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CHAPTER 4
Case study 1
The Italian/Slovenian border
I started my research in what might appear an unexpected place, the border
between former Yugoslavia and Italy. What does this have to do with the
Iron Curtain, many people have asked me. I would say that it is as relevant
as the Berlin Wall. It opens the question for what the Iron Curtain actually
was, or what it is today. During my research, whilst discussing this border
with people from Italy, former Yugoslavia and from other parts of Europe
as well as the US several criteria have arisen as to what people consider the
Iron Curtain to be, often unintentionally. For example I have heard comments
like: “It was the Iron Curtain because they were communist on that
side whilst we were capitalist on this side” (Maria and Antonio, 2008, pers.
comm. 5 th September) or “It was not part of the Iron Curtain because it was
not impossible to cross” (Group interview Škofije 2008, 6 th September). All
these criteria that are expressed about the border between Italy and
Yugoslavia being or not being part of the Iron Curtain show very clearly
what people consider it to be. In this sense, studying a border that many
people think was never even part of the Iron Curtain has therefore been
vital to understanding what people think it is.
Apart from general research along the former Yugoslav border with
Austria and Italy I have carried out a more detailed study in the area in and
around the two cities of Gorizia (in Italy) and Nova Gorica (now in
Slovenia), located directly on the border approximately 45 km north of
Trieste. I first became aware of the two towns when a colleague asked me if I
had heard about the “Berlin of the south”, a city that, like Berlin, became
divided by national borders after World War II. I had not heard about it
and set out to investigate. As it turned out it was not exactly one city that
had been divided into two as such, rather one city, Gorizia in Italian and
Gorica in Slovenian, which after the new border was drawn following
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