The Trieste National Hall or Slovene Cultural Centre[1][2][3] (Slovene: Narodni dom), also known as the Hotel Balkan,[4] in Trieste was a multimodal building that served for 15 years as a social and economic centre[5] for the Slovene minority in the city. It included the Slovene theatre in Trieste, a hotel, a restaurant, a gym[5] and numerous cultural associations. It is notable for having been burned in 1920 by Italian Fascists, which made it a symbol of the Italian repression of the Slovene minority in Italy.[6]
The building was restored from 1988 to 1990.[7] and later used as a hotel (Hotel Regina). Around 2010 it has been renovated according to the original plans.[5]
Building
Burning of Hotel Balkan
Such institutions were typical in Slovenian ethnic territory in the decades around 1900. It was built by the Slovenian architect Max Fabiani between 1901 and 1904.[5] Fabiani designed the building with the concept of technical-rational structure, with the facade of monumental stone. It was completed in 1904.[8][9] It had an ornate facade and state-of-the-art equipment, including an electric generator and central heating.[7]
Fascist attack
On 13 July 1920, at the end of a violent anti-Slovenian demonstration[5] as a reaction to the July 11 Split incident, the building was burned by the Fascist Blackshirts, led by Francesco Giunta.[10] The act was praised by Benito Mussolini, who had not yet assumed power, as a "masterpiece of the Triestine Fascism" (Italian: capolavoro del fascismo triestino).[6] 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.[10]
On 15 May 1921, less than a year after the arson attack, the architect Fabiani became a member of the Italian Fascist movement. The reason for his joining the party and his political activity in the following years remains unclear.[11][12]
Legacy
Pitschmann - Maria Teresa
Boris Pahor's autobiographical novel Trg Oberdan[Note 1] describes how he witnessed the Fascists burning the building.
Further reading
Kacin Wohinz, Milica (2010): Alle origini del fascismo di confine – Gli sloveni della Venezia Giulia sotto l'occupazione italiana 1918–1921, ISBN8890342285, Gorica, p. 307
Notes
^Boris Pahor's novel has been translated into German under the title Piazza Oberdan.
References
^Sluga, Glenda (2001). The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe. New York: State University of New York Press. p. 208.
^Hametz, Maura Elise (2005). Making Trieste Italian, 1918–1954. Rochester, NY: Woodbridge. p. 21.
^Kmecl, Matjaž; Žnidaršič, Joco (1987). Treasure Chest of Slovenia. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba. p. 316.
^Sluga, Glenda (2001). The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 50.
^ abcdeOpara, Corinna (2013). Three Days in Trieste. Trieste: Beit Casa Editrice. p. 104.
^ abSestani, Armando, ed. (10 February 2012). "Il confine orientale: una terra, molti esodi" [The Eastern Border: One Land, Multiple Exoduses]. I profugi istriani, dalmati e fiumani a Lucca [The Istrian, Dalmatian and Rijeka Refugees in Lucca] (PDF) (in Italian). Instituto storico della Resistenca e dell'Età Contemporanea in Provincia di Lucca. pp. 12–13.
^Pahor, Milan (2010). "90 let od požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu" [90 Years From the Arson of National Hall in Trieste]. Primorski dnevnik [The Littoral Daily] (in Slovenian). pp. 14–15. COBISS11683661. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
