Basovizza

Originally a mine shaft located in the Trieste area of the Karst Plateau, from May 1945 the Foiba (deep, natural sinkholes) of Basovizza became the place where bodies of prisoners and military and civilian victims of summary executions by Tito’s communist partisans were discarded. Those thrown there were initially destined for Slovenian internment camps.

An undetermined number of corpses were hidden there. In fact, it is still impossible to calculate the exact number of bodies buried there and in other holes due to them often being inaccessible, although it is estimated to be around 3-4,000 people.

The Foiba of Basovizza, the mouth of which was closed in 1959, was declared a National Monument in 1992. In 2007 a new Foiba Memorial was inaugurated, which since 2008 has included a Documentation Centre.

In the immediate post-war period, a monument was erected in the same location to four anti-fascist members of the TIGR, a clandestine revolutionary organisation fighting against the forced nationalisation of Slovenes and Croats by the Fascist regime. They were sentenced to death and shot in 1930 by the Fascist Special Court, becoming symbols of Slovenian anti-fascism known as the ‘heroes of Basovizza’.

On 10^th February 1947,  the Paris Peace Treaties were signed, and Istria and most of Venezia Giulia was ceded to Yugoslavia. On this date in 2004, Italy began to mark the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the foibe and the Julian-Dalmatian exodus, but it is still the subject of controversy and political exploitation.

On 13^th July 2020, the Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Slovenian President Borut Pahor, held hands and paid tribute to the victims in front of the foiba and the monument to the four young Slavic partisans.

Photo gallery