Originally a watchtower or a prehistoric castle, Gorizia soon became a little village near the fords of the river Isonzo not far from one of the most important ways that during the Roman period linked Aquileia to Emona (Lubiana). The name of Gorizia was for the first time recorded in a document dated April 28th 1001 "quae sclavonica lingua vocatur Goritia" stating the donation of the Castle and the village of Gorizia made by Imperator Ottone III to Patriarch Giovanni II and to Count Verihen. Since the 11th century the town had two different development plans: the castellan hamlet or superior land and the village or inferior land. The first played a political-administrative role and the second a rural-commercial role. In the 16th century the county passed into Austria and the city spread out at the foot of the castle becoming, in the middle of the 18th century, an archiepiscopal see with jurisdiction over the diocesis of Trieste, Trento, Como and Pedena. Around the baroque cathedral where many treasures of the Basilica of Aquileia had been transferred, a new quarter developed; it had a typically 18th century appearance and inside there was also a synagogue, one of the many examples of the town's multi-ethnic nature. Gorizia was seriously damaged by both World Wars but after the second it suffered for the reduction of its territory and for the division of the city by the Italo - Slovenian border.

Art and Culture

As far as its Cultural properties is concerned, among the most interesting buildings to visit there are: the castle (11th century) "Castello di Gorizia", symbol of the city, which holds a great collection of Renaissance, Baroque and eighteenth-century furniture, many paintings and sculptures and an important exhibition of pewter, potteries, halberds and armors; the Cathedral "Duomo", recorded for the first time in a document dated 1296; the church devoted to Saint Ignazio, "Chiesa di Sant'Ignazio", started in 1654 by the Jesuits, the most important of Gorizia; the churches "Chiesa di Santo Spirito" and "Chiesa dell'esaltazione della Croce"; the fountain "Fontana del Nettuno". Among the palaces: Palazzo Attems-Santa Croce (housing the City hall); Palazzo Attems-Petzenstein; Palazzo Lantieri; Palazzo Coronini Cronberg; Palazzo Cobenzi. Regarding its environmental properties, the park on the river Isonzo "Parco fluviale dell'Isonzo e di Piuma" deserves to be visited.