the Habsburg city with the border running through it, the castle of the counts, piazza della Vittoria, the Transalpina with one foot in Slovenia, the Bourbons of Castagnevizza, jota and the ribolla of the Collio, and twenty minutes away the Carso of the Great War
Gorizia is a border city, and the border runs right through it. It belonged to the Habsburgs for more than four centuries, from 1500, when the last of the counts who had held the castle on the hill died, and in the nineteenth century its mild climate, villas and gardens made it the "Austrian Nice": Charles X, the last Bourbon king of France, died here in exile, and is buried with his family at Castagnevizza, which today is in Slovenia. In the Great War it stayed on the front line for thirty months, and on 9 August 1916 the Italians entered it. In 1947 the peace treaty drew the border with Yugoslavia between the houses, and on the other side Nova Gorica was born; the fence that cut across piazza della Transalpina came down in 2004, and today you stand there with one foot in Italy and one in Slovenia. In 2025 the two cities were European Capital of Culture together. The walk starts from the castle and from Borgo Castello, with the Museo della Grande Guerra and the Museo della Moda reopened and renewed, goes down to piazza della Vittoria, with Sant'Ignazio and its onion-domed bell towers, and passes the Coronini and Attems palaces and the synagogue of the old ghetto. Around about are the wine hills of the Collio, the Sabotino with its trenches, the Monte Santo, and about twenty kilometres away the Sacrario of Redipuglia and the Carso of the Great War. The motorhome stays at the Comune's area in viale Oriani, ten minutes on foot from the centre.
Sleeping
Stops and overnight stays
In Gorizia the Comune has a single area for motorhomes, in viale Oriani, ten minutes on foot from piazza della Vittoria: eighteen bays with electricity, water filling and emptying, paid, and you stop for at most 72 hours. The one at Gradisca d'Isonzo, halfway between Gorizia and the Sacrario of Redipuglia, is free, small and without electricity; a campsite open all year round is on the other side of the border, at the mouth of the Vipava valley, beyond Nova Gorica, about twenty minutes by road.
Area camper di viale Oriani
viale Alfredo Oriani 2, 34170 Gorizia (GO)
the Comune's area west of the centre, lit, with a barrier at the entrance and an electricity post of 2.8 kW for each bay; you stay at most 72 hours. Piazza della Vittoria is about ten minutes away on foot, and the nearest supermarket a little over a kilometre. The bays are almost all in the sun. During Gusti di Frontiera, at the end of September, the area closes: in 2026 it was closed from 24 to 29 September. The Comune may reserve some of the bays for club rallies, and on those days too water filling and emptying stay open to those passing through. In October 2026 travellers found the barrier up and the automatic pay station out of order
eighteen bays
ElectricityWaterGrey waterChemical toilet
According to PromoTurismoFVG, 15 euros for 24 hours, every day, with electricity included; for a short stop 2 euros an hour, with a minimum of two hours. You pay at the automatic pay station, in cash or by card · 0481 535764 · turismofvg.it
the Comune's small car park for motorhomes on the road to Trieste, on the way out of Gradisca towards Redipuglia, between a supermarket and a filling station, lit, with water filling and emptying; it has no electricity and no toilets. The centre of Gradisca, with the Venetian fortress and the walls, is about a kilometre away on foot, and Gorizia eleven kilometres. It is the handiest stop for the Carso of the Great War: the Sacrario of Redipuglia and Monte San Michele are about ten minutes away, Gorizia about twenty
a three-star campsite in Slovenia, at the mouth of the Vipava valley, six kilometres from Nova Gorica and about ten by road from Gorizia, open all year round, with a service point for motorhomes, new toilets and showers, a washing machine and a dryer, a playground, gazebos with barbecues and the Termika restaurant at the entrance, with its terrace. You get there from Gorizia by crossing the border at Casa Rossa and going through Nova Gorica eastwards, on the road to Ajdovščina, without taking the expressway: that way the Slovenian vignette is not needed. The name comes from the Lijak, the rock face above it, from which paragliders take off all year round: the campsite organises tandem flights, and walking and cycling excursions. You leave the pitch by 13:00
According to the campsite's price list for 2026, 12 euros per person, 14 from 25 June to 5 September, young people from 7 to 14 years 9 euros, 11 in summer; 5 euros the motorhome, 7 euros electricity; per person, once, 1.50 euros registration, and every night 2.50 euros tourist tax and 1.80 eco tax · +386 5 30 88 557 · camplijak.com
Gorizia is covered on foot, and the motorhome stays at the viale Oriani area. The border with Slovenia runs through the city: you go to Nova Gorica on foot from piazza della Transalpina, by motorhome through the Casa Rossa crossing, and since Italy reintroduced checks at its borders with Slovenia, in October 2023, you may be stopped at the crossings.
You arrive by the A34 motorway, the Villesse-Gorizia, seventeen kilometres toll-free starting from the A4 Venice-Trieste at the Villesse junction, after the barrier where you pay for the A4. The exits are Villesse, Gradisca d'Isonzo, Gorizia Autoporto and Gorizia; shortly after the last one the motorway crosses the border at Sant'Andrea and continues in Slovenia as the H4 expressway, for Ajdovščina, Postojna and Ljubljana. On the A34 from 15 November to 15 April you travel with winter tyres or with chains on board
The border: Italy reintroduced checks at its internal borders with Slovenia on 21 October 2023 and has extended them six months at a time, the last time until 18 December 2026. At the crossings the police may stop those passing and ask for documents: you need the identity card or passport of everyone, children included. For a motorhome the crossing is Casa Rossa, Rožna Dolina for the Slovenians, south-east of the centre, from which you enter Nova Gorica without the motorway. Piazza della Transalpina, in front of Nova Gorica station, is pedestrian: you stand there with one foot in Italy and one in Slovenia, but a motorhome cannot pass
The Slovenian vignette: in Slovenia motorways and expressways are paid for with the e-vignette, linked to the number plate and bought before entering on the DARS website or at authorised sales points. For DARS motorhomes up to 3.5 tonnes are in class 2A whatever their height: in 2026 the seven-day vignette costs 16 euros, the monthly one 32 euros, the annual one 117.50 euros, and the annual one is valid for twelve months from the day chosen. Above 3.5 tonnes the vignette is not valid: you pay by the kilometre with the DarsGo system, with a device to be fitted in the vehicle before entering the motorway. For Nova Gorica, the Slovenian Collio and the Isonzo valley the vignette is not needed, because you get there on ordinary roads; it is needed if from the Sant'Andrea border you carry on along the H4
The anti-smog bans: in Friuli Venezia Giulia there are none of the winter diesel bans of the regions of the Po basin, and Gorizia has no anti-smog ordinance for winter 2026-2027
In the centre a motorhome does not go: piazza della Vittoria, corso Verdi, via Rastello and the castle quarter are covered on foot, and uphill towards the castle the streets are narrow
The city buses are run by APT Gorizia. Between Gorizia and Nova Gorica, since 1 April 2026, the cross-border line of APT Gorizia and Nomago runs again, from Gorizia railway station to the bus station and the railway station of Nova Gorica, about every fifty minutes, all year round except five public holidays, with fewer runs on Sundays and public holidays; the ticket costs 1.70 euros
The trains: Gorizia Centrale station is south-west of the centre, a kilometre and a half from the viale Oriani area, on the Udine-Trieste line: by regional train Udine is about half an hour away, Trieste three quarters of an hour, Venezia Mestre about two hours. From Nova Gorica station, on the Transalpina, the trains of the Transalpina railway leave for Most na Soči and Bohinjska Bistrica, along the Isonzo
LPG: according to OpenStreetMap, no filling station with LPG is marked in the city; just past the Casa Rossa crossing, at Rožna Dolina, the Petrol at Vipavska cesta 3a and the MOL at ulica Angela Besednjaka 8a have it, and further on, on the road to Park Lijak, the Petrol at Ajševica. On the Italian side, the Tamoil in via Isonzo at Cormons and the Trivengas at Mariano del Friuli, on the regional road towards Cormons
For the surroundings: the Collio begins just outside the city, at Oslavia, and Cormons is to the west, about twelve kilometres away; the Collio continues in Slovenia as the Brda, above Nova Gorica; the Sacrario of Redipuglia and the Carso of San Michele are to the south, about twenty kilometres away, towards Monfalcone; Aquileia and Grado to the south-west, about forty kilometres away, by the A34 and then the A4 at Villesse; the Isonzo valley, the Soča of the Slovenians, climbs north from Salcano towards Canale d'Isonzo, Caporetto and Bovec
Seeing
Sights
The walk starts from the Castle and goes down into the city: Borgo Castello, the Duomo, piazza della Vittoria, the public gardens, the Coronini and Attems palaces, the synagogue, and it ends on piazza della Transalpina, with one foot in Italy and one in Slovenia, and at Castagnevizza. A second day is needed for the surroundings: the Isonzo at Piuma, the Ossario of Oslavia, the Sabotino, the Monte Santo and the Collio. Before setting off it is worth putting the days in order: the Castle closes on Mondays, the ERPAC museums are open every day, Palazzo Coronini in autumn opens Wednesday to Sunday, the Bourbon crypt at Castagnevizza closes on Sundays, the Sabotino visitor centre opens only at weekends. On the first Sunday of the month the Castle, the Borgo Castello museums and Palazzo Attems are free, and at the ERPAC museums under-18s never pay. Tap a marker on the map to open its entry below.
1
The Castle and Borgo Castello
Castle · paid entry · 45.94432, 13.62777
piazzale Augusto Cesare Seghizzi, 34170 Gorizia (GO)
the castle on the hill, at 155 metres, which looks down over the city: the first keep dates from the eleventh century, and here lived the counts of Gorizia and Tyrol. In 1500, when the last count, Leonhard, died, it passed to Maximilian I of Habsburg; Venice held it for thirteen months, between 1508 and 1509, and adapted it for cannon. In the seventeenth century it became a prison and a barracks and lost its medieval look; in the eighteenth century Edmond Halley, the astronomer of the comet, also worked on its bastions. Bombed in the Great War, it was rebuilt in the 1930s, between 1934 and 1937, returning it to its medieval appearance, with the research of the Gorizia historians Giovanni and Ranieri Mario Cossàr. Inside there are furnished rooms, busts and paintings, reproductions of swords and blades and the Theatrum Instrumentorum, the old musical instruments; on the floor above the hall of medieval Gorizia with the models of the county, and from there the wall walk, with the view over the city and over Nova Gorica. For children there is the multimedia part: the video guides, the holograms, the projections with the legend of the White Lady, the 3D viewers in the medieval Borgo, the show in the hall of the Provincial Estates and the characters who tell their stories in the Count's hall. There is no booking and there are no guided tours, you go round with the video guide; dogs are allowed in, with a muzzle at hand. Around the castle, inside the walls, is Borgo Castello, the first core of the city, with the sixteenth-century houses of the museums
Opening hours according to the Comune di Gorizia, in 2026, Tuesday to Sunday, public holidays included, from 10:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 17:15; closed on Mondays. On the first Sunday of the month entry is free · according to the Comune di Gorizia, in 2026, 10 euros; reduced 4 euros from 6 to 24, over 65 and for groups of more than ten people; 2.50 euros for residents and school groups; free under 6 and with the FVGcard. The ticket can also be bought online, on the Vivaticket circuit · 0481 535146 · comune.gorizia.it/it/vivere-il-comune-265182/luoghi-265183/il-castello-di-gorizia-287640 · gorizia.castello@gmail.com
the museum of the First World War in the Dornberg and Tasso houses of Borgo Castello, opened in 1990 and reopened on 18 July 2025 with a new layout, conceived for GO! 2025 as a "Museum for Europe". Ten rooms, one for each theme, with uniforms, weapons, documents and photographs of the Italian and Austro-Hungarian soldiers and of the civilians: you start from the Gorizia area before the war, with a video that goes from the Belle Époque to the trenches, and you arrive at memory, at the monuments and war memorials of the post-war years. In the Gorizia room a large multimedia table shows the city that stayed on the front line for thirty months; the diorama of the battlefield is still there, with new multimedia parts. The captions are in Italian, Slovenian and English, and the museum is now accessible with ramps and lifts. Guided tours for groups are booked on 348 1304726
Opening hours according to ERPAC, in 2026, every day from 9:00 to 19:00 · according to ERPAC, in 2026, 5 euros, reduced 3 from 18 to 25 and for each adult of a family with under-18s; with the Museo della Moda 8 euros, reduced 5; free for under-18s, with the FVGcard and for everyone on the first Sunday of the month. The two museums share the same ticket office, at number 13 · 0481 385230 · museograndeguerra.regione.fvg.it · didatticamusei.erpac@regione.fvg.it
one of the very few Italian museums devoted to the history of textiles and costume, in the Dornberg, Tasso and Formentini houses, reopened on 17 April 2026 after the works. You start with silk, which between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the livelihood of the county of Gorizia: the piece to look for is the eighteenth-century circular silk-throwing machine, worked by hand, a unique example, with the video that shows it working; next to it the large portrait of the Senigaglia family by Giuseppe Tominz, from 1844-1845, the Gorizia middle class in their best clothes. Then European fashion from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth, almost all from a recently purchased collection: the women's "andrienne" gowns, the men's silk tailcoats, the high-waisted dresses of the Napoleonic age, the eccentric styles of the Incroyables and a very rare crinoline, the cage of metal hoops that puffed out skirts. There are also the bottles of the glassworks of the Gorizia area, which carried wine from Trieste to Spain and then to the Indies, and the last section on the monastery of Sant'Orsola, in the city since 1672, with the embroidered vestments and the great sacristy cabinet. In all the museum holds about 10,000 pieces
Opening hours according to ERPAC, in 2026, every day from 9:00 to 19:00 · according to ERPAC, in 2026, 5 euros, reduced 3 from 18 to 25 and for each adult of a family with under-18s; with the Museo della Grande Guerra 8 euros, reduced 5; free for under-18s, with the FVGcard and for everyone on the first Sunday of the month · 0481 385230 · museiprovincialigorizia.regione.fvg.it · didatticamusei.erpac@regione.fvg.it
the cathedral of Santi Ilario e Taziano, at the foot of the castle hill, born from a "constellation" of churches: the parish dates from 1455, and the oldest surviving part is the Gothic chapel of Sant'Acazio, from 1471. Inside is the cenotaph of Leonhard, the last count of Gorizia, though he is buried at Lienz. Remodelled in Baroque forms between 1682 and 1702, with frescoes by Giulio Quaglio, it became a cathedral in 1751, when Gorizia became an archbishop's see and received part of the treasure of the patriarchate of Aquileia. In the Great War it lost almost everything, frescoes included: the present facade was finished in 1924 and the church returned to worship in 1928, as the plaque outside says. At the entrance, in gold on black marble, are the names of all the archbishops of Gorizia; you pass from the light of the naves to the darkness of the Gothic parts
the largest square in the city, at the foot of the castle, which the Slovenians still call Travnik, the meadow, because until the sixteenth century it was a meadow outside the walls; you enter from via Rastello, where a gate separated the city from the countryside. On the north side is the church of Sant'Ignazio, of the Jesuits, begun in 1654, with the facade by the Austrian Jesuit Christoph Tausch finished in 1722, the two bell towers of 1724 with their onion domes, and consecrated only in 1767: Austrian Baroque on an Italian plan, with a single very high nave and chapels at the sides. In front of the church is the column of Sant'Ignazio, from 1687; in the middle of the square the eighteenth-century fountain of Neptune, designed by Nicolò Pacassi, Maria Theresa's court architect. On the square there is also the Casa Torriana, today the Prefecture, where Giacomo Casanova stayed in 1773, as he tells in his memoirs
the Gorizia of the "Austrian Nice" is that of the tree-lined avenues going down from the centre towards the station: corso Verdi and corso Italia, with the nineteenth-century villas and palaces. Between the two are the public gardens, laid out in 1863 on farmland of the De Grazia family, when the city was a holiday resort for officials and the well-to-do, and designed with flower beds, paths and exotic trees. There are the iron fountain donated by Marshal Gyulai, who came to spend his retirement here, a weather station from 1895 that still works (only two other examples exist), the busts of illustrious people of Gorizia, from Graziadio Isaia Ascoli to Max Fabiani, the great magnolia and a small playground for children. Below, the park goes down into the little valley of the Corno stream
the villa of a noble Gorizia family that has stayed as it was, with its furniture, paintings and household objects, opened to the public by the will of the last count, Guglielmo Coronini Cronberg, who died in Vienna on 13 September 1990: since then it has been run by the Foundation. The fortified house was built between 1593 and 1598 by Carlo Zengraf, secretary of the Provincial Estates; then the Counts Strassoldo bought it, adding the chapel of Sant'Anna in 1643, and in 1820 Count Michele Coronini. In October 1836 Charles X, the last Bourbon king of France, came to live here in exile, and a month later died of cholera: he is buried at Castagnevizza. Hit by artillery in the Great War, it was rebuilt between 1919 and 1923. You visit on your own, with the paper guides from the ticket office or the Coronini Experience app. The park around it, with the stone portal at the entrance and the pool behind the palace, is one of the most beautiful gardens in the city and can be walked round for free. Children like the list of names that get in free
Opening hours according to the Fondazione Palazzo Coronini Cronberg, with the hours in force from 5 October 2026, Wednesday to Friday from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 18:00, on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 14:00 to 18:00, with last entry at 12:00 and at 17:00; on Mondays and Tuesdays the palace does not open. Closed on 24, 25 and 31 December, 1 January and at Easter. The park, which you can walk through freely, opens from October to April from 7:30 to 18:30 and from May to September from 7:30 to 22:00, and cannot be visited after sunset · according to the Foundation, 10 euros, reduced 6 for students and members of FAI, Touring and Italia Nostra; free up to 10, with the FVGcard, on your birthday and for anyone called Guglielmo, William, Willy, Nicoletta or Colette. The park is free · 0481 533485 · coronini.it
the Rococo palace that Count Sigismondo d'Attems Petzenstein finished in 1750, home of the provincial museums from 1900 and today of the picture gallery: almost a hundred works from the middle of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. In the hall of honour the ceiling with the gods of Olympus by Antonio Paroli and the great Pala Attems, the Attems altarpiece, by Giambettino Cignaroli, from 1758; then the portraits by Giuseppe Tominz, the painter of the Gorizia middle class, Josef Maria Auchentaller, of the Vienna Secession and a friend of Klimt, the Gorizia futurists and Zoran Music, the painter of the little Dalmatian horses, born in the Gorizia area, at Bukovica. The two rooms painted by Francesco Chiarottini around 1780 include that of Ovid's Metamorphoses. In the Italian garden, with the ancient inscribed stones, the fountain of Hercules designed after 1769 by Nicolò Pacassi. Until 29 November 2026 there is the exhibition "Italia Settanta. La creatività come antidoto", Italy in the Seventies, creativity as an antidote, on the art, fashion and design of the 1970s. The palace is only partly accessible
Opening hours according to ERPAC, in 2026, every day from 9:00 to 19:00, on Thursdays until 22:00 with last entry at 21:30 · according to ERPAC, in 2026, 6 euros, reduced 3 from 18 to 25 and for each adult of a family with under-18s; free for under-18s, with the FVGcard and for everyone on the first Sunday of the month. Tickets can also be bought online, on Midaticket · 0481 385335 · palazzoattems.regione.fvg.it · musei.erpac@regione.fvg.it
The Synagogue and the Gerusalemme sull'Isonzo museum
Museum · free entry · 45.94909, 13.62594
via Graziadio Isaia Ascoli 19, 34170 Gorizia (GO)
the synagogue of the old ghetto, built in 1756 in place of an oratory of 1699, of the Ashkenazi rite. You enter from a courtyard, with the plaque to the Jews of Gorizia deported to Auschwitz on 23 November 1943, very few of whom came back; next to it are an eighteenth-century gate of the ghetto and the garden dedicated to Bruno Faber, a deported newborn baby. When in 1969 the community joined that of Trieste, the synagogue was given to the Comune and restored in 1984. On the first floor the hall with the wooden women's gallery and the Baroque holy ark with twisted columns of black marble; on the ground floor, since 1998, the museum Gerusalemme sull'Isonzo, Jerusalem on the Isonzo, the name given to the community for its culture: the history of the Jewish people, of the Gorizia ghetto and its figures, the linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli, the painter Vittorio Bolaffio and the philosopher Carlo Michelstaedter (1887-1910), whose paintings are on show
piazza della Transalpina, 34170 Gorizia (GO); Trg Evrope, 5000 Nova Gorica (Slovenia)
the square that the 1947 border cut in two, today piazza della Transalpina for Gorizia and Trg Evrope, Europe Square, for Nova Gorica. It takes its name from the Transalpina railway, from Trieste to Jesenice, opened in 1906 by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and the station, today Nova Gorica's, is the original one. For almost sixty years there was a fence in the middle; it came down in 2004, and since 21 December 2007, with Slovenia in Schengen, you pass freely. Where the fence stood there is now a round mosaic, and the border is a row of stone slabs: children stand astride it, one foot in Italy and one in Slovenia. In the station the Goriški muzej has a small collection on the border. Here on 8 February 2025 GO! 2025 began, the European capital of culture of the two cities; next to the station, in the old goods yard, is the EPICenter, the cultural centre created for GO! 2025, with the exhibition "City on the border", stories, objects and accounts of those who lived with the fence in the middle
Opening hours the square is always open. The museum collection in the station, according to the Goriški muzej, in 2026, Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 16:00, on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 13:30 to 18:00; closed on 1 January, at Easter, on 1 November and on 25 December · the station collection, according to the Goriški muzej, 4 euros, students 2, pensioners and groups 3, family ticket 8 · +386 5 335 98 11 · goriskimuzej.si
the Franciscan monastery on the hill of Rafut, at 143 metres, two hundred metres from the border: founded in 1623 by Count Mattia della Torre for the Carmelites, closed by Joseph II in 1785 and reopened by the Franciscans in 1811. Destroyed in the battles of the Isonzo and rebuilt, in 1947 it passed to Yugoslavia. In the crypt lie the last Bourbons of France, who came into exile in Gorizia after the revolution of 1830: King Charles X, who died in Gorizia in 1836, his son Louis Antoine, the Dauphin, his daughter-in-law Marie-Thérèse, daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, his grandson Henri, Count of Chambord, the last pretender, who died in 1883, with his wife, and his granddaughter Louise Marie, who was regent of the duchy of Parma. Kings of France buried in Slovenia: it is the thing children remember. In the Škrabec library, named after the Slovenian linguist who lived here for more than forty years, there are books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, among them the first Slovenian grammar, by Adam Bohorič, with the author's dedication. Since May 2004, above the crypt, there has been a rose garden of Bourbon roses, which flowers in May and June. For groups and guided tours phone +386 41 583 044
Opening hours according to the monastery, the Bourbon crypt can be visited Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 12:00 and from 15:00 to 17:00; closed on Sundays and public holidays, in the week before Christmas and before Easter, and during masses, funerals and weddings. The library can be visited only by booking · according to the monastery, with the price list in force since 2025, the full tour (church, crypt, rose garden and library) 7 euros, the crypt only 5, the library only 3; the full tour 4 euros for students and schoolchildren, 5 for pensioners · +386 5 330 77 63 · samostan-kostanjevica.si · info@samostan-kostanjevica.si
the Piuma-Isonzo park, thirty-two hectares on the right bank of the Isonzo, the emerald-green river of the Great War, west of the centre. It has two parts, opened to the public in 1985 and 1988: the hill part, the larger one, on the hill between the Groina stream, the village of Piuma and the hills of Oslavia, with paths in the woods, and the part along the river. It is the place to let children run after a morning of museums, and from the paths on the hill you climb towards Oslavia
the war memorial of those who fell in the battles around Gorizia and Tolmin, on hill 153, the hill of Oslavia, on the road from Gorizia to San Floriano del Collio: designed by the Roman architect Ghino Venturi and inaugurated in 1938. It looks like a fortress: a central tower and three lower towers at the corners of a triangle, joined by underground galleries, reached by a great flight of steps between two rows of trees. It holds about 57,000 soldiers: 20,000 with their names in the niches, among them 138 Austro-Hungarians, and 37,000 without a name in the three great ossuaries of the side towers. In the crypt under the great cross of dark marble are the thirteen holders of the gold medal, with General Achille Papa. Outside, the votive bell Chiara, offered on 4 November 1959, rings every evening at sunset for the fallen. Oslavia is also the village of ribolla: the hills around are vineyards of the Collio
the 609-metre mountain north of Gorizia, on the border, which overlooks the Isonzo valley, the Gorizia plain and the Collio. In the Great War it was the key to the Austrian bridgehead: the Italian attacks of 1915 failed, and on 6 August 1916 the 45th Division took it by storm, three days before the entry into Gorizia; Colonel Pietro Badoglio, who had prepared the attack, was promoted to general, and in 1928 received the title of Marquess of the Sabotino. Declared a monumental zone in 1922, since 1947 it has been cut by the border, and today the Slovenian part is the Park of Peace, an open-air museum with the trenches and caves dug into the rock, which run through it below the ridge. The visitor centre, in the old border post, tells the story of the Isonzo front and the nature of the mountain with a multimedia route, and next to it there is a place to eat. From the viewpoint you can see in every direction. On the Slovenian side, facing Gorizia, you can still read the word TITO made with stones; on the Italian part is the national monument, where on 4 November 2008 the Italian tricolour was lit again
Opening hours the mountain and the open-air museum are always open. The visitor centre, according to the Municipality of Nova Gorica, from April to October on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 18:00, from November to March on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 10:00 to 15:00 · the visitor centre, according to the Municipality of Nova Gorica, 5 euros, reduced 4 for pensioners and students, 3 euros from 3 to 15 years, free under 3; family ticket, two adults and up to three children, 12 euros · +386 51 202 777 · visitsabotin.si · sabotin@nova-gorica.si
the basilica on the summit of Skalnica, at 682 metres, above Nova Gorica, which can be seen from all over the city. The sanctuary was born from the apparitions of the Virgin in 1539 to the shepherd girl Urška Ferligoj; the Gothic-Renaissance church was built between 1541 and 1544, and the Franciscans have looked after it since 1565. On the altar is the painting of the Virgin that tradition attributes to Palma il Vecchio, brought in 1544 by the patriarch of Aquileia Marino Grimani. In the Great War Monte Santo was taken and lost several times in May 1917, and the sanctuary was razed to the ground: what you see was built in 1928, in neo-Baroque style, by Silvano Barich, with the stained glass and the organ of 1939. From the top you see the Isonzo, Gorizia and the Collio. On the summit there is also the Franciscans' Marian Museum, and the sanctuary is one of the stages of the ancient Way of the Holy Mountains, with Castelmonte and the sanctuary of Mariazell
Opening hours according to the sanctuary, on Sundays masses at 8:00, 10:00, 11:30 and 16:00; on weekdays mass at 7:00 in the chapel of the Apparition and, from 1 May to 2 November, at 17:00 in the basilica. The Marian Museum opens on Sundays from 9:00 to 18:00 and is closed from 1 November to 1 April · +386 5 330 40 20 · svetagora.si · sveta.gora@rkc.si
the wine town of the Collio, about twelve kilometres west of Gorizia, at the foot of Monte Quarin (274 metres), with the remains of the castle on top. It belonged to the counts of Gorizia from 1277 and then to the Habsburgs, like Gorizia, and in piazza Libertà there is the statue of the Emperor Maximilian I; at villa Tomadoni the armistice of Cormons was signed in 1866. On piazza XXIV Maggio is the Enoteca di Cormons, where you taste the wines of the local producers. The Collio is the band of hills between the Isonzo, the Judrio and the Slovenian border, with the municipalities of Cormons, Capriva del Friuli, Dolegna del Collio, Farra d'Isonzo, Mossa, San Floriano del Collio, San Lorenzo Isontino and Gorizia with Oslavia and Lucinico; the terraced rows of vines are called ronchi, and the white wines are ribolla gialla, friulano and Collio bianco. Beyond the border the same hills continue in the Slovenian Goriška Brda. The Consorzio del Collio, the wine consortium, has its seat in Cormons, at via Gramsci 2
Gorizia has its festivals in its districts and squares: the Pro Loco's carnival in February, the city's birthday with the medieval village in April, history at èStoria at the end of May, the San Rocco festival in August and folklore from around the world at the end of the summer. At the end of September the centre becomes the world map of flavours of Gusti di Frontiera, in October jazz plays in the wineries of the Collio, and in November the Sacrario of Redipuglia remembers the end of the Great War. Winter begins with the funfair rides of the Fiera di Sant'Andrea and the lights of the Dicembre goriziano, Gorizia's December.
Next: National Unity and Armed Forces Day at Redipuglia · 4 Novin 5 days
4Nov
National Unity and Armed Forces Day at Redipuglia
4 November
the national ceremony at the Sacrario of Redipuglia, on the day the Great War ended in Italy: the highest officers of the State, the guard of honour, the units drawn up on the terraced steps and the military bands, and the laurel wreath for the fallen, at about 11:00. In 2026 the historic Great War train runs from Trieste, with carriages from the 1930s, and after the ceremony there are guided tours of the Sacrario and of the Colle Sant'Elia. In 2026 it falls on Wednesday 4 November
in 5 days
7-8Nov
Cantine aperte nel Collio
end of May and a weekend in November
the open days of the Movimento Turismo del Vino del Friuli Venezia Giulia, the wine tourism association: the member wineries, in the Collio at Cormons, Capriva, San Floriano, Dolegna and Farra d'Isonzo, open for visits and tastings, and many prepare a lunch or dinner at the winery. In November there is Cantine Aperte a San Martino, in 2026 on 7 and 8 November
11Nov
Non Omnis Moriar at Redipuglia
11 November
on the day of the 1918 armistice, at the Sacrario of Redipuglia a laurel wreath is laid for each of the eighteen nations that fought in Italy in the Great War, from Austria to the United States, and one for the civilian victims, with the delegations of the countries, the veterans' associations and the schools; then the ceremony continues at the Ara Pacis monument at Medea. It is organised by ANCI Friuli Venezia Giulia, the association of the region's municipalities, and the Associazione Nazionale Carabinieri, and it began in 2024. In 2026 it falls on Wednesday 11 November
16Mar
Santi Ilario e Taziano
16 March
the feast of the patron saints of Gorizia, Hilary and Tatian, martyred in 284: in the afternoon the solemn celebration in the Duomo with the archbishop, then at the Town Hall the Comune presents the Premio Santi Ilario e Taziano, an award established in 2001. In 2026 it was on Monday 16 March, with the award going to Paolo Petiziol, president of the EGTC GO
to be confirmed
27-30May
èStoria
end of May
the international history festival, with talks, lectures, books and films all over the city and in Nova Gorica, each year on a theme; many talks are free, and there is a section for young people. In 2026, on Religions, from 25 to 31 May; in 2027, on Work, from 27 to 30 May
21-24Oct
Jazz&Wine of Peace
the second half of October
the jazz festival of the Circolo Controtempo of Cormons: concerts in the wineries, villas and castles of the Collio, on both sides of the border, in the morning and the afternoon, and in the evening in the theatres of Cormons and Gorizia, with wine tastings. In 2026 from 22 to 25 October, with previews from the 17th; in 2027 from 21 to 24 October
This year's dates are not out yet
Gorizia Carnival
February, the Sunday of the parade and the days of Carnival
the carnival of the Pro Loco Gorizia: on Sunday the parade of floats and masked groups along corso Verdi, corso Italia and the centre, up to the final party in piazza della Vittoria; on Monday the children's carnival, with masks at the Teatro Verdi and the party in the square; on Ash Wednesday the funeral of King Carnival, with the reading of his will in front of the Town Hall and the bonfire. In 2026, the thirty-sixth edition, the parade on 8 February with ten floats and eighteen groups, the children on the 16th and the funeral on 18 February
Marcia di Redipuglia
25 April
the non-competitive walk of the Pro Loco of Fogliano Redipuglia on the paths of the Carso of the Great War, between the Sacrario, Monte Sei Busi and the trenches, with several routes of different lengths, some for families too. It is held on Liberation Day, and in 2026 it was on Saturday 25 April
Contea, profumi di cultura europea
a Sunday at the end of April
the festival for the city's birthday, mentioned for the first time in a document of 28 April 1001, organised by the Comune with the Pro Loco: a medieval village in the public gardens of corso Verdi, with ninety re-enactors, jesters, fire-eaters and flag-wavers, a Lombard village in Borgo Castello, a treasure hunt for children, free guided tours and the castle with free entry. In 2026 on 26 April
Sagra di San Rocco
first half of August
the oldest festival in Gorizia, in the San Rocco district, with the food stalls open every evening from 19:30, dance music, meetings under the tree and the competition of the scampanotadors, the bell ringers. In 2026 the five hundred and twenty-sixth edition, from 7 to 16 August, in the Baiamonti park
Festival mondiale del folklore
the last week of August
the festival of Etnos, with folk dance and music groups from many countries performing in the old town: the opening in piazza della Vittoria, the parade in costume on Saturday afternoon, on Sunday evening the Oscars of Folklore. If it rains, it moves to the Teatro Verdi. In 2026 the fifty-fourth edition, from 27 to 30 August
Gusti di Frontiera
four days at the end of September
the great street food festival in the centre: about three hundred stands divided into seventeen quarters, from the cooking of these parts to that of half the world, and a cross-border space in piazza della Transalpina; for the occasion the museums open too. On those days traffic in the centre changes and the viale Oriani motorhome area closes. In 2026, the twenty-first edition, from 24 to 27 September
Fiera di Sant'Andrea
end of November and beginning of December
the autumn fair born in the Middle Ages, around the feast of Saint Andrew on 30 November: stalls from all over Italy in the streets of the centre for a long weekend, and funfair rides for more than a week, between via Cadorna, piazza Battisti, via Petrarca, corso Verdi and piazza della Vittoria. In 2025 the stalls from 29 November to 1 December and the rides until 8 December. The Comune has not yet published the 2026 dates
Dicembre goriziano
from the end of November to Epiphany
the Comune's programme for the holidays, which begins with the Fiera di Sant'Andrea: the Christmas tree and the ice rink in piazza della Vittoria, the nativity scene in a boat from the Grado lagoon in the public gardens, concerts and the New Year's Eve party in piazza della Vittoria. Across the border, in Nova Gorica, the Christmas lights are switched on at the beginning of December in Bevkov trg, with the ice rink.
Remember
Useful tips
For Nova Gorica, the Sabotino, Monte Santo and Castagnevizza you cross into Slovenia: until 18 December 2026, and perhaps beyond, you may be checked at the crossings, and everyone's identity card, children included, should be kept in your pocket even for a short stroll on the Transalpina
On Mondays the castle is closed, while the two museums of Borgo Castello and Palazzo Attems are open every day. On the first Sunday of the month the castle, the Borgo Castello museums and Palazzo Attems are free for everyone, and at the Region's museums under-18s never pay. With the FVGcard you also get into the castle and Palazzo Coronini for free
With children: the border in the paving of the Transalpina, the kings of France buried in Slovenia, the White Lady and the castle's viewers, the diorama of the Museo della Grande Guerra, the trenches of the Sabotino, and at Palazzo Coronini the list of names that get in free
Gorizia is the base for the Carso of the Great War, with Redipuglia and Monte San Michele, for the wineries of the Collio, from Cormons to Oslavia, and for Palmanova, half an hour away on the A4; Aquileia and Grado are about forty kilometres away, and the Isonzo valley climbs towards Caporetto on the other side of the border. Udine is about forty kilometres away
During Gusti di Frontiera, at the end of September, the viale Oriani area closes: sleep at Gradisca or at Park Lijak, and go into the city by bus or by train
The jota recipe is written as the source gives it, which does not say how much oil, butter, celery and water, nor how long the beans and the brovada cook: go by eye, and the soup should stay thick
Gorizia · part two
and then?
What to do, what to taste, and where to go tomorrow.
Experiences from here
What we did starting from here, ordered by driving time.
In Gorizia the cooking is that of a crossroads: Friulian, Austrian, Slovenian and Triestine all together. The city's dish is jota, the bean soup with brovada or "repa", turnips soured in grape pomace, or with sauerkraut, thickened with a handful of maize flour, with smoked pork rib or the prosciutto bone boiling in it, and in winter with cotechino sausage. From the empire come goulash, cotechino with sauerkraut, patate in tecia, the pan-fried potatoes, and gnocchi di susine, large potato gnocchi with a plum inside and sugar in place of the stone, dressed with breadcrumbs toasted in butter: a dish of Bohemian origin, brought between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the maids in service, eaten as a first course or as a dessert, in summer and early autumn, when there are plums. The sweets are those filled with walnuts, raisins and pine nuts: presnitz, which in Gorizia they also call gubana goriziana, putizza, potica for the Slovenians, the gubana of the Natisone valleys and strucchi, little parcels with the same filling. The city's own product is the rosa di Gorizia, the red radicchio with leaves open like a rose, crunchy and slightly bitter, grown in the municipality, a Slow Food presidium and a traditional product of the region; Carl von Czoernig already mentioned it in 1873, in his book on the "Austrian Nice", and it has a yellow, sweeter variety, the canarino. It is harvested in winter. The wine is that of the Collio, the DOC of the hills between Gorizia and Cormons: ribolla gialla, friulano, Collio bianco, and at Oslavia ribolla left to macerate for a long time on its skins, which producers such as Gravner and Radikon have brought back here. Jota, in a motorhome, needs a single pot and a burner left on for a long time: it is the soup for cold evenings.
the castle of Gorizia on its hill, with the walls, the cypress and the keepPhoto: Krzysztof Golik, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the entrance to the castle of Gorizia, with the lion of Saint Mark above the doorwayPhoto: Krzysztof Golik, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the inner courtyard of the castle with the well and the porticoesPhoto: Janezdrilc, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the avenue among the pines under the walls of Borgo Castello, with the city belowPhoto: Janezdrilc, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the Porta Leopoldina, the gateway to Borgo Castello with the Habsburg eaglePhoto: Commonists, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the roofs of the centre of Gorizia seen from the top of the castlePhoto: Viator slovenicus, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the city and the hills seen from the castle bastionsPhoto: Janezdrilc, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the house of the Museo della Grande Guerra in Borgo CastelloPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the facade of Palazzo Attems Petzenstein in piazza De AmicisPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0a ceiling painted with Greek mythology in the rooms of Palazzo Attems PetzensteinPhoto: Rollroboter, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Palazzo Coronini Cronberg at the end of the lawn of its parkPhoto: Limonadis, Wikimedia Commons, Public domainpiazza della Vittoria with the castle peeping out above the roofsPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the facade of Sant'Ignazio with its two onion-domed bell towers, in piazza della VittoriaPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the nave of Sant'Ignazio towards the high altarPhoto: Janezdrilc, Wikimedia Commons, CC0the fountain of Neptune in the middle of piazza della VittoriaPhoto: Sailko, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0the Duomo of Gorizia from above, with the castle on the hill behindPhoto: T137, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the nave of the Duomo with the galleries and the presbytery at the endPhoto: Terragio67, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the Synagogue of Gorizia in via Ascoli, in the old ghettoPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the prayer hall of the Synagogue with the ark and the women's galleryPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the public gardens of corso Verdi under the plane treesPhoto: Limonadis, Wikimedia Commons, Public domainNova Gorica station seen from Italy, beyond piazza della TransalpinaPhoto: Sergio larise, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the line of the border between Italy and Slovenia in the paving of piazza della TransalpinaPhoto: Contrast-Christian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0the Franciscan monastery of Castagnevizza, Kostanjevica, on the hill of Nova GoricaPhoto: Naturpuur, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the sanctuary and monastery of Monte Santo, Sveta Gora, on the top of the mountainPhoto: Doremo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the green Isonzo under the arches of the railway bridge at GoriziaPhoto: Lorenzo MICHIELLI, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0the ridge of the Sabotino with the Isonzo valley and the plain belowPhoto: T137, Wikimedia Commons, Public domainthe flight of steps among the cypresses climbing to the Ossario of OslaviaPhoto: Kevin1971, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the vineyards of the Collio Goriziano near Oslavia in autumnPhoto: Cookligan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0the vine-covered hills of the Goriška Brda, the Slovenian CollioPhoto: Vera Zupančič, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0Cormons from above with the cathedral of Sant'Adalberto, in the middle of the vineyardsPhoto: Satthy, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
