Language
English
November 12, 1866, Franz Joseph attacks the Adriatic Italianity
November 12, 1866, in the “gracious” presence of Emperor Franz Joseph of Habsburg, the Crown Council meets in Vienna. From this meeting, what is happening in Istria and even more so in Dalmatia is made official: the “large appetite” of the Slavs is awakening with the support of Austria. On November 12, 1866, the Crown Minutes are written (available in Die Protokolle des Österreichischen Ministerrates 1848/1867. V Abteilung: Die Ministerien Rainer und Mensdorff. VI Abteilung: Das Ministerium Belcredi, Österreichischer Bundesverlag für Unterricht, Wissenschaft und Kunst, Vienna 1971; the citation appears in Section VI, vol. 2, session...
Micheletti, Doctor and Hero of Vergarolla
Annamaria Crasti, head of the Provincial Committee of Milan of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia for relations with schools, is an Istrian exile who spent part of her childhood in Orsera d'Istria, in the territory of Pola, now part of Croatia. In the article reported below, she recalls one of the tragic events and a doctor who remained in the hospital to assist the wounded who arrived, without stopping, remained at his post even when he discovered that among the wounded were his two sons, who unfortunately will not survive. August 18, 1946: in Pola people die. Among the 110 victims, official and unofficial, of the most serious massacre that occurred...
Broom Sunday, August 13, 1950
We propose an article by Annamaria Crasti whom we thank for the kind concession on the “Sunday of the brooms” an event that took place in August 1950. Many Gorizians who remained in Tito's Yugoslavia crossed the border not only to embrace relatives, friends but they made a lot of purchases and the best-selling item in the new Gorizia was a broom made of sorghum. «We are in Gorizia. It is August 13, 1950. Since February 10, 1947, the Gorizia of always no longer exists. Cruelly, as decided by the Peace Treaty, on the night between September 14 and 15, 1947 the city found itself divided. The inhabitants of some areas of the city cannot sleep that night: they feel,...
«A bright story to teach»
Below is a brief summary of the week created thanks to the initiative of the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Association of Exiles held at the Vittoriale in Gardone Riviera in the province of Brescia from 12 to 16 July. The Summer School was an opportunity to talk about the History of the Eastern Border, which had as its theme "The difficult twentieth century of the Eastern Border". Here is a brief summary by Annamaria Crasti, whom we thank for her kind permission. "A bright story to teach": these are the words with which Dr. Stefano Versari - Head of the Department for the educational system of instruction and training at MIUR -...
Forgotten Arsia
Excerpt from the teleconference "The mining tragedy of Arsia 28 February 1940" carried out by the Provincial Committee of Milan of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia on Thursday 11 March 2021. PREAMBLE If Vergarolla must be considered the bloodiest massacre that has occurred in Italy since the proclamation of the republic to date, the tragedy of Arsia, an Istrian coal district, constitutes the most painful mining tragedy, with victims that far exceed those recorded in Marcinelle in Belgium. Livio Dorigo, president of the Circolo Istria, notes in the preface to the monograph "ARSIA 2007": The border events have produced a...
On holiday in Vrsar: from the balcony above my house
I am sitting on a comfortable armchair on a balcony, in Vrsar, above what is, was, my house. I am, perhaps, ten meters from my parents' bedroom, the room where I was born. My house is a few meters from me, never been so far away. It is silent. Can you say that a house is alone? The impression I get, looking at it, is solitude, a great, immense, desolate solitude. The laughter, the games, the shouts of us children, the voices of the adults that overlapped, the people who came in and out of the "workshop" are only memories, mine, the ones that follow me - do they haunt me? - all my life. I have been in Vrsar for a few days but the ...
“Damnatio memoriae”
Annamaria Muiesan, from Piranese, in “My Red Suit with Bamboo Buttons” asks herself what memory is. “A tool to learn from lived experiences or to give rise to anxiety, torment, regrets?” The lived experiences. Speaking, comparing myself with relatives, friends, acquaintances, with the Exiles, there has never been anyone who said they regretted the choice they made. Never regretted having wanted to continue to belong to that Homeland in which we were born, never regretted having taken, with anguish, the terrible decision to abandon it. For me, what is memory? How do I experience it? It is certainly anxiety: That anxiety that...
