Nova Gorica, as the northern part of the Slovenian Littoral has been traditionally called. Since May 2011, Nova Gorica has been joined together with Gorizia and Šempeter-Vrtojba in a common trans-border metropolitan zone, administered by a joint administration board.
Name
The name Nova Gorica means 'new Gorizia'. However, the origin of the name Gorizia/Gorica itself is Slavic. The common local term for the town is Gorica, while residents tend to refer to the neighboring Italian town as Stara Gorica 'old Gorizia'. This use is also reflected in Slovenian license plates, as well as in the name of the local association football clubND 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.
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 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, 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". 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.
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.
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.
