TRIESTE AND CAPODISTRIA [KOPER], DIOCESE OF. - City and diocese in the Free Territory of T.
The part of the diocese located in Italy has an area of 730 sq km with 380,000 inhabitants, of whom 373,000 are Catholics, distributed in 59 parishes served by 167 diocesan priests and 69 regulars; it has 12 male religious communities and 49 female ones.
The part located in Croatia has a population of 60,000 Catholics distributed in 60 parishes served by 44 diocesan priests and 5 regulars; and the part located in Slovenia has 40,000 inhabitants in 30 parishes served by 24 diocesan priests (Ann. Pont. 1953, p. 431). It is a suffragan of Gorizia. Leo XII on 30 June 1828 united "aeque principaliter" to T. the diocese of Capodistria (v.).
I. HISTORY OF TRIESTE AND CAPODISTRIA
Tergeste is the Paleo-Venetic name of the hillfort that became a Roman colony around 46 B.C., flourishing especially in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century. The Lombard invasion weighed heavily on the city, and no less so did the Frankish occupation, which introduced the first Slavs into the countryside toward the end of the 8th century. In the middle of the 10th century Lothair II granted the bishops of T. seigneurial powers over the city, which then, together with the bishopric itself, was subjected by Henry IV on July 20, 1081 to the feudal power of the Patriarch of Aquileia. Gradually limiting the episcopal rights, T. achieved full communal autonomy in 1295 under the high lordship of the patriarchate. In 1202 T., together with Muggia, swore an oath and paid tribute to Venice; but this did not prevent it from entering into open conflict with Venice in 1288-95, supported by the patriarch, and from 1369 to 1380 from again resisting similar attempts, until in 1380 it united with Friuli, only to pass in 1382 under the dominion of the Duke of Austria, without however losing its communal organization. Frequent internal struggles reduced T. to extreme desolation in 1469; but afterward the misfortunes of the Dominante favored the city with the freedom of flourishing commerce with the hinterland and the East, until Charles VI in 1717 granted it free port status and free navigation in the Adriatic, privileges increased by Maria Theresa. The Napoleonic gust was brief and made the weight of Austria felt, which, from 1813 onward, made the expression of the city's national consciousness even more arduous. Union with Italy in 1918, while it deprived it of commercial vigor, fervently animated its shipyards.
Mario Mirabella-Roberti
II. FREE TERRITORY OF TRIESTE AND CAPODISTRIA
The constitution of this Territory was established by virtue of arts. 21 and 22 of Section II of the peace treaty imposed on Italy by the United Nations, and signed by Italy in Paris on 10 Feb. 1947, as a compromise between the opposing Allied and Soviet theses, without regard for the will of the populations concerned or their nationality.
The new unit thus created consists of a strip of territory along the coast of the Gulf of T. and of northern Istria, from the mouth of the Timavo to that of the Quieto, measuring in all 718 sq km. The border, which begins on the Italian-Yugoslav frontier a little to the E. of Monfalcone and ends to the E. of Cittanova, rests neither on physical features nor on ethnic or economic grounds. In its northern part, the Free Territory of T. extends over typically karstic terrain, with a sparse population, behind the large urban agglomeration of T.; in the southern part it embraces a zone of excellent agricultural land, in the hinterland of the coast between T. and Pirano, and then another strip of karst, consisting of a plateau elevated on average about 200 m., cut by river channels, among them that of the Quieto. The entire coastline to the S. of T. gives place to a series of maritime centers of some importance (Capodistria, Isola di Istria, Pirano, Umago, Cittanova), from the ethnic point of view purely Italian.
The Free Territory of T. had (1951) 380,000 inhabitants, of whom 84% were Italians. The urban center of T. (277,000 inhabitants) alone absorbs almost two thirds of this population; the overall density is very high (529 inhabitants per sq km), but it decreases notably in the Istrian sector (152 inhabitants per sq km).
The origin and structure of the Free Territory of T. rule out any possibility of speaking of it as a separate economic-political entity, not only because of its particular international status, but above all because it is inconceivable to separate it from the neighboring regions, with which it forms a single body, and from which it essentially draws its sources of life. The very existence of a substantial urban center such as T. could not find its reason for being in the resources of the Free Territory; both commerce (the port) and, even more, the industry that has developed with it and has long flourished there (metallurgy, shipbuilding, food processing, etc.) presuppose a far vaster function, which the frontiers imposed by the 1947 Treaty have not yet succeeded in nullifying.
The difficulties that arose, as regards Italo-Yugoslav relations, with the constitution of the Free Territory were then aggravated by the division of the Territory itself into two zones, one (zone A) occupied by Anglo-American troops, the other (zone B) by Yugoslav troops. The first, which measures barely 233 sq km, but includes T. (with the inhabited centers of Muggia, S. Dorigo and Duino: in all 305,000 inhabitants, that is, 80% of the entire population of the Territory), was practically returned to Italian administration, albeit under Allied control, while the second (to the S. of Muggia; 495 sq km with 75,000 inhabitants, and the centers of Pirano, Capodistria, Isola d'Istria, Buie and Umago) is by now in fact incorporated into the Yugoslav State.
The permanent Statute of the Free Territory of T. establishes that the independence and integrity of the Territory itself, demilitarized and declared neutral, are guaranteed by the United Nations Security Council. Moreover, the existence of the Territory as a political unit is limited by the understanding that it must return under Italian sovereignty, in accordance with the proposal made by the governments of the U.S.A., Great Britain and France to the U.S.S.R. in March 1948. On 8 Oct. 1953 the governments of the U.S.A. and England decided to evacuate zone A, entrusted to them, returning its military and civil administration to Italy, without prejudice to the rights recognized to it over zone B.
III. DIOCESE
The circumstances of the introduction of Christianity, which must have reached T. from Aquileia, are unknown. The first known bishop is Frugiferus, ca. 549, but the diocese must be older, included in the metropolitan circumscription of Aquileia, and later of Grado. Severus, probably the successor of Frugiferus, had a notable part in the schism of the Three Chapters, afterwards abjured by Firminus, his successor in 602. With the Frankish occupation of Istria, T. was withdrawn from the metropolis of Grado and passed under that of Aquileia. Around 1177 Alexander III decided to make C. (v.) and its territory a diocese of its own, which was then carried out on 5 July 1186, until in 1751 it passed under the new archbishopric of Gorizia (by which it was absorbed in 1788-89). It had jurisdiction extending over the ancient territory of the Roman colony; in 1790 the territory of Pèdena, a small but ancient diocese in the interior of Istria, was aggregated to it. Leo XII on 30 June 1828 also united to it the territory of the suppressed diocese of Cittanova, while that of C. was united aeque principaliter. At present the political conditions and Yugoslav high-handedness limit the direct activity of the diocese to the sole zone A of the so-called Free Territory. Among the prelates of T. are to be remembered E. S. Piccolomini, later Pius II, who defended the city from destruction; P. Ponomo (1502-46), a shrewd diplomat; A. Rapicio (1567-73), an elegant humanist. The diocese, which had a Seminary at C., suppressed by the Yugoslav occupiers, since 1950 has had a very modern Seminary at T. through the work of the bishop A. Santin. A reflection of certain aspects of the population of the commercial city is the presence, besides a synagogue, of a Greek Orthodox church, one of the Serbian Illyrian rite, a Lutheran one, an Anglican one, an Adventist one and a Waldensian one. T. has a combative Catholic weekly: Vita Nuova.
IV. ART
Of the Roman city, with streets crossing even on the slope of a hill, a gate is well preserved, the Arch of Riccardo, of the Augustan age. Also visible are the forum and the basilica (much damaged, Trajanic age), and, nearby, a propylaeum (Domitianic age), which stood before the Capitolium and was partly incorporated into the early Christian basilica. Also Trajanic is the theater, outside the walls, near the sea. The cathedral, St. Justus, the symbol of the city, preserves the traces of the great early Christian episcopal basilica, rectangular, tripartite (late 5th century), with an apse added by Bishop Frugiferus (mid-6th century). Also from the 5th century may be the basilica discovered in 1825 in Via Madonna del Mare (near the cemetery sub divo). An early Christian site beneath St. Sylvester, a rectangular basilica of the 11th century, now Waldensian, is not confirmed. To this period dates the reconstruction of the Cathedral (of the Assumption) on smaller dimensions, flanked by a square chapel with an inscribed cross and dome, in which the body of the patron St. Justus was received (a unique example in northern Italy). At the end of the 14th century the two buildings were merged into today's Cathedral, with the beautiful rose window on the gabled facade. The evidence of contemporary civil architecture, of the 14th and 15th centuries, is lost. In painting, of the highest quality are the mosaics of the apses of St. Justus (especially that of the Assumption, ca. 1200) and the triptych by Paolo Veneziano and by a Venetian Byzantine painter (first half of the 14th century).
An excellent example of Venetian military architecture is the Castle, triangular, of the 16th century. Then follow the Baroque portals of many small palaces and especially the sumptuous St. Mary Major, a Jesuit church of the late 17th century, the elegant church of the Rosary and that of the Blessed Virgin of Succor. But above all the architectural phases of T. stands out that of the early 19th century with a series of two-or three-story palaces, with decorations of columns or pilasters and bas-reliefs of historical-mythological subject, among which rise the Palazzo Carciotti (by G. Pertsch) and the Palazzo della Borsa (by A. Molari). A most happy example of this age is the church of St. Anthony the New, by P. Nobile (1849), the largest in the city, admirably unified in its architecture and furnishings. In the late 19th century the house with a kind of architectural dormer on the roof is typical: of our own time, mention should be made of the majestic building of the new University by E. Fagnoni and U. Nordio (1936). Mention should also be made of the decorative paintings of G. Gatteri, of L. Scarabelotto, of G. B. Bison, the portraits of G. Tomina and the sculptures of A. Bosa for the first half of the 19th century, then the work of C. Dell'Acqua, the portraits of A. Rieppi, the colorful canvases of U. Veruda. Among contemporaries, of greater prominence are M. Mascherini and C. Carà, sculptors, and E. Predonzani, fresco painter, C. Sbisà, ceramicist. - See plates LII-LIII.
Bibliography20 works
Mario Mirabella Roberti