Trieste National Hall (Slovene: Narodni dom) or the Hotel Balkan in Trieste was a multimodal building that hosted the centre of the Slovene minority in the city, which included the Slovene theatre in Trieste, a hotel and numerous cultural associations. It is notable for having been burnt in 1920 by Italian Fascists, which made it a symbol of the Italian repression of Slovene minority in Italy. The building was restored from 1988 until 1990.
Building
Italy: Angry locals rail at creation of shelter for migrant minors in Ventimiglia - Several hundred people staged a protest in front of Ventimiglia town hall, Saturday, to call on Italian authorities to take measures against the erection of a shelter for migrant minors in...
Such national halls were typical of the Slovene Lands at the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries. It was built by the plans of the Triestine architect Max Fabiani from 1902 as a Mediterranean palace from massive brick and completed in 1904. It had a monumental façade and was very modernly equipped with an electric generator and central heating.
Fascist attack
On 13 July 1920, as reaction to the July 11 Split incident the building was burnt by the Fascist Blackshirts, led by Francesco Giunta. The act was praised by Benito Mussolini, who was at the time yet to become a duce, as a "masterpiece of the Triestine fascism" (Italian: capolavoro del fascismo triestino...). It was part of a wider pogrom against the Slovenes and other Slavs in the very centre of Trieste and the harbinger of the ensuing violence against the Slovenes and Croats in the Julian March.
On 15 May 1921, less than a year after the burn of the arson, the architect Fabiani became member of the Italian fascist movement. The reason for him joining the party and his political activity in the following years remain unclear.
Legacy
In one of his acclaimed autobiographical novels, Trg Oberdan, written by Boris Pahor, his witnessing of the Fascists burning down the building is described.
Further reading
- Kacin Wohinz, Milica (2010): Alle origini del fascismo di confine - Gli sloveni della Venezia Giulia sotto l'occupazione italiana 1918-1921, ISBN 8890342285, Gorica, pp. 307
Notes
References
