format. The magazine dedicates extensive space to the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Vergarolla massacre: La nuova Voce Giuliana - 502_SEPTEMBER Editor-in-Chief Antonio Schiavulli's article: Beyond the immense human pain, that tragedy marked the point of no return for the Italian community of Istria, precipitating the painful decision to exodus and the loss of their roots. Remembering Vergarolla means doing justice to a long-forgotten memory and reflecting on how the war,...
Cinema from the Adriatic Border at the 2026 Venice Film Festival
September 2, 2026 - On September 8 and 9, during the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, an event focusing on cinema from the Adriatic border will take place in Venice. This initiative is a continuation of last year's successful initiative, which featured several films addressing themes related to Remembrance Day in a highly prestigious setting, connected to one of the most prestigious international film festivals. The initiative is organized by the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia in collaboration with the Federation of Associations of Exiles from Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia, and the Centro...
The Northeast united by the Mediterranean flavour with its capital in Kvarner
From September 9 to 13, 2026, Mali Lošinj in Kvarner Bay, the European Region of Gastronomy, will become a hub of Mediterranean gastronomy with the fourteenth edition of the international festival Taste the Mediterranean. The 2026 edition takes on a special significance. Kvarner Bay has been awarded the title of European Region of Gastronomy 2026, and Taste the Mediterranean brings to the island a tangible representation of this region's richness. Haute cuisine, local produce, education, tourism, sustainability, and Mediterranean culture become part of a single narrative. The festival involves the Alhambra and Bellevue Hotels in Čikat Bay, the...
Sissano, capital of traditional music
A triumph of traditional music, Saturday evening, August 29th, in the Garden of Sissano, at the Church of Saints Felix and Fortunatus, with the fifth edition of the event "Discanto... e altro 2026," which again this year attracted a large audience of enthusiasts of Istrian musical traditions and beyond. A cultural heritage of inestimable value and uniqueness, still passed down from generation to generation. Almost all the songs performed during the concert are inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The descant and closely spaced songs, as well as the traditional polyphonic ones,...
Pula Arena August 2026
The solemnity of the anniversary of August 18, 1946-2026. A front page this month that summarizes in its title and iconographic synopsis the great commemorative event held in Pula in memory of the Vergarolla massacre which, as repeatedly emphasized, was and remains the first and most horrific massacre suffered by the Italian Republic, which at the time had been founded just over two months. On the eightieth anniversary of that day when a cowardly hand anonymously signed an untrue horror, decimating families who asked for nothing more than to start living again after the dramatic five-year war, safeguarding a thousand-year-old culture where "even the stones speak Italian," a...
The 24th International Folklore Festival of Dignano
The Slovak Marína folklore group from Zvolen is the winner of the 24th Leron International Folklore Festival, which concluded on Saturday, August 22nd in Vodnjan and was organized by the local Italian Community. Ten groups from Croatia, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, and India brought their homeland dances and traditions to Piazza del Popolo. This year's program also rediscovered the furlana and, among other elements of local tradition, the characteristic bumbara women's hairstyle. The article from the Ventiquattro column in the online newspaper...
In odium fidei. The Christian martyrs of the Tito persecution
Venicefilm, in collaboration with the National League of Trieste, has produced the documentary "In odium fidei - The Christian martyrs of Tito's persecution," directed by Maximiliano Hernando Bruno. Eighty years after the death of Blessed Francesco Bonifacio, brutally murdered in September 1946, the documentary retraces, through precious testimonies and archive footage, the forgotten story of the Christian martyrs persecuted by Tito's regime. Three martyrs "in odium fidei" hail from the Istrian region, whose stories emerge here: the Italian Don Francesco Bonifacio, the Slovenian Lojze Grozde, and the Croatian Miroslav Bulesic. The first...
The film "Oh dear land of mine" was presented in Dignano.
On the evening of August 14th, the Italian Community of Dignano hosted a presentation of the film "Oh Cara Terra Mia," created by Maria Grazia Belci for the Association of Italians of Pula and Istria - Free Municipality of Pula in Exile. The film brings together video interviews with 44 people from Vodnjan, Gallesa, and Valle d'Istria, beginning with the 2011 National Rally of Vodnjan. These interviews include some previously unpublished interviews, compared to those that led to the publication of the book "Forgotten Exoduses, People of Vodnjan on the Move," edited by the Vodnjan Family, and whose video content is now being made public. The central theme is the exodus, with all its...
