Exactly 80 years ago – on May 13, 1945 – the newspaper Primorski Dnevnik was officially founded, evolving from an earlier partisan publication that had been printed between September 1944 and the end of World War II at the “Slovenija” print shop.

The newspaper – which, since the early 2000s, has also opened an office in Nova Gorica, emphasizing its cross-border identity, an aspect that takes on even greater, symbolic significance this year as GO!2025 Gorizia-Nova Gorica serves as European Capital of Culture – is the historic voice of the Slovenian minority in Italy, particularly in Trieste, a city at the center of a complex and at times dramatic history. A deep fracture was notably caused by fascist policies of forced assimilation and Italianization, foreshadowed by the tragic burning of the Narodni Dom (in Slovenian, “National Home” or “People’s House”) – today home to the School for Interpreters but then a multifunctional center designed by renowned architect Max Fabiani. It included a theatre, a savings bank, a café, and the Hotel Balkan, and was home to various cultural clubs and associations. The building was set on fire by fascist squads on July 13, 1920, striking a vital meeting point for all Slavic minorities, who would continue to face severe discrimination for decades.

The size of the Slovenian community in Trieste is now significantly smaller than it was in the early 20th century. Today, it is mostly concentrated in the surrounding municipalities and the city’s outskirts. It maintains Slovenian-language schools and its own cultural institutions, including the Slovene Permanent Theatre, the Narodna in Študijska Knjižnica (National and Study Library), as well as a bookshop and a publishing house based in Trieste. The use of the Slovenian language, once heavily discriminated against, is now legally protected, finally on par with the Slovenian communities in the provinces of Gorizia and Udine, which had been far more limited under the previous law, amended in 1999.

In recent years, several milestones have marked efforts to mend the divisions among the different communities of Trieste and their respective nations. One such crucial moment was on July 13, 2010 – the Peace Concert, attended by the three Presidents of the Republic: Giorgio Napolitano of Italy, Danilo Türk of Slovenia, and Ivo Josipović of Croatia. A decade later, on July 13, 2020, President Sergio Mattarella formally returned the Narodni Dom to the Slovenian community.

This year, another key event will take place on June 20, when five Presidents – alongside President Mattarella, also Nataša Pirc Musar of Slovenia, Zoran Milanović of Croatia, Alexander Van der Bellen of Austria, and Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany – will attend a new Peace Concert conducted by Maestro Christoph Eschenbach. The event aims to underscore the importance of peace in Europe, beyond national borders.