Gorizia and its Castle
The city on the border with Nova Gorica
At the foot of the hills on the border with Slovenia, on the banks of the Isonzo river, Gorizia is a city with a unique history, a meeting point of the Latin, Slavic and Germanic worlds, which for centuries belonged to the counts of Gorizia and then to the Habsburgs, who made it an elegant residential town, called the "Austrian Nice" for its mild climate and its gardens. After the Second World War, in 1947, the new border between Italy and Yugoslavia divided the city in two: on the Yugoslav side, a new town was built, Nova Gorica, and the two cities were separated by a fence for decades. Today, after Slovenia's entry into the European Union and the Schengen area, the border is open, and in 2025 Gorizia and Nova Gorica were together European Capital of Culture, the first cross-border one. In Piazza Transalpina, where the border runs, you can stand with one foot in Italy and one in Slovenia.
At the top of a hill dominating the city stands the Castello di Gorizia, a medieval fortress of the eleventh century, enlarged by the counts of Gorizia and the Venetians, with walls, towers and halls furnished with period furniture, from which the view sweeps over the city, the Collio and the Alps. Around the castle, the Borgo Castello houses the Musei Provinciali, including the Museo della Grande Guerra, which tells the dramatic story of the battles of the Isonzo, fought around Gorizia during the First World War, with a reconstruction of a trench. Gorizia is also known for the "Rosa di Gorizia", a precious red radicchio shaped like a rose.
Tip: visit the castle and the Museum of the Great War; walk to Piazza Transalpina to cross the border on foot.
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