Nova Gorica

Railway station

The railway station is located right on the Italian-Slovenian border, on the western edge of Nova Gorica's town centre. The most important station complex of the Bohinj line in the territory of the present-day Republic of Slovenia, it has been registered as an immovable cultural heritage site since 1996. The broadly designed roundhouse was built to serve the needs of the Bohinj line, which was constructed between 1900 and 1906 as the northern or second roundhouse of the town of Gorizia, and comprised a station building and a technical traction centre for supplying steam locomotives for traffic on the geographically demanding line.

Text and photos by Katja Kosič

Nova Gorica railway station on Europe Square, a meeting point of two cities and several cultures
The corridor of the entrance tower after the reconstruction in 2024-2025; by ZVKDS conservator Katja Kosič

The Technical Centre was considered one of the largest in Austria at the time, as it had to ensure the smooth running of the steam traction on a mountain line of high gradients. After the First World War, the station belonged to Italy, and between 1943 and 1945 to Germany. After the end of the Second World War, the area was part of the Cone A of the Julian Krajina under Allied military administration, and from the signing of the Paris Peace Confrence in 1947, the railway station came under Yugoslavia until 1991. Since its construction, the railway building has undergone several changes due to its colourful and rich history. The station was renamed Gorizia Nord in 1919, Gorizia Montesanto in 1923 and Nova Gorica in 1945.

The final stop of the Gorizia tram (Monte Santo Station). On the roof of the central columns of the main façade, at the foot of the poles, still stand the cast-iron winged wheels - the symbol of the KkStB - the Emperor-King's State Railway, source: PANG; date: 1930

The longitudinal symmetrical two-storey building with an attached pair of ground-floor side wings is designed in the manner of Baroque palaces. It is built in a neo-Renaissance style, enriched with Art Nouveau stucco decorations. It was designed by the Viennese architect Robert Seelig, who also designed the terminus of the Bohinj line at Camp Marzio in Trieste and the State Railway Palace in Linz.

The magnificent complex combines unique architectural solutions with typical elements of Austria's technical heritage from the early 20th century. The design and dimensions of the roundabout are different from the smaller village stations of the Bohinj line, which are built according to repeatable type designs and in a unified "Alpine style". Small cast-iron details made in the foundry workshop of Rudolph Philip Waagner, such as the handrails of the main staircases, the shoe-cleaning spout, the lower parts of the meteor drain pipes, are a reminder of the unified design of the Emperor-King's State Railway.

 

Europe Square restored

As part of the project "Upgrading of the railway infrastructure in the area of Nova Gorica railway station", the central ground floor of the station building in the part used by the Slovenian Railways services, the public toilets and the damaged plasterwork of the façades in the ground floor area were renovated on the basis of plans by Sadar + Vuga d.o.o.. The long platform canopy, supported on cast-iron cantilevered columns with Corinthian capitals dating from the Italian period, was also renovated. A new island and side platform with canopies and a modern underpass have been added to the building.

Inside, the central entrance hall was restored, the passenger waiting area was redesigned, the ticket office was renovated and the signalling and telecommunications facilities were refurbished.

In the entrance hall, the only example of a late Art Nouveau ambience in the otherwise modernist town of Nova Gorica, historic wooden wall coverings, concrete hexagonal floor tiles with a diamond-shaped geometric pattern and richly shaped cast-iron columns were restored. The probing of the lining revealed painted ceiling decoration and a cornice in the upper part of the tower walls, which was created after the First World War, when the building was damaged and rebuilt by the Italian authorities. The newly discovered geometric mural, which includes a chequerboard pattern and stylised floral motifs with rectangular fields in which fragments of an inscription in Italian have been fixed, has been consolidated and locally reconstructed.

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