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FOIBA OF BASOVIZZA – NATIONAL MONUMENT TRIESTE

A mining well, dug at the beginning of the 20th century to intercept a vein of coal and soon abandoned due to its unproductivity, in May 1945 became a place of summary executions by Tito’s communist partisans for thousands of Italians from all backgrounds: civilians, soldiers, carabinieri, financiers, police officers and prison custody, fascists and anti-fascists, members of the National Liberation Committee, first destined for the internment camps set up in Slovenia and subsequently informed in Basovizza.

After being taken from the houses of Trieste, during a few days of a strict curfew they were transported by death wagons to Basovizza and with their hands torn by iron wire and often tied together in chains, they were pushed in groups towards the edge of the abyss. A volley of machine guns at the first made everyone fall into the abyss. On the bottom, those who did not find instant death after a flight of 200 meters, continued to agonize between the spasms of the wounds and the lacerations reported in the fall between the rock spikes. Many victims were first stripped and tortured.

Declared a National Monument in 1992, it has now become the main memorial – a symbol for the families of the infoibati and deportees who died in concentration camps in Yugoslavia and of the associations of Italians exiled from Istria, Rijeka and Dalmatia, who remember the victims here. of the violence of 1943-1945. Remembrance Day is a national civil solemnity celebrated on February 10 each year. Established with law no. 92 of March 30, 2004 “The Republic recognizes February 10 as the” Day of Remembrance “in order to preserve and renew the memory of the tragedy of the Italians and of all the victims of sinkholes, of the exodus from their lands of Istrians, Rijekers and Dalmatians in the second postwar period and of the more complex affair of the eastern border “.

In 2007 the new arrangement of the Memorial was inaugurated,

which since 2008 has also been equipped with a Documentation Center managed by the National League in collaboration with the Municipality of Trieste.

PIAZZA HORTIS TRIESTE

Piazza Hortis was an ancient cemetery site from the early Christian era and was then created following the demolition in 1788 of part of the thirteenth-century convent of the Friars Minor of San Francesco annexed to the current

church of Sant’Antonio Vecchio (today Beata Vergine del Soccorso). First the French named it Lutzen Square to celebrate Napoleon’s victory, then the Habsburgs Leipzig Square to celebrate the defeat of the French and then Piazza Attilio Hortis as a tribute to one of the most illustrious directors in charge of the Civic Library which overlooks the square.

The square is almost entirely covered by a huge garden of about 2100 square meters. surface where you can admire precious trees. At the center is a work by Giovanni Mayer and the statue of Jacopo Hortis. In 1822 the Library was moved from Piazza Unità

to Casa Biserini, a building built on another demolished part of the Franciscan convent.

In front of the Civic Library is the statue of the writer Italo Svevo, a symbol of the literary culture of the square. 2004 work by the Trieste sculptor Nino Spagnoli.

Tag: biblioteca

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FOIBA OF BASOVIZZA – NATIONAL MONUMENT TRIESTE

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PIAZZA HORTIS TRIESTE