FERMATA DEL MESE
4
ON THE TRACKS OF A TRIESTE SUSPENDED BETWEEN LEGACY FROM THE PAST AND PROJECTS FOR THE FUTURE
S
uperb with its Art Nouveau
“It became a marginal city as Italian
inheritance and its new face. As I step
buildings. Elegant, with its
was occupied, and much of its peculiar
out of the station, in Piazza della Libertà,
theatres and cafés. Connected
identity was slowly washed away
I get a glimpse of the profiles of silos
to the sea and its moods, which
after 1918. Then Fascism imposed
and warehouses of Porto Vecchio – the
penetrate it all the way to its guts.
Italianisation onto the city, and many
old port. Built by the Austro-Hungarian
Trieste is a terrace over the Adriatic
were forced to change their surnames.
empire between 1868 and 1887, it
that preserves traces of imperial
The Slovenian language was banned;
reproduced
splendour, but that also shows the signs
the German-speaking community was
Lagerhauser, portions of city destined
of decadence of a now lost role in the
forced to escape; Hebrews were hit
to the handling of goods, of the
world. Its liminal position has led it to
by racial laws proclaimed in 1938 right
great
absorb the vitality of different culture,
at Piazza Unità d’Italia” he continues.
An important hub of economic activity
all the while living a painful history.
“Trieste is a city that is trying to find
and commercial traffic for a very long
“It was once a village of fishermen and
its relevance again, but it must make
time, it started declining after WWII, and
salt collectors, and all of a sudden it
amends with 20 years of regime, five
now looks like an abandoned city, a sort
finds itself projected into a European
years of war, and a dramatic post-war
of western movie set with deserted
and international dimension, the only
period, saturated with divisions and
streets and huge brickwork hangars
access to the sea of the entire Austro-
resentment, with consequences that
instead of wooden saloons. A recovery
Hungarian empire, which reached the
are still visible.”
plan will requalify a part of it in the next
apex of its importance in the early
This fascination transmitted to me by
years, as was done for Magazzino 26 (1),
ports
the
of
characteristics
northern
of
Europe.
century,” says Paolo Rumiz,
Rumiz, together with many ideas of
Magazzino delle Idee, the Centrale
journalist and writer, a son of Trieste
interesting itineraries, accompany me
Idrodinamica and the Sottostazione
filled with deep knowledge of the city.
in a tour of the city, on a search for its
elettrica, which have all become
20
th
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