Piazza della Transalpina (Piazza dell'Europa)

Piazza della Transalpina straddles the Italian-Slovenian border. A fence divided it from 1947 until 2004, and in 2025 it became a focal point of the first cross-border European Capital of Culture.

Why it matters

The square reflects a complex history of European borders. It formed in front of the station of the Transalpina railway, the line inaugurated in 1906 to link Trieste with Central Europe across the Julian Alps. After the Second World War the new Yugoslav border ran straight across the open space: a green fence split the pavement between Gorizia and Nova Gorica for over half a century, and families met at the barrier because they could meet nowhere else.

When Slovenia joined the European Union in 2004, the fence was dismantled and the square became a shared space between the Italian and Slovenian towns. The municipality's heritage trail calls it a place that once emblematized the division between two worlds and now symbolizes cooperation. In 2025 Gorizia and Nova Gorica together held the title of European Capital of Culture, and they chose this square to open it.

What to notice

The railway station of the Transalpina line closes one side of the square. The surrounding area was planned by architect Maks Fabiani, on whose design Romano Schnabl later based the square's layout.

Near the centre, a mosaic of Europe set into the ground was designed by artist Franko Vecchiet. The Slovenian name, Trg Evrope, means Europe Square.

Context and history

The sequence is unusually legible. The Bohinj railway brought the station and the square into being in the early twentieth century; the municipality's itinerary dates the Transalpina line to 1906 and records its later life as a route of tourist and historical interest. After the First World War the state territory passed to Italy and the station lost its cross-border function. The peace settlement after the Second World War then drew the new frontier across the square: from 1947 a fence stood here as the state border between Italy and Yugoslavia, cutting the station forecourt in two.

For the next five decades the crossing was one of the emblematic border points of divided Europe. Slovenia's accession to the European Union on 1 May 2004 allowed the fence to be removed and the square to be formally rearranged as a shared space, as the Walk of Peace foundation records. The final act came with GO!2025, when Gorizia, Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba held the European Capital of Culture title and the square hosted the inauguration, concerts and the Giro d'Italia's passage.