The Capital of Culture 2025 is located in Slovenia and Italy. The Italian Gorizia and the Slovenian Nova Gorica are separated by a border, but commit the Capital of Culture together together. The cities accompanies an eventful history, shaped by division and reunification.
The year 2025 should not only honor the historical importance of the border region, but also pave the way for a common culture and a peaceful future.
Gorizia: The architecturally older part of the city that later shared is in Italy, the more modern in Slovenia
Gorizia, the older of today’s two cities, was once part of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy and a popular winter spa. After the First World War it was struck Italy. Then, after the Second World War, the border in 1947 was re -drawn, and the eastern foothills of the city were suddenly Yugoslav. The city was shared by a fence – with traumatic consequences for the population.
Nova Gorica, the part separated from Italy, consisted of only a few houses and was rebuilt by Tito in 1948 as a plan city. To date, it is characterized by the ideas of the Slovenian city planner Edvard Ravnikar. As a student of Le Corbusier, he understood nature as an integral part of his plans, which is why Nova Gorica still has a park landscape.
This photo shows a border stone on the border between Italy and Slovenia in Gorizia
Slovenia has been part of the EU since 2004 and the old border posts have been broken down. You can now stand on the Transalpina square with one foot in Italy and with the other in Slovenia. There is an event center at the former location of the separation. A former warehouse of the train station turned into the “European Platform for the Interpretation of the 20th Century”. The room is home to exhibitions on the history of the two cities.
People cross the railways on the border between Italy and Slovenia
The center of the Capital of Culture is the Cultural City district, which was revived on a kilometer -long border strip between two former customs control points. The newly designed area is the center for events and encounters during the cultural capital year. An attraction is the “path of peace” with over 300 monuments between the Alps and the Adriatic, which also leads to rifle trenches from the First World War. “We have a difficult, sometimes bloody past, so it means so much that we now work together so intensely,” said Neda Rusjan Bric, artistic consultant for the project.
Northeast of the train station is the Slovenian part of the previously united city, in the southwest the much larger Italian, in which most sights are located. The medieval fortress, for example, which was renovated in preparation for the cultural capital year. The old town of Gorizia is well preserved and worth seeing. The Solkan Bridge over the Soča, it is considered the largest brick railway bridge in the world, can be admired in Nova Gorica. One goal of the organizer was to revitalize neglected areas. For example through the playground on the border to promote the interaction between children of different nationalities.