Foiba

A foiba (from Italian: ; plural: foibe or foibas) — ''jama'' () in South Slavic languages scientific and colloquial vocabulary (borrowed since early research in the Western Balkan Dinaric Alpine karst) — is a type of deep natural sinkhole, doline, or sink, and is a collapsed portion of bedrock above a void. Sinks may be a sheer vertical opening into a cave, or a shallow depression of many hectares. They are common in the Karst (Carso) region shared by Italy and Slovenia, as well as in a karst of Dinaric Alps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Croatia. The foibe massacres, a war crime that took place during and after the World War II, take their name from the foibe.

Etymology

The Italian name "foiba" derives from Friulan "''foibe''", which in turn derives from the Latin ''fŏvea'' (meaning "pit" or "chasm"). The oldest document on which it is reported is an official report in 1770, written by the Italian naturalist Alberto Fortis, who wrote a series of books on the Dalmatian karst.

Description

They are chasms excavated by water erosion, have the shape of an inverted funnel, and can be up to deep. Such formations number in the hundreds in Istria. In karst areas, a sinkhole, sink, or doline is a closed depression draining underground. It can be cylindrical, conical, bowl-shaped or dish-shaped. The diameter ranges from a few to many hundreds of metres. The name "doline" comes from ''dolina'', the Slovenian word for this very common feature. The term "foiba" may also refer to a deep wide chasm of a river at the place where it goes underground.

Foibe massacres

During and right after the end of World War II, OZNA and Yugoslav Partisans killed a number between 11,000 and 20,000 of the local ethnic Italian population (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians), as well against anti-communists in general (even Croats and Slovenes), usually associated with Fascism, Nazism and collaboration with Axis, as well as against real, potential or presumed opponents of Tito communism by throwing their still living bodies into the foibe. This event is known as foibe massacres. The type of attack was state terrorism,''Il tempo e la storia: Le Foibe'', Rai tv, Raoul Pupo reprisal killings, and ethnic cleansing against Italians.''«....Già nello scatenarsi della prima ondata di cieca violenza in quelle terre, nell'autunno del 1943, si intrecciarono giustizialismo sommario e tumultuoso, parossismo nazionalista, rivalse sociali e un disegno di sradicamento della presenza italiana da quella che era, e cessò di essere, la Venezia Giulia. Vi fu dunque un moto di odio e di furia sanguinaria, e un disegno annessionistico slavo, che prevalse innanzitutto nel Trattato di pace del 1947, e che assunse i sinistri contorni di una "pulizia etnica". Quel che si può dire di certo è che si consumò - nel modo più evidente con la disumana ferocia delle foibe - una delle barbarie del secolo scorso.»'' from the official website of The Presidency of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano
official speech for the celebration of "Giorno del Ricordo"
Quirinal, Rome, 10 February 2007. The foibe massacres were followed by the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus.

The Yugoslav partisans intended to kill whoever could oppose or compromise the future annexation of Italian territories: as a preventive purge of real, potential or presumed opponents of Tito communism (Italian, Slovenian and Croatian anti-communists, collaborators and radical nationalists), the Yugoslav partisans exterminated the native anti-fascist autonomists — including the leadership of Italian anti-fascist partisan organizations and the leaders of Fiume's Autonomist Party, like Mario Blasich and Nevio Skull, who supported local independence from both Italy and Yugoslavia — for example in the city of Fiume, where at least 650 were killed after the entry of the Yugoslav units, without any due trial.

In literature

''Foiba'' is also the name of the well-known sinkhole that opens near the castle of Montecuccoli, in Pisino, and of the stream that flows into it. The place plays a central role in Jules Verne's novel ''Mathias Sandorf''.

See also

* Foibe massacres
* Karst Plateau

References

External links

Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide Committee - Gariwo



{{Caves

Karst caves
Foiba
Karst formations
Dinaric Alps
Dinaric karst formations
Karst