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.

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

Building

Fascist attack

Legacy

Further reading

Notes

References