Austrian Littoral

Austrian Littoral
*Österreichisches Küstenland*
*Litorale austriaco*
*Austrijsko primorje*
*Avstrijsko primorje*
Austrian Littoral Österreichisches Küstenland; Litorale austriaco; Austrijsko primorje; Avstrijsko primorje
1849–1919
	Flag Coat of arms
	Margraviate of Istria
Status	Subdivision of Austria-Hungary Imperial Free City of Trieste; Margravate of Istria; Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca;
Capital	Karl I
Statthalter of Trieste
• 1849–1850	Johann von Grimschitz
• 1850–1854	Franz Graf Wimpffen
• 1867–1868	Eduard von Bach
• 1915–1918	Alfred von Fries-Skene
• Spring of Nations	4 March 1849
• Treaty of Saint-Germain	10 September 1919
Population
• 1910	894,287
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Kingdom of Illyria (1816–49)
Venezia Giulia

The Austrian Littoral (

Gorizia and Gradisca in the north, and the Imperial Free City of Trieste in the middle. The region has been contested frequently, with parts of it controlled at various times by the Republic of Venice, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Yugoslavia

among others.

The Kingdom of Italy annexed most of the area after World War I according to the Treaty of London and later the Treaty of Rapallo. After World War II it was split, with Italy in the west and Yugoslavia in the east.

Trieste had strategic importance as Austria-Hungary's primary seaport, and the coast of the Littoral was a resort destination known as the

Germans and Friulians being the main groups. In 1910, it had an area of 7,969 square kilometres (3,077 sq mi) and a population of 894,287.^[1]

History

The territory of the medieval

Counts of Görz line died out in 1500. In 1511, Emperor Maximilian I annexed the city of Gradisca

from Venice.

The Habsburgs did little initially to consolidate or develop their holdings in the Littoral. The supremacy of the Republic of Venice in the Adriatic, and the Austrian archdukes' attention to the threat posed to them by an expanding

autonomy

until the 18th century.

Emperor

free ports. In 1730, administration of the Littoral was unified under the Intendancy in Trieste. However, in 1775, Emperor Joseph II put the two main ports under separate administration, assigning Trieste as the port for the Austrian "hereditary lands" and Fiume for the Kingdom of Hungary

. Shortly after that, Trieste was merged with the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca in the north.

During the

Treaty of Pressburg of 1805. The 1809 Treaty of Schönbrunn then transferred the area to the Illyrian Provinces

, which were directly ruled by France.

When

Kingdom of Illyria. In 1822, Fiume and Civil Croatia were separated from the territory and ceded to the Kingdom of Hungary (and in 1849 went to Croatia

).

The Littoral was officially the Triest (Trieste) Province, one of two gouvernements (provinces) of the kingdom, the other being Laibach (Ljubljana). It was subdivided into four kreise (districts): Görz (Gorizia), including Gorizia and the Julian March; Istrien (Istria), which was eastern Istria and the Quarnero Islands; Triest (Trieste), which was the Trieste hinterland and Western Istria; and the Triester Stadtgebiet (city of Trieste).

Around 1825, the Littoral was reorganized into only two subdivisions: Istria, with its capital at Mitterburg (Pisino/Pazin), and Gorizia. Trieste and its immediate surroundings were put under the direct control of the crown, separate from the local administrative structure.

In 1849, the

Kingdom of Illyria was dissolved and the Littoral became a separate crown land with a governor in Trieste. It was formally divided into the Margravate of Istria and the Princely County

(Gefürstete Grafschaft) of Gorizia and Gradisca with Trieste remaining separate from both.

By the 1861

Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, which each had separate administrations and Landtag assemblies, but were all subject to a k.k. statholder at Trieste

.

Following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Littoral fell within Italy's newly expanded borders as part of the Julian March. An area of similar extent under the name of Adriatic Littoral (Adriatisches Küstenland) was one of the operational zones of German forces during World War II after the capitulation of Italy in September 1943 until the end of the war. After World War II, most of it was included in the Second Yugoslavia.

Today

Primorska

(Slovenian Littoral), a region of Slovenia.

Area and population

Area:^[1]

Gorizia and Gradisca: 2,918 km²
Istria: 4,956 km²
Triest: 95 km²

Population (1910 Census):^[1]

Gorizia and Gradisca: 260,721 - 89.3 persons/km²
Istria: 403,566 - 81.4 persons/km²
Triest: 230,000 - 2414.8 persons/km²

Linguistic composition

According to the last Austrian census of 1910 (1911 in Trieste), the Austrian Littoral was composed of the following linguistic communities:

Total:

Italian: 356,676 (including estimated 60,000–75,000 Friulian language speakers) (39.85%)
Slovene: 266.845 (29.82%)
Serbo-Croatian
: 170,706 (19.08%)
German: 29,615 (3.31%)
Other languages or unknown: 66,560 (7.44%)

Gorizia and Gradisca:

Slovene: 154,564 (58%)
Italian: 90,119 (including 60,000–75,000 Friulian-speakers) (36%)
German: 4,486 (2%)

Trieste:

Italian: 118,957 (51.85%)
Slovene: 56,845 (24.78%)
German: 11,856 (5.17%)
Serbo-Croatian: 2,403 (1.05%)
Other: 779 (0.34%)
Non-Austrian citizens, among them 75% from Italy: 38,597 (16.82%)

Istria:

Serbo-Croatian: 168,184 (43.5%)
Italian: 147,417 (38.1%)
Slovene: 55,134 (14.3%)
German: 12,735 (3.3%)

The Austrian censuses did not count

Serbian community in Trieste and the village of Peroj in Istria ^{[clarification needed}

].

After 1880, Italian and Friulian languages were counted under one category, as Italian. The estimated number of Friulian speakers can be extrapolated from the Italian census of 1921, the only one in the 20th century when Friulian was counted as a distinct linguistic category. The Austrian Littoral had a large number of foreign nationals (around 71,000 or 7.9% of the overall population), which were not asked about their language of interaction. More than half of them resided in the city of Trieste. The majority were citizens of the Kingdom of Italy, followed by citizens of the Kingdom of Hungary (part of the Dual Monarchy) and the German Empire. It can be supposed that the majority of these foreign citizens were Italian speakers, followed by German, Croatian (from

Venetian Slovenia

), and Hungarian speakers.

Districts

Gorizia and Gradisca

Gorizia City (Stadt Görz)
Gorizia (Görz Land)
Gradisca
Monfalcone (Falkenberg)
Sežana (Sesana)
Tolmin (Tolmein, Tolmino)

Istria

Koper (Capodistria)
Krk (Veglia)
Lošinj (Lussin)
Poreč (Parenzo)
Pazin (Mitterburg, Pisino)
Pula (Pola)
Volosko (Volosca)

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Küstenland mit Görz, Istrien und Triest als Kronländer" (in German). 7 July 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2021-09-27.

45°38′00″N 13°48′00″E / 45.6333°N 13.8000°E / 45.6333; 13.8000

[:0-1] "Küstenland mit Görz, Istrien und Triest als Kronländer" (in German). 7 July 2017. Archived from the original on 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2021-09-27.

[1]

v t e Subdivisions of Austria-Hungary
Cisleithania	Archduchy of Austria Kingdom of Bohemia Duchy of Bukovina Duchy of Carinthia Duchy of Carniola Kingdom of Dalmatia Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Austrian Littoral Gorizia and Gradisca Istria Trieste Margraviate of Moravia Duchy of Salzburg Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia Duchy of Styria County of Tyrol County of Vorarlberg
Transleithania	Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Fiume and its surroundings Military Frontier (1867–1882)
Condominiums	Bosnia and Herzegovina (de jure 1908–1918; de facto 1878–1918) Sanjak of Novi Pazar (de facto 1878–1908) Carpathian passes (1918) Concession zone in Tianjin (1901–1917)