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1: INTRODUCTION<br />
World War II dividing the area between Italy and Yugoslavia. On either<br />
side of the border the two towns of Gorizia and Nova Gorica grew<br />
separately but still intertwined, affected by Cold War politics. The border<br />
between Italy and Slovenia has had a long and complex history and its<br />
relationship with the Iron Curtain is far from clear. Many would say this<br />
border, formerly between Yugoslavia and Italy, was never part of the Iron<br />
Curtain. This is why I chose this border for my first case study as it would<br />
help my discussions of what the Iron Curtain really was, or was not. Located<br />
in a valley south of the Alps and north of the Karst plateau this area consists<br />
of arable land which has been cultivated for centuries.<br />
Apart from my fieldwork in the Gorizia/Nova Gorica area I also travelled<br />
along the western and northern borders of Slovenia. Starting from the town<br />
of Koper, on the Adriatic Coast, I headed north until reaching the border<br />
with Austria and following the Slovenian-Austrian border I tried to cross<br />
the border in as many places as possible until I reached the tripoint between<br />
Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. I wanted to get an idea of how the landscape<br />
changed throughout this border and what the actual border and its<br />
crossing points look like today.<br />
My second field study was carried out on the border between the Czech<br />
Republic and Austria in the area around the Podyji Park located near the<br />
town of Znojmo in southern Czech area of South Moravia (Chapter 5). The<br />
park developed as part of the grounds of Vranov Castle in the 18 th century<br />
and became part of a war landscape from the 1930s as it was drawn into<br />
World War II and subsequently the Cold War. The, then Czechoslovakian,<br />
border was heavily militarised from the 1950s until early 1990s. My studies<br />
here, in contrast to the study in Slovenia, dealt with the type of border that<br />
we traditionally connect with the Iron Curtain. The study here was mainly<br />
focussed on the Czech side of the border although some observations were<br />
also made of the landscape on the Austrian side.<br />
I also conducted research into the situation along the Inner German<br />
Border and in particular Berlin (Chapter 3). Although I did not carry out<br />
fieldwork to the same extent as the two other studies I was able to get a good<br />
understanding of the history and the changing fabric also of this border.<br />
The Inner German Border, especially the Berlin Wall, is highly important<br />
for the understanding of what the Iron Curtain was, or still is, and the fact<br />
that I did not carry out a study to the same amount of detail here does not<br />
suggest I find it less important. In the study of the German-German border<br />
I was also able to rely on the fairly extensive research that has already been<br />
carried out here, including archaeological studies of the Berlin Wall. I also<br />
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