County of Gorizia and Gradisca Bumper Sticker

Coat of arm of the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca and small coat of arms of the Austrian Empire. The Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca was a crown land of the Habsburg dynasty within the Austrian Littoral on the Adriatic Sea, in what is now a multilingual border area of Italy and Slovenia. The mediaeval County of Gorizia had been acquired by the Austrian Habsburgs in 1500. In 1861, the territory of the County gained autonomy as the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, a crown land within Austria-Hungary. The County had its own provincial parliament and enjoyed a large degree of self-government, although it was formally subjected to an Imperial Governor (Landeshauptmann) with the seat in Trieste, who carried out the government supervision for the whole territory of the Austrian Littoral. With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 the whole territory of the county was occupied by the Italian military which suppressed all political movements challenging her claims on the region. Before the arrivals of the Italian troops the county of Gorizia and Gradisca enjoyed a multicultural environment, where Slavic, German and Latin people lived together and the government respected the right of minorities; it wasn't uncommon for people in this area to speak three or four languages. --------------------------------------------- Die Grafschaft Görz, ab 1365 Gefürstete Grafschaft Görz, 1747 zur Gefürsteten Grafschaft Görz und Gradisca erweitert, war ein im Mittelalter entstandenes Territorium im südöstlichen Alpenraum. 1500 fiel das Gebiet an die Habsburger, war bis 1918 ein Kronland der Habsburgermonarchie und gehörte zum Österreichischen Küstenland. --------------------------------------------- La Contea di Gorizia era un’antica contea facente parte della monarchia asburgica dal 1500. Nel 1647 la città di Gradisca d'Isonzo divenne una contea a sé stante sotto i conti di Eggenberg. Nel 1754, la Contea di Gradisca fu riunificata a Gorizia creando la Contea di Gorizia e Gradisca. Nel 1861 l'area fu elevata a Contea Principesca di Gorizia e Gradisca, costituendo un Land separato all'interno del più vasto Kronland ("Terra della Corona") austriaco del Küstenland. Gorizia e Gradisca ebbero, sul piano politico e giuridico, la stessa autonomia degli altri Länder austriaci. Con la sconfitta dell'Austria-Ungheria nella Prima guerra mondiale, la contea fu abolita e i suoi territori smembrati. Quella che una volta era una contea multietnica divenne nel Novecento bersaglio del regime fascista, che impose a questa regione un processo di italianizzazione forzata. --------------------------------------------- Drawing by Hugo Gerard Ströhl (1851 – 1919).