Kobarid - History

History

See also: Gorizia and Gradisca, Julian March

Kobarid has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Archeological remains from the Hallstatt period have been found in the area. In the 6th century, it was settled by Slavic tribes, ancestors of the modern Slovenes. During the Middle Ages, it was first part of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and later of Tolmin County, before being included in the Habsburg Monarchy in the 15th century, like the majority of Slovene-speaking territories.

With the exception of a brief period between 1809 and 1813, when it was included under the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, it remained under the Austrian rule until 1918.

In the mid-19th century, it became an important center of the Slovene national revival. During World War I, the whole area was the theatre of the Battles of the Isonzo, fought between Italy and Austria-Hungary. The town was almost completely destroyed between 1915 and 1917. After the end of the war in 1918, it was occupied by the Italian Army, and in 1920 it was officially annexed to Italy, and included in the Julian March region. Kobarid was a comune of the Province of Gorizia (as Caporetto), except during the period between 1924 and 1927, when the Province of Gorizia was abolished and annexed to the Province of Udine. Between 1922 and 1943, Kobarid and the neighbouring villages, which had an exclusively Slovene-speaking population, was submitted to a policy of violent Fascist Italianization. Many locals emigrated to the neighbouring Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The town became one of the crucial centres of recruitment and activity of the militant anti-fascist organization TIGR, which carried out an underground fight against the Italian Fascist regime. During the Italian administration, Kobarid also became an important symbolic place of the Fascist regime because of its role in World War I. An Italian military ossuary was built on the hill above the town, and Benito Mussolini visited Kobarid in 1938. Several other military memorials were built in the area.

Immediately after the Italian armistice in September 1943, Kobarid was liberated by a Partisan uprising, and became the center of large liberated area of around 2,500 square kilometers, known as the Kobarid Republic, administered by the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People. During this period, almost all Italian families that settled in Kobarid during the twenty-five years of Italian administration left the town. In early November 1943, Nazi German forces took over the town and established their rule until May 1945, when the town was finally liberated by the Yugoslav People's Army.

In early June 1945, Kobarid came under joined British-U.S. occupation and placed under Allied temporary military administration until the establishment of a final border between Italy and Yugoslavia. The Morgan Line, which divided the Allied military occupation zone from the Yugoslav one, ran just eastwards of the town, along the Soča River.

In September 1947, the Paris Peace Treaties gave the town to Yugoslavia, namely to the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Several hundred inhabitants, especially from the Breginj area, chose emigration to Italy rather than becoming citizens of a Communist state.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Kobarid emerged as an important tourist center. Light industry also developed.

With the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Kobarid became part of the independent Slovenian state.