Aurisina (until 1923 ''Nabresina'', sl, Nabrežina) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the karst part of the

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

Duino-Aurisina Duino-Aurisina ( sl, Devin-Nabrežina, german: Thübein-Nabreschin, also ; vec, label= Triestine, Duin-Aurisina) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Trieste in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Lying near the border with ...

(Slovene: ) near

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, in a region of Slovene minority. It lies 15 kilometres northwest of Trieste, and according to the 2003 census had a total of 2,406 inhabitants, 60% of them Slovenes.

Overview

The town of Aurisina was inhabited in the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

because of a nearby

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

with a well-known

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, called Aurisina marble, used to build Roman Aquileia. The settlement was first mentioned as Lebrosina in 1308, and it grew in importance as the

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

-Trieste railway was built in 1857. The world wars devastated Aurisina. Many Slovene people, including educated persons, escaped to

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

during fascist rule. Before and during World War II, the Italian fascist regime and later the German Nazi regime deported many inhabitants to

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s throughout Europe. After World War II, Aurisina, together with Trieste, became part of the

Free Territory of Trieste The Free Territory of Trieste was an independent territory in Southern Europe between northern Italy and Yugoslavia, facing the north part of the Adriatic Sea, under direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath ...

. When this entity was disbanded in 1954, it was annexed to Italy. The settlement lies on top of the

Karst Plateau The Karst Plateau or the Karst region ( sl, Kras, it, Carso), also locally called Karst, is a karst plateau region extending across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills su ...

, where the cliffs descend to the sea. Its elevation is 143 m. Around the village there are four rises named ''Ojstri vrh'', ''Gradec'', Mount Babiza (, sl, Babica, 197 m), and Mount Berciza ({{lang, it, Monte Berciza, sl, Brščice, 219 m). Aurisina has typical karst architecture with houses made of limestone. The old village stands around a church dedicated to

Saint Roch Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...

. Aurisina is the birthplace of the Slovenian poet

Igo Gruden Igo Gruden (18 April 1893 – 29 November 1948) was a Slovene poet and translator. He was born as Ignacij Gruden in the small fishing village of Aurisina near Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian County of Gorizia and Gradisca (now in It ...

and the marine biologist Miroslav Zei. The Galician linguist

Florian Biesik Florian Biesik (March 4, 1849 in Wilamowice – March 13, 1926 in Trieste) created a literary standard for Vilamovian, trying to prove it did not derive from German, but possibly Frisian, Anglo-Saxon or Dutch. An Austro-Hungarian civil serva ...

spent the last decade of his life in the village.

Overview

See also