The Trieste National Hall or Slovene Cultural Centre ( sl, Narodni dom), also known as the Hotel Balkan, in
Trieste was a multimodal building that served as a centre for the
Slovene minority in the city. It included the
Slovene theatre in Trieste The Slovene Civic Theatre in Trieste ( Slovene: ''Slovensko stalno gledališče''; Italian: ''Teatro Stabile Sloveno'') is the professional theatre of the Slovene minority in Trieste. The building was designed in the 1960s by Edo Mihevc, a Slovene ...
, a hotel 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.
The building was restored from 1988 to 1990.
Building
Such institutions were typical in
Slovenian ethnic territory in the decades around 1900. It was designed by the Slovenian architect
Maks Fabiani in 1902. Fabiani designed the building with the concept of technical-rational structure, with the facade of monumental stone. It was completed in 1904. It had an ornate facade and state-of-the-art equipment, including an
electric generator
In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power (mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, gas ...
and
central heating.
Fascist attack
On 13 July 1920, as a reaction to the
July 11 Split incident, the building was burned by the Fascist
Blackshirts, led by
Francesco Giunta
Francesco Giunta (21 March 1887 – 8 June 1971) was an Italian Fascist politician. A leading figure in the early years of fascism, he helped to build the movement in several regions of the country and was particularly active in Trieste. Duri ...
.
The act was praised by
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
, who had not yet assumed power, as a "masterpiece of the Triestine Fascism" ( it, capolavoro del fascismo triestino).
It was part of a wider
pogrom against the
Slovenes and other
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
in the very centre of Trieste and the harbinger of the ensuing violence against the Slovenes and Croats in the
Julian March.
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.
Legacy
Boris Pahor
Boris Pahor, OMRI (; 26 August 1913 – 30 May 2022) was a Slovene novelist from Trieste, Italy, who was best known for his heartfelt descriptions of life as a member of the Slovenian minority in pre–Second World War increasingly fascist It ...
's autobiographical novel ''Trg Oberdan'' 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'', , Gorica, p. 307
Notes
References
{{coord, 45, 39, 17, N, 13, 46, 29, E, region:IT-TS_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title
Buildings and structures in Trieste
Max Fabiani buildings
History of Trieste
History of Slovenes in Italy
1920 in Italy
Italian Fascism
Buildings and structures completed in 1904
Hotels in Trieste
Slovene national halls
Buildings and structures destroyed by arson
Art Nouveau architecture in Italy
Anti-Slovene sentiment