Nova Gorica

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mestna občina Nova Gorica

Area:	309.0 km²
Population  - males  - females	35,640 17,497 18,143
Average age:	39.75 years
Residential areas:  - households:  - families:	30.49 m²/person 12,702 10,112
Working active:  - unemployed:	17,273 1,508
Average monthly salary (August 2003):  - gross:  - net:	273,666 SIT 169,623 SIT
College/university students:	1,628
Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, census of 2002.

Nova Gorica (population: 13,852 (town); 22,000 (incl. suburbs); 31,000 (municipality)) is a town and a municipality in western Slovenia, on the Italian border. Nova Gorica is a new town, built in 1948, when the Paris Peace Treaty established a new border between Yugoslavia and Italy, leaving nearby Gorizia outside the borders of Yugoslavia and thus decapitating the area of the lower Vipava Valley from its regional center. Nova Gorica is the principal urban center of the traditional region of Goriška in the Slovenian Littoral.

The Transalpina railway square, divided between Slovenia and Italy, viewed from the railway station in Nova Gorica [Photo: RP].

To the south of the town lies Kostanjevica Hill, home to the Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady and a 17th-century Franciscan monastery whose treasures from the past are rich indeed. The last members of the Bourbons, the French royal family, are buried in a crypt beneath the church (Charles X himself, and members of his family and entourage including his son Louis XIX , and his grandson Henri V, nephew of Louis XIX (neither Louis XIX nor his nephew were ever kings). He fled France following the revolution in 1830, finding refuge in Gorizia, and eventually eternal peace.

Opposite Kostanjevica Hill, north of the town is Sveta Gora (Holy Mountain), a peak of 682 m that has attracted pilgrims for 450 years. The view from there is exceptional, and on a clear day visitors can see as far as Istria, Venice, the Dolomites, and the Kamnik and Julian Alps. The mountain top is home to a magnificent basilica, where concerts are occasionally held, a Franciscan monastery, and a museum of the Battle of the Isonzo.

[edit] See also

• University of Nova Gorica

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• Tourist Information Center
• University of Nova Gorica

Slovenia | Slovenian regions
Urban municipalities: Celje | Koper | Kranj | Ljubljana | Maribor | Murska Sobota
Nova Gorica | Novo Mesto | Ptuj | Slovenj Gradec | Velenje

This Slovenian geography article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Coordinates: 45°58′N 13°39′E