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AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
east of the mountain, there were no great advantages to Italy gaining the
extra land, however, Mount Sabotino/Sabotin has been of great symbolic
importance to Italy since the First World War when their troops fought
here. The change in border position was therefore not of great strategic
importance here but had more of a symbolic value (Drago Sedmak, 2011,
pers. comm. 1 st August).
Even though conditions changed throughout the 20 th century and
security was subsequently scaled down this border remained more guarded
and controlled than most of the borders in Western Europe until the 1990s.
The security along these borders therefore changed gradually throughout
the latter part of the 20th century. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the
opening of the former Iron Curtain in many other parts of former Eastern
Europe in 1989 meant that Yugoslavia’s position as “straddling the fault line
between east and west” became even more clear (Benson 2004:155). While
other newly formed states in former Eastern Europe experienced a peaceful
transition to independence, the so called Velvet Revolution, the Yugoslavian
path to independence was reached through conflict and war two years later.
1989 was a defining year which brought major changes to borders between
Eastern and Western Europe and therefore had very little effect on the
border between Italy and Yugoslavia. Although Slovenia gained independence
in1991, the border’s character did not change much at this point,
instead the largest changes were seen in 2004 and 2007 when Slovenia
joined the European Union and the Schengen Convention respectively.
On the 14 th of February 2004 BBC News reported on the Cold War fence
being removed between Italy and Slovenia which referred to the removal of
fences between Nova Gorica and Gorizia two days earlier. Large crowds on
both sides of the border watched as the mayors of both towns dismantled
what BBC referred to as “One of Europe’s last symbols of Cold War-era
division” (BBC News 2004). The border was removed under major festivities.
Gorizia’s mayor stated “Today we are tearing down a real wall, but
our hope is that a mental barrier will also be knocked down” (BBC News
2004). When Slovenia joined Schengen on the 21 st of December 2007 the
mayors of the two towns met yet again on the border to celebrate the
abolishment of barriers between the two countries. Although checks had
been carried out on people crossing the border right up until midnight, as
the clocks turned twelve the mayors lifted the barrier at the Casa Rossa/
Rožna Dolina crossing, removing a barrier that had divided the town for 60
years. For the first time since WWII it now became possible to cross this
line without showing any documents (Figure 21).
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