Everything about Venetian Slovenia totally explained
Venetian Slovenia ( ) is a small mountainous region in northeastern
Italy, in the area between the towns of
Cividale del Friuli Tarcento along the border between Italy and
Slovenia. It is part of the
Province of Udine in the region of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia and it's inhabited by a significant
Slovene minority.
Extension
It comprises the
municipalities of
San Pietro al Natisone/Špeter Slovenov,
San Leonardo/Sveti Lenart,
Pulfero/Podbonesec,
Drenchia/Dreka,
Grimacco/Grmek,
Stregna/Srednje,
Savogna/Sovodnje,
Lusevera/Bardo,
Taipana/Tipana,
Torreano/Tavorjana,
Resia/Rezija and the montainous areas of the municipalities of
Tarcento/Čenta,
Nimis/Neme,
Attimis/Ahten,
Faedis/Fojda,
Prepotto/Prapotno and
Montenars/Gorjani. Parts of the municipality of
Cividale del Friuli are also included.
The localities of
Breginj and
Livek in the municipality of
Kobarid are also part of the historical region of Slavia Veneta; they were however not annexed to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, and are now part of the
Republic of Slovenia.
The name
The current English denomination, Venetian Slovenia, is a translation of the traditional Slovene name for the region. The adjective "Venetian" refers to the
Republic of Venice, when the name was invented. In the 15th century, the Venetian authorities dubbed this border region of their Republic as
Schiavonia Veneta or "Venetian Slav-land". The
Venetian words
Schiavoni and
Schiavonia were in fact general terms used for all
South Slavic peoples with which they came in direct contact: for Slovenes, as well as for
Croats and
Serbs from
Dalmatia. In the local Slovene dialects, the term has been literaly translated to
Beneška Slovenija. This name has been in use for almost six centuries, but it has no connection to the modern concept of Slovenia as a
polity of the Slovenes, which emerged only with the
Romantic nationalism in the
1840s.
In modern
Italian, the region is most commonly known as
Slavia Veneta. In the late 19th and early 20th century the term
Slavia Italiana was also used. In the last decades, there's a tendency to replace the name Slavia Veneta with
Slavia Friuliana, emphasizing its belonging to the traditional
Friuli region. Many locals prefer to call it simply
Benecìa, which is also used by most of the local media. The latter denomination comes from the Slovene word
Benečija, a very common alternative name for Venetian Slovenia, but avoided in the written and official use in order to avoid confusion, since it's also the Slovene name for the Italian
Veneto region.
History
Early periods of local self-government
Slavic tribes settled the area in the late 6th century A.D. They settled on the border of the
Lombard Kingdom, which compirsed most of
Northern Italy.
Paulus Diaconus, a Lombard historian at the court of
Charlemagne, mentioned the local Slavs from the region in his magnum opus
Historia Langobardorum. In the first two centuries, the Slavs were organized in independent communities. In the 9th century they were incorporated into the
Frankish Empire, and they were
Christianized by missionaries from
Aquileia, then one of the most important centers of the
Roman Catholic Church in Nortehrn Italy.
From the 9th century onward, the region belonged first to the
Duchy of Friuli and later to the
Patriarchate of Aquileia. After the dissolution of the Patriatchal State in 1420, the whole region was included in the
Republic of Venice. The Venetian authorities gave the local
Slovenes full internal autonomy, on the condition that they'd serve as border guards against the neighbouring
Habsburg Empire. The local autonomy was practiced in small rural boroughs (called
sosednje), which were in their turn organized into two large communities (
banke), one in
San Pietro degli Slavi and the other in
San Leonardo . These self-governing boroughs had full authority over fiscal, legislative and judicial matters in their respective areas.
The Napoleonic and Austrian rule
In 1797, most of the Venetian Republic was annexed to the
Habsburg Empire, including Slavia Veneta. The Habsburg authorities abolished the ancient privileges of the local Slovene populations, as they'd already done with a similar system of autonomy in the neighborunig
Tolmin County in 1717. In 1805, the region was submitted to the
Napoleonic rule, which didn't restore the privileges, but replaced the old boroughs with French-style townships, led by Government-appointed mayors. The old legal system based on
common law was replaced by the
Code Napoleon. In 1813, the region fell again under Habsburg domain and in 1815 it was included in the
Austrian administrative unit of
Lombardy-Venetia. Most of the reforms introduced by the French authorities were kept. In 1866, the region became part of
Italy, with the exeption of the villages of Breginj and Livek which were included in the
Austrian County of Gorizia and Gradisca.
Under the Kingdom of Italy
Although many locals hoped that Italy would restore their autonomy which had been abolished after the downfall of the Republic of Venice, the
centralist policies continued. The region was subjected to a policy of
Italianization and the local Slovene language was systematically pushed out of the public life. During this period, the region became a major focus of historians, linguists and ethnologists, interested in its archaic custums, language and common law. Scholars who wrote about Slavia Veneta included
Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay,
Simon Rutar,
Carlo Podrecca and
Henrik Tuma.
In the last decades before
World War One, several cultural and social activists, mostly
Roman Catholic priests, started setting up Slovene cultural institutions and associations. The most prominent of them was
bishop and author
Ivan Trinko. This trend became even more pronounced after the annexation of the
Julian March to the Kingdom of Italy in 1920, when a large Slovene-speaking minority was included within the borders of the Italian state. The development was stopped by the
Fascist Italianization which started in the 1920s and persecuted all public and private use of Slovene language. In 1938, the
Gorizian writer
France Bevk published a novel entitled
Kaplan Martin Čedermac ("The Vicar Martin Čedermac"), ambientated in the Slavia Veneta. The novel, published under a pseudonym in the
Yugoslav town of
Ljubljana, was about a local Roman Catholic priest persecuted by the
Italian Fascist regime. The novel became a best seller in Yugoslavia and the term
Čedermac has been since used a synonim for the clergy persecuded by the Fascists in the Italian-administered
Julian March and in the Slavia Veneta.
During
World War Two the
Slovene partisan resistance penetrated in the region. After the
Italian armistice, the whole region was incorporated into the
Nazi German Operational Zone Adriatic Coast. During this time, the
Italian resistance movement also became active in the mountains of Slavia Veneta. Tensions between the two resistance movements rose. The
Liberation Front of the Slovenian People wanted to annex the region to a
Yugoslav Communist federation, while the Italian resistance was split between the
Communists who partially supported the Yugoslav claims, and the Democratic Nationalists who wanted Slavia Veneta to remain part of Italy. In February 1945, the so-called
Porzus massacre occurred, in which the Yugoslav partisans and the Italian Communists killed several members of the Italian non-Communist resistance members. In May 1945 the whole area was liberated by the
Yugoslav People's Army, which however withdrew few weeks later.
The "Dark Years": 1945-1977
In 1945, Slavia Veneta became again and integral part of Italy. It was included in the
region of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The policies of
Italianization continued. The existence of a
Slovene minority wasn't recognized and all use of Slovene language was discouraged by the authorities and persecuted by militant nationalist associations. Between 1945 and 1947, Slavia Veneta was a border region with the
Communist Bloc, and several para-military organizations were established in the area, which also acted against Slovene culture and minority organizations. The region was listed as a special operational zone of the
Operation Gladio, a clandestine
NATO "
stay-behind" operation in Italy after World War II, intended to counter an eventual
Warsaw Pact invasion of
Western Europe. The activists of the Gladio operation were frequently also radical Italian nationalists who were given free hands to terrorize the local Slovene communities.
A wide phenomenon of
emigration also happened during the same period. Many of the villages lost more than two thirds of their populations, as Slovenes from Slavia Veneta moved to larger urban areas in
Northern Italy,
Switzerland and
Germany. In 1976 and 1977, two earthquakes hit the region, provoking a large scale destruction and hundreds of deaths. Political persecution, emigration and natural catastrophes are the reason why the period between 1945 and 1977 has been frequently called "The Dark Years of the Slavia Veneta" ().
After 1977
Although the area was largely depopulated after 1977, several positive developments took place. The political pressure was lifted after the
Treaty of Osimo between Italy and Yugoslavia, and a Slovene cultural revival started to take place in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s, the first elementary and high school in Slovene language was established in
San Pietro al Natisone, and in 2001, the Italian state recognized the Slovene minority living in the erea, guaranteing it full rights. After Slovenia's entry into the
European Union in 2003, the relations between the Slavia Veneta and the bordering
Goriška region have intensified.
Language, culture and religion
Most people in Slavia Veneta speak three different
Slovene dialects, named after the three major valleys that form the region: the
Natisone (
nadiški) dialect, the
Torre (
terski) dialect and the
Resian dialect. Almost all of the inhabitants are fluent in the
Italian language, which is taught in schools and present in the media and in the administration. The
Friulian language is also widespread, especially in the municipalities of
Montenars,
Tarcento,
Nimis,
Attimis,
Torreano, and
Prepotto; in many villages in these municipalities, the Friulian language has already replaced Slovene as the
first language of communication. Because of the lack of education in Slovene, most of the Slovenes don't master the standard Slovene language. Many don't understand it either, especially in the areas where the Slovenian TV and radio are not accessible, since standard Slovene isn't entirely intellegible with the dialects spoken in the region. They are however completely intellegible with the neighbouring Slovene dialects in the
Slovenian Littoral, especially the ones spoken in the upper
Soča valley and in the
Brda sub-region of
Goriška.
The vast majority of the people belong to the
Roman Catholic Church and the religion plays an important role in the local culture. The Roman Catholic priests have traditionally been the most impornant promotors of the local Slovene language and culture in Slavia Veneta.
Slavia Veneta is famous for its rich folk traditions. Numerous
folk and
ethno music bands come from the region, and many of them are extremely popular throughout
Slovenia and the
Friuli Venezia Giulia. The most famous of these bands are propably the
Beneški fantje ("Venetian Lads"), which are considered to be oldest still existing Slovene band. Besides its archaic traditional music and dances, the
Resia valley is also famous for its folk tales, which were edited and translated into standard Slovene language by the Slovene scholar
Milko Matičetov and published by the largest publishing house in Slovenia,
Mladinska knjiga, in 1976. They have been re-published in eight editions since, and have had an huge inpact in popularizing the Venetian Slovene folk culture in Slovenia.
Since the late 1980s, Slavia Veneta has also emerged as one of the major centres of high quality Slovene dialect poetry. The most famous poets from the region are
Silvana Paletti,
Francesco Bergnach and
Marina Cernetig.
Since 1994, the artistic project
Stazione di Topolò - Postaia Topolove or "Topolò Station" takes place every summer in the small village of Topolò (known as
Topolove or
Topoluove in the local dialect). The project, which is the most important cultural and artistic event in the region, is an attempt to bring together contemporary visual art with and the local folk traditions.
Notable people from the region
- Francesco Bergnach, Slovene dialect poet;
- Marina Cernetig, Slovene dialect poet;
- Luigi Faidutti, Friulian politician in Austria-Hungary;
- Anton Klodič Sabladoski, philologian, linguist and poet;
- Gianni Osgnach, sculptor;
- Silvana Paletti, poet in the Resian dialect;
- Carlo Podrecca, historian;
- Graziano Podrecca, fotographer;
- Stefano Podrecca, physician;
- Peter Podreka, author;
- Rudi Šimac, politician and author (from Breginj);
- Jožef Školč, politician (from Breginj), founder and first president of the Liberal Democratic Party;
- Ivan Trinko, Roman Catholic prelate, translator and author;
- Natalino Božo Zuanella, priest, historian and activist.
Further Information
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