Trieste, Italy

 

Tom with his grandfather's picture

Trieste was transformed from a fishing village to Mediterranean port city of the Austrian Empire during the Reign of Empress Maria Teresa, beginning in 1740. This is evident from the Viennese buildings lining  the central square. We started at the two World War I memorials at the top of San Giusto Hill, one commemorating the Italian soldiers, who took the North Italy back from the Austrians, the other to the soldiers from Trieste who fought for the Austrians. Tom’s grandfather had fought with the Italians, so he laid his picture on the monument. Here also are Roman ruins and the castle and Cathedral di San Guisto. The Cathedral is asymmetrical since it used two churches that were joined. The central mosaic is modern, while the ancient mosaic has Mary with her hand indicating that we should follow her son.

Hall in concentration camp

We toured the Rice hulking factory which became a concentration camp in World War II, used for Jews and political prisoners. They did turn the boiler room of the factory into a crematorium, but it wasn’t considered an extermination camp. It primarily held about 3000 to 5000 prisoners that were transferred elsewhere. Only 39 of 1457 deported Jews ever returned to Trieste. We ended our morning at the Unity of Italy Square.

Trieste's Grand Canal

In the afternoon, I had a short walk of the city center, the Roman theatre from the 2^nd century, the very short grand canal with Church of St. Antonio on one end. I joined the group for a fancy coffee. The Tommaseo has Rum, expresso. Morocco liquor, and fresh cream.

Enjoying our fancy coffees in Trieste

We ended the day with a lecture on the turmoil in this area after World War II. In 1918, Trieste and the entire Istrian peninsula was part of Italy, after the defeat of the Austrian Empire, next door was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was occupied by Germany in 1941. Tito organized the resistance against Germany, creating a socialist Yugoslavia. He eliminated his opponents to ensure he would lead the country. The Yugoslav partisans occupied Trieste on May 1, 1945, one day before the British arrived. On June 9^th, the British recommended the Morgan line, which created a free zone around Trieste, since the US and Britain were worried that Yugoslavia and Trieste would become a Stalinist state like Hungry and Eastern Europe. In 1947, the borders between Italy were somewhat based on which areas were primarily Italian or Slavic ancestry. There has continued to be conflict between these two groups, which has only calmed in the last decade as Slovenia and Croatia have become part of the European Union.