Trieste National Hall

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]

"Narodni dom" redirects here. For the hall with this name in Celje, see National Hall, Celje.

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 Maks 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, ISBN 8890342285, Gorica, p. 307

Notes
  1. Boris Pahor's novel has been translated into German under the title Piazza Oberdan.

References
  1. 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.
  2. Hametz, Maura Elise (2005). Making Trieste Italian, 1918–1954. Rochester, NY: Woodbridge. p. 21.
  3. Kmecl, Matjaž; Žnidaršič, Joco (1987). Treasure Chest of Slovenia. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba. p. 316.
  4. 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.
  5. Opara, Corinna (2013). Three Days in Trieste. Trieste: Beit Casa Editrice. p. 104.
  6. Sestani, 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.
  7. "Maks Fabiani: arhitekt Anaksimandrove zakonitosti večnega porajanja in uničevanja" [Max Fabiani: The Architect of the Anaximander's Law of Eternal Rising and Destruction]. MMC RTV Slovenia (in Slovenian).
  8. Rožič, Janko (2010). "Nacionalni slog v arhitekturi" [National Style in Architecture]. 46. seminar slovenskega jezika, literature in kulture: Slovanstvo v slovenskem jeziku, literaturi in kulturi [The 46th Seminar of the Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture: Slavism in the Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture] (PDF) (in Slovenian). p. 135. ISBN 978-961-237-363-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-04.
  9. 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. COBISS 11683661. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  10. "90 let od požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu" [90 Years From the Arson of National Hall in Trieste]. Primorski dnevnik (in Slovenian). 2010. pp. 14–15. COBISS 11683661. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  11. "Kdo je bil Maks Fabiani" [Who Was Max Fabiani] (in Slovenian). Radio Koper. 27 February 2015.
  12. Mezinec, Petra (20 February 2015). "Je bil zagrizen fašist ali pa so ga v to vlogo potisnili?" [Was He a Fierce Fascist or Was He Forced into This Role?]. Primorske novice (in Slovenian).

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