Capodistria Courtyard

This week, our Travel pics series will be K for Koper.

For Thursday, an apparently random courtyard – but in fact, it’s not. Random, I mean – obviously, it’s a courtyard …

I can’t be certain – because I don’t speak either Slovenian or Italian, but I suspect this is the site of the Consulate General of the Republic of Italy in Koper-Capodistria

Capodistria is the Italian name for Koper – and the modern history of the region shows how complicated things can be when international treaties are involved.

The town was assigned to Italy after World War I – it is less than 30km from Trieste – but at the end of World War II it was made part of the Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste, controlled by Yugoslavia.

It was known as both Koper and Capodistria – literally “The Head of (the Venetian region) Istria”.

Most of the Italian inhabitants left the city by 1954, when the Free Territory of Trieste formally ceased to exist and Zone B became part of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Then, with Slovenian independence in 1991, Koper became the only commercial port in Slovenia.

In any case, I noticed a sign just inside the courtyard here which I think said this was the Consulate of Italy.

Or it could have been the office of the Coastal Italian Self-Governing National Community Koper-Capodistria.

Stupidly, I didn’t take a photo of the sign (or if I did, I’ve lost it) .. so I’m going off my sometimes dodgy memory.

Perhaps you could go visit Koper yourself, and let me know?

If you do, enjoy!

🙂