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4: CASE STUDY 1: THE ITALIAN/SLOVENIAN BORDER
and the border here, the story about Countess Liduška. She lived on the
estate that this rather grand building belonged to. Towards the end of
World War II American soldiers arrived to the area and built a series of
barracks near her property. The Countess threw many lavish parties at her
estate which many of the soldiers attended. After the war when the new
border was drawn the entire village of Solkan fell within Yugoslavian territory,
so also the property of the Countess. She, on the other hand, had
hopes to remain an Italian citizen and used her influences within the
American army to make sure that she did. Consequently the border here
was redirected around her property separating it from the rest of the village
of Solkan (Anja, 2008, pers. comm. 3 rd September). Looking at maps of the
area it becomes clear that the border has taken a detour around the property,
marked on the map below as Villa Nordis (Figure 50).
There are also other stories of locals in one way or another influencing
the location of the border, with many through going out in the night and
physically moving the poles set out during the day to mark the new border.
Looking at old photographs taken by what is now the Rafut/Pristava
crossing within Gorizia/Nova Gorica we can see the differences in the
location of the border from the first line was drawn to what it looks like
now. Looking at it we can see that a farm has been divided in two which is
obviously something the bull is ignoring standing with his head in
Yugoslavia and his rear end in Italy (Figure 51). Looking at the site today it
is possible to see that the border has actually been moved a distance of
approximately 50 m to the east. How this was done is not known but it
demonstrates that adjustments on the ground were possible as the border
was established.
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