Free Territory of Trieste

1954 marked the beginning of a brief but intense migratory flow from the
city of Trieste towards Australia. Following a prolonged period of
Anglo-American administration, the city had been returned to Italian
jurisdiction once more; and with the dismantling of the Allied caretaker
government and the subsequent economic integration of Trieste into the
Italian State, a climate of uncertainty and precariousness had left the
Triestines psychologically disenchanted and discouraged. Although
historically Trieste did not have a tradition of migration, many chose to
emigrate during this period. Among those who left were former
employees of the Allied Military Government who were concerned for
their future, but there were also others with stable employment. Importantly, Triestine migration displays many atypical characteristics
when compared to Italian migration in general. Unlike many other
Italian migrants, most Triestines came to Australia as part of complete
nuclear family units, many were assisted passage migrants and a
significant number of these were in possession of trade qualifications on
their arrival. Importantly, furthermore, the Triestines are the only
immigrants of Italian origin to have mass migrated from an urban
environment. And, as this study highlights, this factor has impacted on
the migratory experiences and the identity and community making
process of this group.
The Triestines who immigrated to Australia during this period were
particularly aware of themselves as Triestines. Political and economic
forces had historically fostered the development of a Triestine identity
and during the post war period, when many of these immigrants had
experienced a sense of betrayal, the act of migration served to strengthen
a feeling of circumscribed Triestine identity once more. By narrating and analysing the immigrant experiences of this group, this
research reveals that this identity was also reinforced by the migration
experience and process as the urban mind-set of the Triestines initially
set them apart as 'strangers' within both the Anglo-Saxon reality and the
Italo-Australian one. By negotiating both similarities and difference in
the context of a shared immigrant experience, the Triestines were,
however, successfully able to become part of the Italo-Australian
community, but they continued to maintain a distinct sense of their own
identity as Triestines. What emerges from this study is that this enduring
sense of identity can be seen to be tied, not to essentialist notions of
identity, but to a continued and dynamic process of negotiation which
allowed the triestini to adopt various 'positionalities' which became part
of a dialectical process of identity construction.By examining the migrant experience of both first and subsequent
generations of Triestines in the Australian city of Melbourne in a
historical context, this study thus highlights the importance of both the
past and the present experience in the process of migrant settlement and
identity construction. The study is based on archival and field research,
including interviews with 75 informants. It holds in balance a story of
group formation (how the Triestines evolved as a group within
Melbourne) with an account of group identity (who they were as
Triestines).

L'Albergo Americano a Barcola consente di mettere a fuoco un episodio rilevante sotto il profilo urbanistico e architettonico relativo al periodo del Governo Militare Alleato a Trieste (1945-1954). Progettato nel 1949 da Guido Fulignot per conto del GMA e affidato per la parte costruttiva al Genio Civile, il "Barcola Tourist Hotel" diventa subito occasione di scontro con il Comune di Trieste, dato che l'intervento entra in collisione con un settore di competenza dell'Amministrazione cittadina, come quello del piano regolatore che concedeva di costruire nella zona solo ville e villini. Con i suoi sei piani l'Albergo, destinato agli ufficiali americani, non è quindi tollerabile e il coro delle critiche mosse dalla Commissione edilizia comunale, dall'Ordine Ingegneri e Architetti e l'Ente Turismo, convince la committenza a effettuare delle significative modifiche, nonostante gli scavi per le fondazioni siano già iniziati. Il cambiamento è piuttosto costoso, poiché il progetto sostituirà la disposizione planimetrica a U con quella a L. Ma il cambiamento più significativo è quello relativo allo "stile", dato che il precedente progetto era stato giudicato poco confacente al pregio della posizione. D'accordo con la Soprintendenza il GMA chiama tre illustri architetti triestini - Ramiro Meng, Umberto Nordio e Mario Zocconi - che elaborano la nuova proposta, sviluppata nella parte esecutiva dal Genio Civile. La scelta del rivestimento di piastrelle in cotto (al posto dell'intonaco) si potrebbe attribuire al solo Nordio, che aveva utilizzato il materiale nella Casa Alta. Interessante la tipologia che è piuttosto inusuale in Italia, quella del residence-albergo (ma a Trieste esisteva l'illustre precedente del Balkan di Max Fabiani), ma anche gli arredi offrono alcuni elementi di novità. In questo caso le preoccupazioni economiche riguardo ai materiali e alle finiture non sembrano avere la stessa importanza di altri progetti, si tratta infatti di alloggi di lusso che devono soddisfare a criteri vigenti nelle Forze Armate, dove la qualità è commisurata al grado gerarchico. Paradossalmente l'Albergo Americano al termine della revisione progettuale non lascia trapelare alcun accenno a uno specifico linguaggio architettonico d'oltreoceano, ma nel disporsi dei volumi (a gradoni) e nella scelta del rivestimento, rimanda a edifici italiani (se non triestini) degli anni Trenta e Quaranta: quasi un omaggio a una tradizione e a una cultura nella quale ci si riconosce e si ammira.

The aim of the presentation was to show changes in the opinion of the Yugoslav press towards the Trieste Crisis from 1945 to 1975. In 1945, when the Yugoslav Army occupied the city of Trieste and its surroundings, the Yugoslav propaganda machine influenced the public opinion towards the claims for the whole region of Trieste. There was little change in 1947 when the division of the occupied region into Zones A and B was agreed, because Yugoslav public opinion hadn’t shifted towards claims solely for the Zone B. The Yugoslav press continued to instigate absolute claims in the following years, even in 1954 when the Trieste Crisis was officially over and no change towards the acquisition of the city of Trieste had been made. The presentation tried to demonstrate the evolution of the Yugoslav public opinion in 1975, when the Treaty of Osimo was signed, and the reasons it was presented as a good-neighbourly cooperation between Italy and Yugoslavia. The reasons for this change were political and economic, but when one has in mind that the Italian public opinion was highly critical of the Treaty and that some even called for the prosecution of the then Italian Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the crime of treason, it is interesting to explore the reasons for the mild Yugoslav stance and the lack of criticism. Based on the most important Yugoslav newspapers and magazines of the aforementioned period, the presentation tried to explain the reasons for the mentioned evolution.