Nova Gorica () is a town in western Slovenia, on the border with Italy. It is the seat of the Municipality of Nova Gorica.
Nova Gorica is a planned town, built according to the principles of modernist architecture after 1947, when the Paris Peace Treaty established a new border between Yugoslavia and Italy, leaving nearby Gorizia outside the borders of Yugoslavia and thus cutting off the Soča Valley, the Vipava Valley, the Gorizia Hills and the northwestern Karst Plateau from their traditional regional urban centre. It is the European Capital of Culture in 2025. Since 1948, Nova Gorica has replaced Gorizia as the principal urban center of the Gorizia region (), as the northern part of the Slovenian Littoral has been traditionally called. Since May 2011, Nova Gorica has been joined with Gorizia and Šempeter-Vrtojba in a common trans-border metropolitan zone, administered by a joint administration board.
For 2025 Nova Gorica has won the European Capital of Culture title inviting the neighbouring Gorizia to the bid. The cultural project of two cities on the border attracted worldwide attention and was named by the BBC as Europe's first borderless Capital of Culture where two cities from two countries collaborate under one title European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica - Gorizia GO! 2025.
Name
The name Nova Gorica means 'new Gorizia'. The origin of the name Gorizia/Gorica itself is Slavic. The common local term for the town is Gorica (i.e., without the modifier nova 'new'), while residents tend to refer to the neighboring Italian town as Stara Gorica (i.e., 'old Gorizia'). This use is also reflected in Slovenian license plates (GO for Gorica), as well as in the name of the local association football club ND Gorica. The word gorica is a diminutive form of the Slovene common noun gora 'hill'. In archaic Slovene, it also meant 'vineyard'. It is a common toponym in Slovenia and in other areas of Slovene settlement, as well as more generally in areas that have or historically had a Slavic-speaking population.
History
In 1947, following World War II, Italy signed a peace treaty with the Allies, including Socialist Yugoslavia. The treaty transferred most of the Slovene-inhabited areas of the Province of Gorizia to Yugoslavia. The town of Gorizia itself, however, remained under Italian rule. The new border just to the west of the Bohinj Railway cut the city off from its northern and eastern suburbs. Around 40% of the municipality's territory was transferred to Yugoslavia, including the suburbs of Solkan, Šempeter, Kromberk, Rožna Dolina, and Pristava. Together, these areas had a population of around 10,000 (almost exclusively Slovenes, with a tiny Friulian-speaking minority), or around one fifth of the municipality's population. However, they lacked a cohesive structure, and were poorly connected. In order to overcome this problem, the Communist authorities of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia decided to build a new settlement that would connect these suburbs into a new urban space. The new town was called Nova Gorica or "New Gorizia" and the Gorizia Montesanto railway station also named Nova Gorica. The project had the personal backing of Marshal Tito, Yugoslavia's Communist leader. The project was commissioned to the Slovenian architect Edvard Ravnikar, a former pupil of Le Corbusier. The first projects were laid out in winter of 1947, and the construction began at the beginning of the following year.
The city was formally established as an urban municipality in 1952, incorporating the older settlements of Solkan, Kromberk and Rožna Dolina, which thus became, somewhat reluctantly, suburbs of Nova Gorica. The building of the town continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s, reaching the current extent by the mid-1980s. In the early 1990s, all of the aforementioned older suburbs acquired again the status of independent settlements. This was however a purely symbolic act that only affected the official statistics on population: because of this, Nova Gorica dropped from the list of 10 largest towns in Slovenia. It nevertheless remains the second largest urban conglomeration in western Slovenia, after Koper.
Climate
Culture and education
Nova Gorica hosts one of the three national theatres in Slovenia. The is also located in the town's Kromberk district, hosted in Kromberk Castle.
The University of Nova Gorica is located in the suburb of Rožna Dolina. The Nova Gorica Grammar School, located in the city centre, is one of the most renowned high schools in Slovenia.
The cultural magazine Razpotja is published in Nova Gorica.
Nova Gorica and Gorizia won their joint bid to be designated as European Capital of Culture in 2025; the other city selected for that year is Chemnitz, Germany.
Kostanjevica Hill
To the south of the town stands Kostanjevica Hill, home to the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady and a 17th-century Franciscan monastery with rich treasures from the past. The last members of the Bourbons, the French royal family, are buried in a crypt beneath the church (Charles X himself, and members of his family and entourage including his son Louis-Antoine de France, and his grandson Henri d'Artois, nephew of Louis (neither Louis-Antoine nor Henri ever reigned as kings)). He fled France following the revolution in 1830, finding refuge in Gorizia, and eventually died there. Also buried there is Pierre Louis Jean Casimir de Blacas, a Bourbon nobleman who also died in exile (in 1839).
Sveta Gora
Opposite Kostanjevica Hill, north of the town is the settlement of Sveta Gora with Holy Mount () a peak that has attracted pilgrims for 450 years. The view from there is exceptional, and on a clear day visitors can see as far as Istria, Venice, the Dolomites, and the Kamnik and Julian Alps. The mountain top is home to a magnificent basilica, where concerts are occasionally held, a Franciscan monastery, and a museum of the Battles of the Isonzo.
People Arts and sciences Diego de Brea, theatre director Dean Komel, philosopher Mirt Komel, philosopher and author Branko Marušič, historian Maja Novak, writer Dušan Pirjevec Ahac, philosopher and literary critic (born in Solkan, now part of Nova Gorica) Katja Perat, poet and essayist Uroš Seljak, physicist, cosmologist Mitja Velikonja, sociologist Erika Vouk, poet Danilo Zavrtanik, physicist and scholar Marko Peljhan, artist Jatun Risba, artist Kaja Antlej, VR/AR Museum Heritage and Space Artist Jan Trstenjak, pioneer in procedural generation
Politics and public service Robert Golob, current Prime Minister of Slovenia Borut Pahor, politician, former president of Slovenia Zvonko Fišer, former state general prosecutor of Slovenia Tomaž Marušič, politician, former minister of justice of Slovenia (1998–2000) Vlasta Nussdorfer, child psychologist, former Slovenian ombudsmann Senko Pličanič, lawyer and politician, former minister of justice of Slovenia Majda Širca, film critic and politician, minister of culture of Slovenia (2008–2011) Patricija Šulin, politician, member of the European Parliament Samuel Žbogar, politician and diplomat, former minister of foreign affairs of Slovenia Samo Turel, politician and mayor of Nova Gorica
Sports Jernej Abramič, slalom canoer Jure Franko, ski champion Kris Jogan, football player Aleš Kokot, football player Uroš Kodelja, slalom canoer Jan Močnik, basketball player Matej Mugerli, road bicycle player Jani Šturm, football player Eva Mori, volleyball player
Show business Igor Vidmar, rock musician and journalist Iztok Mlakar, singer-songwriter and actor Aljoša Buha, rock musician
Other Jana Krivec, chess woman grandmaster Vojteh Ravnikar, architect David Tasić, journalist, political prisoner (JBTZ trial), and publisher
Twin towns – sister cities
Nova Gorica is twinned with:
Aleksandrovac, Serbia Klagenfurt, Austria Otočac, Croatia San Vendemiano, Italy Oghuz, Azerbaijan
See also University of Nova Gorica Europe Square European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica Gorizia - GO!2025
References
External links
Nova Gorica on Geopedia