Capital of Culture 2025

GO! Culture without borders

Gorizia Castle is enthroned on the hill, the small mountain that bears Gorizia's name.

(Bild: Deuer)

A small mountain around which three languages were spoken. Then a barbed wire divided the city. Now work is underway on the Borderless Capital of Culture 2025 program.

The license plate number of Nova Gorica and Gorizia is GO, and this invitation can also be found in the motto under which the Capital of Culture year 2025 will be held: 'GO! Boderless!", explained Wilhelm Deuer, who was invited by the Dante Alighieri Society to present interesting facts from the history of Gorizia - one of Klagenfurt's twin towns - at the Provincial Archives in Klagenfurt.

The Neptune Fountain was built according to a design by Nicolò Pacassi: He also planned the palace for Archduchess Maria Anna in Klagenfurt, today's bishop's residence.

(Bild: Deuer)

The small mountain
Gorizia (Italian), Gorica (Slovenian), Gurice (Friulian), Görz (German) means small mountain. "In Carinthia, too, we know such places as Görz near Paternion, Görzberg near Gensau or Görzwinkel. And the hill was also important in Görz in Italy in order to build a castle to defend the settlement at the intersection of the old trade routes," says historian Deuer. A villa, i.e. a large estate or small village of this name, was first mentioned in a document in 1001.

Trieste developed into a center, Görz into a 'winter resort', the 'Nice of the North'. The Wocheinerbahn railroad was opened in 1906, with the national border running in front of its terminus from 1947. Now there is the Europaplatz with a symbolically broken border.

Wilhelm Deuer, Historiker, Austria Guide

Wilhelm Deuer, historian, Austria Guide

(Bild: Christina Natascha Kogler)

The Counts of Gorizia, who had received the area as a fief from the Patriarch of Aquileia, played an important role for 350 years. They also owned property in Upper Carinthia and East Tyrol; their last residence was Bruck Castle near Lienz, where the last count of the family, Leonhard von Görz, lived with Paola Gonzaga. "He was considered to be extremely rough: in 1485 in Dölsach, he believed he had to save the bishop's gentle confirmation and gave the confirmands rough slaps in the face," reports Deuer.

The KHE district, which will be built on the approximately one kilometer long border strip between the former customs offices, will form the center of the future European Capital of Culture. The area will form an event and meeting center for the Capital of Culture year.

(Bild: Kulturhauptstadt2025)

Paola Gonzaga, whose bridal chests are kept in Millstatt and the Carinthia Museum, on the other hand, is said to have been subtle. "So it's not surprising that she slipped through his fingers. But she disappeared completely. It is assumed that she died in Abano, but there is no proof of this."

Did you know...

... that Elvine de La Tour, who founded the charitable Protestant de La Tour Foundation in Treffen on Lake Ossiach with her estate, was born in Gorizia? On December 8, 1841.

Then the Habsburgs and the Venetians took an interest in Gorizia, where three languages were spoken at the time - Furlan, Slovenian and German. In addition to the castle, the churches, the nearby Castagnevizza monastery, several palaces and castles in the surrounding area are still worth a visit today.

Borderless program 2025

European Capital of Culture 2025: Nova Gorica and Gorizia. Info & program: www.go2025.eu

Much of Gorizia was destroyed during the First and Second World Wars, but some of it was rebuilt. In 1947, the new border between Italy and Yugoslavia was drawn across the Piazza Transalpina at the terminus of the Wocheinerbahn - until 1954 with barbed wire, later with a concrete pillar fence. The town of Nova Gorica was built on the Yugoslav side.

The Iron Curtain has long been history and the focus is now on togetherness; especially in the Capital of Culture year 2025, where the motto is: "GO! Borderless!"