"The National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia has been pro-European since its origins, because, after all that we had suffered, our most mature leaders, especially those originally from Dalmatia, had understood that only a united Europe could have given peace and justice. This is why we organized this meeting dedicated to Gorizia European Capital of Culture": the National President of the Anvgd Renzo Codarin thus opened the first day of work of the study conference From “holy” and “cursed” to European Capital of Culture 2025. Gorizia between borders, autonomy and cross-border cooperationa, created with the contribution of L. 72/2001 and with the patronage of the Municipality of Gorizia. This initiative has taken a multidisciplinary approach, involving historians, jurists, architects, cultural operators and authorities in order to create a compendium that can be a viaticum for Nova Gorica-Gorizia 2025, as highlighted by the scientific coordinator of the project, Prof. Davide Rossi of the University of Trieste. The Mayor of Gorizia, Rodlfo Ziberna, then brought an institutional greeting, recalling how Gorizia has been able to transform the difficulties of being a border city into opportunities for collaboration and development, moreover frontally opposed to its "twin" Nova Gorica, which obtained the designation for 2025 on behalf of Slovenia. Prof. Gianpaolo Dolso, Director of the Department of Legal Studies at the University of Trieste, opened the proceedings by recalling that the Special Statute of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which will celebrate its 2023th anniversary in 60, rests on the artificial nature of this border region, born from the fusion of provinces with different histories, cultures and traditions. Suffice it to say that in 1866, after three Wars of Independence, Friuli was already part of the Kingdom of Italy, while Venezia Giulia would be annexed only over half a century later, even though the unitary codification of 1865 already provided for the right to vote in administrative elections for those who worked in Italy but were citizens of provinces that were geographically and culturally Italian even if still outside the national borders. Dr. Alessandro Agrì (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) has reported extensively on this topic, citing doctrine and jurisprudence starting from the case of the Attimis Counts, included in the electoral lists in 1887 by a ruling of the Court of Appeal of Venice, which interpreted in a patriotic and persistent sense a provision that had initially been considered restrictive and transient, as if it were intended by the codifiers of unitary Italy only for citizens of the territories that would later be annexed with the Third War of Independence. Once it became part of the Kingdom of Italy, however, the Province of Gorizia, formally established in 1919, but actually brought into operation in 1921 following the Treaty of Rapallo which defined in an internationally recognized manner the border with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, did not have an easy life, as Giovanni Zucchini (counsellor of the Administrative Court of Lombardy) explained. The military administration established in November 1918 already operated with constant fear of the Austrians, with particular reference to the strong Slovenian presence, but the Italian component was also viewed with suspicion as in the pre-war period it had supported a popular party loyalist to the Habsburgs. In the 1921 elections, 5 out of 6 seats in the Gorizia constituency were won by the Slovenian Concentration and the sixth went to the communist Tuntar: it is not surprising that in 1923 Mussolini divided the province of Gorizia between Udine and Trieste with the aim of diluting the Slovenian nationalist hotbed. On the other hand, during the First World War, Gorizia had enjoyed great fame after being conquered by Italian troops in August 1916: the echo of this victory in the press of the time was presented by Prof. Andrea Ungari (Marconi University of Rome). The columns of the printed press unanimously praised the combativeness of the Italian soldiers, who had also just sustained the shock of the strafexpedition, and for the widespread use of the bombard, a prototype of the mortar. Some warheads emphasized the role of the cavalry, others had captured the perfect coordination between artillery and infantry, but particular emphasis was given to the fall of one of the most powerful entrenched camps in Europe. Specifically the Corriere della Sera gave great credit to the leadership skills of Cadorna (linked by friendship with the director Albertini), the People of Italy linked the capture of Gorizia to the battles of the Risorgimento and Alfredo Rocco titled one of his articles “Incipit vita nova”, since with this victory Italy had risen to the rank of a great power. The journalist Enrico Rocca, belonging to the Jewish community of Gorizia, was one of the closest collaborators of the hierarch Bottai and saw in trade unionism and fascism the tools to unite the Italian nation: Prof. Giuseppe Parlato (Emeritus of the University of International Studies in Rome) reported on this left-wing fascist, who did not identify with the most radical squadrism. Rocca supported Mussolini in his attempt to reach a peace pact with the socialists and understood the importance of the radio as a means to form the national conscience of Italians. When the racial laws were proclaimed he was “discriminated against”, in the sense that for his fascist merits he obtained a distinction with respect to the application of such measures and therefore he was able to continue working, even if he was increasingly distant from the positions of the regime. After July 25, he would denounce in anti-fascism the same defects as fascism (censorship and persecution of opponents), arriving at an anti-totalitarian vision similar to that of Del Noce. Dr Alberto Torini (professor at the University of Roma Tre) then gave a legal framework of what it means to be a border city, that is, to be in an area where different regulatory systems compete. The application of different laws, in fact, conditions the economy of the territory and requires harmonization or compensation interventions by legislators. When borders fall, as happened between Italy and Slovenia in the Europeanist framework, Gorizia and Nova Gorica have continued to operate in good harmony, but in different administrative contexts that end up creating disparities especially with regard to the protection of new legal assets that are treated differently by the two legislations, even though they both belong to the European Union. The Gorizian glottologist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli is famous for having coined the term “Venezia Giulia” in 1863, but already in a youthful article in 1848, faced with the outbreak of the Primavera dei popoli, he had hoped that Gorizia would be «Italian, tolerant and harmonious», being aware of the plural nature of its population. In this spirit the Institute for Central European Cultural Encounters of Gorizia was founded in 1966, mainly at the instigation of the Hon. Martina, deputy, mayor and then Christian Democrat senator of the Isonzo capital, as reported by the president of this institution, Prof. Fulvio Salimbeni. The IICM Every year it holds a conference involving Italian and Central European speakers: in the early years of its existence, in order to have guests from communist regimes, the topics were neutral, such as poetry at the opening conference, chaired by Biagio Marin with an introductory speech by Ungaretti. After 1989 the spectrum was broadened to include history and current affairs, always with the aim of making Gorizia a city of encounter and not of conflict. The second day of the conference was also marked by multidisciplinarity and a packed program of interesting contributions that will make the volume of the Proceedings a true Gorizia encyclopedia. The works reopened with an excursus of Gorizia architecture by the Arch. Massimiliano Tita, member of the Committee for Law 39/2019 dedicated to the Venetian cultural heritage in the Mediterranean. He referred to the lion of St. Mark that dominates the facade of the castle of Gorizia as a symbol of a presence on the territory in one of the first slides of a magnificent overview of history and art. Here are the baroque facades of Pacassi, court architect of Maria Theresa, and the “Austrian Nice” so defined for the salubrity of its climate by von Czoernig. The works of Max Fabiani and the inauguration of the Transalpina station lead to the master plan of 1906: it is significant that the Italian master plan of 1921 for the reconstruction of Gorizia still foresees the involvement of Fabiani, even if the most significant imprint will be left by the rationalist architecture of Cuzzi. The post-war period saw the birth of Nova Gorica, which can be considered by the Slovenian community as a surrogate for the city of Gorizia which remained within the Italian borders. Lorenzo Salimbeni (historical researcher of the Anvgd) then explained that in Gorizia the hostilities did not end on 25 April 1945: on 30 April a column of Chetnik nationalists from Dalmatia and Montenegro crossed the city fleeing from Tito's troops, who shortly thereafter would have raged in Venezia Giulia for forty days. Even in the Isonzo capital, deportations, summary trials, and persecutions of opponents or alleged opponents of the Yugoslav annexation project caused hundreds of victims. The Belgrade Agreements left Gorizia, Trieste and Pola under Anglo-American military administration and the rest of the disputed territory under Yugoslav administration. An impressive patriotic demonstration welcomed the inter-allied commission that was to define the new border on 26-27 March 1946: on 10 February 1947 the peace treaty left Gorizia to Italy, even though it was crossed by the border and destined to become one of the main places for the reception and reintegration of Julian-Dalmatian refugees, especially those from Polesine. The Constituent Assembly, for whose election the people of Gorizia (and the people of Trieste, Istria, Fiume and Zadar who were still formally Italian citizens) could not vote on 2 June 1946, worked in line with the Italian centralist tradition. In the end, a two-speed federalism was inserted into the Constitution, with ordinary regions and those with special statutes (for geographical, linguistic reasons or linked to deep-rooted autonomist traditions), including a Friuli Venezia Giulia whose borders were still uncertain. Yet, Prof. highlighted. Davide Rossi of the University of Trieste, in 1963 the statute of what the constitutionalist Bartole and the political scientist Agnelli defined as "the least special among the regions with special statutes" came into force, finally paving the way for the implementation of the part of the Constitution that regulated the Regions. The first regional elections took place in 1970, but it is important to note that in the first three legislatures there is no trace in the parliamentary debate of requests for the implementation of Title V. An original and interesting perspective emerged from the speech of Prof. Budislav Vukas jr (University of Rijeka), who outlined the figure of Božo Milanović, an Istrian priest who for his training had been co-opted by the nascent communist Yugoslavia which had persecuted the religious, but complained about a lack of managerial staff outside the Serbian nationalist formation. His diplomatic role was initially intended to gain the support of the Church for the new borders, then he participated in meetings with the Inter-Allied Commission for the definition of the borders and was part of the Yugoslav delegation to the peace conference. In these areas he argued in great detail the ethnic (the Italian presence was only compact up to Monfalcone), geographical (Isonzo and Adriatic represented a natural border) and economic (Trieste and Fiume had to follow the fate of their reference markets) reasons that justified Croatian claims, through Yugoslavia, against Istria. The genesis of Nova Gorica as a foundation town was the subject of a report by Kristjan Knez (President of the Society for Historical and Geographical Studies of Piran), who noted that since Gorizia remained Italian, its entire hinterland was devoid of a large urban centre of reference. By the end of 46 the new territorial arrangements were almost certain and so the authorities of communist Yugoslavia budgeted large sums for the construction of a new city capable of accommodating at least 10.000 inhabitants. The name Nova Gorica would emerge later, while much of the work that in 1947-1949 led to the creation of the first nucleus of the new town was carried out with the “voluntary” work of Yugoslav citizens and with the commitment of the Youth Brigades. When the Peace Treaty came into force on 15 September 1946, a large demonstration in Ljubljana celebrated with proudly nationalistic tones the annexation of the Littoral after the humiliations resulting from the Treaty of Rapallo which in 1920 had ceded it to Italy. Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture 2025 together with Gorizia was instead the focus of the speech by Anna Viani, a professional in the field of cultural heritage management. The secret of the success of this joint candidacy lies in the ability to have presented the differences as a form of wealth on which to build the new cross-border urban area. Among the interventions already planned is the redevelopment of Piazza della Transalpina: starting from the center is connected to the European tradition of having a public place for discussion and market, for dialectics and meeting, where that site for almost half a century, crossed by a metal fence, had represented division and opposition. There were also references to other cultural capitals such as Eleusis, Timisoara, Matera and Chemnitz, which experienced the division of Germany, the change of name to Karl-Marx-Stadt during the period of the German Democratic Republic and today denounces problems connected to the integration of immigrant communities. Even more specific regarding Gorizia 2025 was Paolo Petiziol, President of the Gect – European Grouping for International Cooperation Gorizia-Nova Gorica-Šempeter-Vrtojba which the European Union has accredited as one of the most virtuous. 2025 could mark the relaunch of a territory that has traditionally been multicultural, has not suffered rivalry until the explosion of opposing nationalisms and since the times when the Slavic populations settled on the hills and the heirs of the Frankish and Lombard dominations remained in the plains. However, Gorizia-Nova Gorica is not unique in the old continent: at least 15 other locations have a similar division and with about ten of these relationships have already been started and visits are planned in which the Gorizia model will be illustrated and then evaluated how to adapt it to these other contexts. Lawyer Gianluca Barneschi, an expert in twentieth-century history, presented the state of the art regarding his research on “Broom Sunday”. On Sunday, August 13, 1950, the city border opened, and hundreds of inhabitants of Nova Gorica flocked to Gorizia to see friends and relatives and buy what was missing from the Yugoslav markets, including brooms. Although Tito had broken off relations with the Soviet Union and was an interlocutor of the Western world, it was still a sensational episode in the midst of the Cold War. Yet Barneschi found no documentation on the matter in the archives of the Farnesina, the Border Zones Office and the Archdiocese of Gorizia, whose jurisdiction also extended beyond the border. Although there had been articles and radio broadcasts that had announced that day from the Yugoslavian side, the Prefecture and Police Headquarters of Gorizia mobilized only later and it seems that even Sergio Cionci, one of the most active secret agents in this area, did not give weight to the event. In addition to having taken care of the organizational part of the conference, the lawyer Davide Lo Presti also held a report in which, starting from the thousand-year-old Gorizia tradition of recognizing the other, he found that the traumatic border of 1947 represented a unique case and that since the entry of Slovenia into the EU in 2007, Europe has become a precious resource for Gorizia. In order to exploit this resource, there are financial instruments made available by the autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, with particular reference to INFORMEST and FINEST, responsible for the economic development and internationalisation of businesses. Above all, however, the Gect represented the driving force for the victory of the Go!2025 candidacy since it has proven to be reliable in the use of European funding since its first steps taken in 2007. Professor Donatella Schürzel (European PhD in European History) completed the picture of Gorizia's peculiarities by presenting the history and most relevant personalities of the city's Jewish community. Born from the contribution of Sephardim and Ashkenazim who tried to maintain their own peculiarities, this component had in the Morpurgo family (originally from Germany, then moved to Dalmatia and then up the Adriatic coast) one of its most illustrious representatives. In the intellectual sphere, in addition to the glottologist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli and Carlo Michelstaedter, the literary salon of Carolina Luzzatto was very important, while in the 1920s a Zionist youth group was active. In 1943 the community included about one hundred members who were deported to concentration camps: of the few survivors almost none returned to Gorizia and today the Synagogue depends on the Community of Trieste, being opened only once a year on the occasion of Hanukkah. «Reconstructing history and analyzing the cultural expressions of Gorizia is useful for peace. Gorizia is an example of how the traumas of the twentieth century can be overcome and the future can be faced in a European dimension" Prof. Giuseppe Parlato (University of International Studies of Rome), who coordinated the final day of the conference.