Austrian Riviera
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Austrian Riviera (German Österreichische Riviera, Italian Riviera Austriaca) is a description for the coastal strip of former Austrian Littoral, a Habsburg crown land which, until 1921, stretched along the northeastern Adriatic Coast.
The Austrian Riviera covered areas coastal areas adjacent the port city of Trieste. The Istrian coast south of Trieste is part of the mountainous Kras with numerous small offshore islands (e.g., Brioni/Brijuni) and is now part of the Italian municipality of Muggia, and southernmore of Slovenia and Croatia. The coast north of Trieste is partially rocky, and partially sandy, with the Island of Grado. It is now part of the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. The coast presents a charming landscape and a year-round mild climate.
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[edit] History
In Ancient Roman times the region was the site of important settlements like Aquileia.
During the Middle Ages, most of the coast had Venetian settlements. In 1382, Italian Trieste was joined with the Habsburg Monarchy which also controlled most of the hinterland, while most of the smaller coastal fisher villages remained part of the Republic of Venice.
Trieste developed into an important port and trade hub and by 1719 was constituted a free port and further developed as the Habsburg Austria's principal commercial port and shipbuilding center. In 1815, after the Napoleonic Wars, the remaining coastal villages became part of the new Austrian Empire and the completion of the Vienna-Trieste Austrian Southern Railway in 1857 not only helped to further develop trade between the two cities but also brought Viennese upper class society to the mild winters of the Littoral.
Trieste developed into a buzzing cosmopolitan city visited by artists, musicians, poets and writers from all over the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary) and the rest of Europe. The surrounding coastal towns and villages developed into favorite hot spots for the rich and famous.
In 1850, Lussino/Lošinj became a summer residence of the Habsburg Imperial family and, in 1860, Miramare Castle was completed for Archduke Maximilian.
In 1883, the beach resort on Brioni Island (Brijuni) was set up and, in 1904, the Austrian Riviera Journal (Österreichische Riviera Zeitung) was first published in Pola (Pula).
In 1921 after World War I the Austrian Riviera became part of Italy and was cut off from some of its hinterland. During the 1920s, the Riviera flourished somewhat as a "Austro-Italian Riviera," but the splendor of its heyday was gone. The French Riviera and Italian Riviera in the western Mediterranean became more favorable resorts.
In 1945 Trieste, together with a small stretch of the adjacent coast became an independent Free Territory of Trieste. However, in 1954, the Free Territory was subdivided between Italy and Yugoslavia making Trieste a Cold War frontier. Trieste, Grado, Sistiana and Muggia, remained part of Italy.
In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia gained independence as democracies and opened their coast for trade and tourism.
[edit] See also
[edit] Resorts
- Grado
- Sistiana
- Trieste
- Muggia
- Portorose (Portorož)
- Parenzo (Poreč)
- Rovigno (Rovinj)
- Abbazia (Opatija)
- Lussino (Losinj)
[edit] Other
After the political closure of most of the Adriatic Coast in 1945 due to the Cold War, the State of Carinthia in Austria began to call its Wörthersee lake district the "Austrian Riviera."
