Trieste National Hall

{{redirect|Narodni dom|the hall with this name in Celje|National Hall, Celje}}

File:Narodni dom 04 07 2021.jpg

The Trieste National Hall or Slovene Cultural Centre{{cite book |last1=Sluga |first1=Glenda |author-link1=Glenda Sluga |title=The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe |date=2001 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=New York |page=208}}{{cite book |last1=Hametz |first1=Maura Elise |title=Making Trieste Italian, 1918–1954 |date=2005 |publisher=Woodbridge |location=Rochester, NY |page=21}}{{cite book |last1=Kmecl |first1=Matjaž |last2=Žnidaršič |first2=Joco |title=Treasure Chest of Slovenia |date=1987 |publisher=Cankarjeva založba |location=Ljubljana |page=316}} ({{langx|sl|Narodni dom}}){{cite book |last1=Sluga |first1=Glenda |title=The Problem of Trieste and the Italo-Yugoslav Border: Difference, Identity, and Sovereignty in Twentieth-Century Europe |date=2001 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany, NY |page=50}} in Trieste is a multimodal building that served for 15 years as a social and economic centre for the Slovene minority in the city. It included the Slovene theatre in Trieste, a hotel, a restaurant, a gym 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.{{cite book |url=http://www.provincia.lucca.it/scuolapace/uploads/quaderni/ricordo2012.pdf |title=I profugi istriani, dalmati e fiumani a Lucca |language=it |trans-title=The Istrian, Dalmatian and Rijeka Refugees in Lucca |publisher=Instituto storico della Resistenca e dell'Età Contemporanea in Provincia di Lucca |chapter=Il confine orientale: una terra, molti esodi |trans-chapter=The Eastern Border: One Land, Multiple Exoduses |date=10 February 2012 |editor=Sestani, Armando |pages=12–13 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The building was restored from 1988 to 1990. and later used as a hotel (Hotel Regina). Around 2010 it has been renovated according to the original plans.{{cite book |last1=Opara |first1=Corinna |title=Three Days in Trieste |date=2013 |publisher=Beit Casa Editrice |location=Trieste |page=104}}

Building

File:Incendio dell'Hotel Balkan.jpeg

Such institutions were typical in Slovenian ethnic territory in the decades around 1900. It was built by the Slovenian architect Max Fabiani between 1901 and 1904. Fabiani designed the building with the concept of technical-rational structure, with the facade of monumental stone. It was completed in 1904.{{cite conference |url=http://www.centerslo.net/files/file/ssjlk/46%20SSJLK/Rozic.pdf |language=sl |chapter=Nacionalni slog v arhitekturi |trans-chapter=National Style in Architecture |first=Janko |last=Rožič |page=135 |title=46. seminar slovenskega jezika, literature in kulture: Slovanstvo v slovenskem jeziku, literaturi in kulturi |trans-title=The 46th Seminar of the Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture: Slavism in the Slovene Language, Literature, and Culture |year=2010 |isbn=978-961-237-363-4 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604083240/http://www.centerslo.net/files/file/ssjlk/46%20SSJLK/Rozic.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-04 }}{{cite news |url=http://www.primorski.eu/dossiers/dossier/10/31/130143/ |title=90 let od požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu |trans-title=90 Years From the Arson of National Hall in Trieste |first=Milan |last=Pahor |newspaper=Primorski dnevnik [The Littoral Daily] |language=sl |year=2010 |pages=14–15 |id={{COBISS|ID=11683661}} |accessdate=28 February 2012 |archive-date=14 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014235244/http://www.primorski.eu/dossiers/dossier/10/31/130143/ |url-status=dead }} It had an ornate facade and state-of-the-art equipment, including an electric generator and central heating.{{cite news |url=http://www.rtvslovenija.si/kultura/novice/maks-fabiani-arhitekt-anaksimandrove-zakonitosti-vecnega-porajanja-in-unicevanja/234308 |title=Maks Fabiani: arhitekt Anaksimandrove zakonitosti večnega porajanja in uničevanja |language=sl |trans-title=Max Fabiani: The Architect of the Anaximander's Law of Eternal Rising and Destruction |newspaper=MMC RTV Slovenia}}

Fascist attack

On 13 July 1920, at the end of a violent anti-Slovenian demonstration as a reaction to the July 11 Split incident, the building was burned by the Fascist Blackshirts, led by Francesco Giunta.{{cite news |url=http://www.primorski.eu/dossiers/dossier/10/31/130144/ |title=90 let od požiga Narodnega doma v Trstu |trans-title=90 Years From the Arson of National Hall in Trieste |newspaper=Primorski dnevnik |language=sl |year=2010 |pages=14–15 |id={{COBISS|ID=11683661}} |access-date=28 February 2012 |archive-date=14 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014012348/http://www.primorski.eu/dossiers/dossier/10/31/130144/ |url-status=dead }} The act was praised by Benito Mussolini, who had not yet assumed power, as a "masterpiece of the Triestine Fascism" ({{langx|it|capolavoro del fascismo triestino}}). It was part of a wider pogrom against the Slovenes and other Slavs 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.rtvslo.si/radiokoper/zgodba/13801 |title=Kdo je bil Maks Fabiani |language=sl|trans-title=Who Was Max Fabiani |date=27 February 2015 |publisher=Radio Koper}}{{cite news |url=http://www.primorske.si/Plus/7--Val/Je-bil-zagrizen-fasist-ali-pa-so-ga-v-to-vlogo-pot |title=Je bil zagrizen fašist ali pa so ga v to vlogo potisnili? |language=sl|trans-title=Was He a Fierce Fascist or Was He Forced into This Role? |newspaper=Primorske novice |first=Petra |last=Mezinec |date=20 February 2015}}

Legacy

Boris Pahor's autobiographical novel Trg Oberdan{{#tag:ref|Boris Pahor's novel has been translated into German under the title Piazza Oberdan.|group=Note}} describes how he witnessed the Fascists burning the building.