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Commemoration of Nazario Sauro, martyr of Istrian Italianity
In Trieste, the August heat at the peaceful crossroads of the eastern border pushes every man of any kind to seek a bit of coolness; both in the city and in the suburbs you can breathe the torrid air of the great divisions of the 900th century. And yet, despite everyone seeking shade under the imperturbable effigies that populate the squares, there is no trace of a breeze except in that popular culture that links the city to a much more disruptive wind: the bora. In Piazzale Marinai d'Italia, reachable by following the main road that leads from the central station to the old Campo Marzio station, there is a bronze figure, that of Nazario Sauro, whose dress is...
Walking through the trenches from Tolmino to Caporetto
Marco Mantini, Andar per trincee da Tolmino a Caporetto. Lungo i percorsi della Grande Guerra tra Italia e Slovenia, Gaspari, Udine 2020. Where what remains tells what was. This guide was born as a vademecum to accompany the hiker along 24 itineraries on the most controversial places of the Isonzo front during the First World War (Monte Nero, Monte Rosso, Mrzli Vrh, Monte Rombon, Kolovrat, etc.), for which practical information and options on trails and travel times are provided. But this is also a book dedicated to those who, without wearing boots, love to go through paper trenches. In these pages, in fact, they will find...
May 24, 1915-2020, Italy at war for the unredeemed lands
Today is May 24th One hundred and five years ago the Italian Army, "inferior in numbers and means" began a war that would be "uninterrupted and very harsh" and, contrary to the predictions of a rapid victory, would last 41 months. The centenary anniversary of 2015 has given rise to great historical, cultural, national, civil and popular reflection. I hope that, in addition to the study and memory of the European context, of the political, economic and military motivations, of the tragedy, of the destruction, of the inhumanity, of the deaths, of the foolishness of some and the courage of others, there will not be a lack in the civil and national conscience of Italians and of the nation the...
Correction regarding Istria
Letter sent to the editorial staff of the Rai program "L'eredità" on March 24, 2020: Dear Editorial Staff, in the episode of the program "L'eredità" aired on March 22, 2020, the following question was asked in the final part (The duel): "Which Serbo-Croatian peninsula was annexed by Italy after the First World War?". The correct answer was "Istria". The National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, the oldest and most representative of the associations of the 350.000 Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian exiles forced into exile after suffering the martyrdom of the foibe and the annexation to Yugoslavia by the communist dictator Josip Broz "Tito" of the...
The Sense of Homeland in the Great War
Paolo GASPARI, The sense of the Fatherland in the Great War. Italian pride and identity, Gaspari, Udine 2014. The centenary of the First World War has oscillated between two extremes: on the one hand a patriotic and rhetorical revisitation of the feats of arms, on the other the pacifist and do-gooder denigration of rainbow flags. In the middle there was a myriad of associations, small publishers and scholars of the subject who, in a substantial apathy on the part of the institutions, formally due to the spending review (i.e.: further cuts to culture), have worked to give a broader meaning to this anniversary, for which they had been preparing for...
D'Annunzio, protagonist of his era and of the Adriatic Italianity
Gabriele d'Annunzio, a complex and multifaceted character, continues to be subjected to criticism based on an obsolete historiography and conditioned by clichés that have now been surpassed even by the most recent historical dissemination. The same Fiume enterprise must be contextualized in the historical context that saw the deputy Andrea Ossoinack, democratically elected representative of Fiume, appeal in October 1918 during one of the last sessions of the Habsburg Parliament in Budapest to the principle of self-determination of peoples to explain the will to be annexed to Italy that the capital of Carnaro was manifesting with ever greater conviction. The...
Institutions and the Great War: conference report
On the occasion of the conference Le Istituzioni e la Grande Guerra (The Institutions and the Great War), organized at the Prefecture of Trieste on Monday 18 June to celebrate the centenary of the First World War, it was decided to take the opportunity to consider, from multiple perspectives, the points of intersection between war events and the Institutions. The works were opened with their greetings by the Prefect of Trieste Annapaola Porzio, the President of the Court of Auditors Angelo Buscema, the Attorney General of the State Massimo Massella Ducci Teri and the Chief of Staff of the Army Salvatore Farina. After an excellent contextualization of the theme and a clarification of the purposes of this...
The Institutions and the Great War
Trieste, Prefecture Palace MONDAY 18 JUNE 2018 Start of Work 9.30 am Chaired and coordinated by Alessandro Pajno President of the Council of State Greetings Annapaola Porzio Prefect of Trieste Angelo Buscema President of the Court of Auditors Massimo Massella Ducci Teri State Attorney General Salvatore Farina Chief of the Army General Staff Presentations Prof. Guido Melis (University of Rome, La Sapienza) “Normative language in the Great War” Prof. Giuseppe de Vergottini (University of Bologna) “State of war and the structure of constitutional powers” Brigadier General Fulvio Poli “The Army General Staff...
Armed Irredentism. European Irredentisms Facing War
It was not the irredentist movements that triggered the Great War, but they certainly contributed powerfully to destabilizing the European continent, and then became formidable instruments of mass mobilization once the conflict had begun. In 2014, as the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War approached, the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Trieste, in agreement with the academic authorities and in partnership with the Regional Institute for the History of the Liberation Movement in Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Regional Institute for Istrian, Fiume and Dalmatian Culture, and the Deputation of Homeland History for Venezia Giulia, has...
This is how Italy saved the art and monuments of Istria during the war
Irene Spada's essay published by Marsilio reconstructs the protection of cultural heritage in the peninsula by PIERLUIGI SABATTI January 20, 2018 Irene Spada's book "Italy in Istria - protection, conservation and restoration of cultural heritage between the two world wars" (Marsilio publisher, 352 pages, Euro 35,00) "sheds light - explains art historian Rossella Fabiani in the preface - on a little-known segment in the history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the protection and conservation of monuments in border lands, with particular reference to the period between the beginning of the First World War and the end of the Second Conflict". A volume...
