Page 124 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

124 Figure 6: The commemorative plaque erected in 1959 on Figure 7: The commemorative plaque erected in 1985 on

the side façade of the primary school. Alongside it there the side façade of the primary school marking 40 years
studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2
is a plaque with an Italian translation of the text that was since the re-establishment of Slovene education in Istria ti
added later (photo: Neža Čebron Lipovec, 2007) (photo: Neža Čebron Lipovec, 2007)

vides young generations with knowledge as a there under fascism, and the founding of Yugo-
tool for achieving freedom. There is also a sym- slavia’s communist party. Meanwhile, the ideal ta
bolic contrast in ethnic terms: the prison was an of fraternity between Slovenes and Italians was
allegory of national struggles and attempts at no longer present. In 1985, a commemorative
ethnic domination. In Austrian times Italian ir- plaque was added to commemorate the re-estab-
redentists were imprisoned here, during the Ital- lishment of Slovenian education in Istria. di
ian rule Slavs and antifascists were the prisoners. In this process we see not only the dissolu-
As a contrast to these dynamics, the post-WWII tion of utopia, but in fact its opposite: from the
authorities wanted to celebrate inter-ethnic fra- annexation to Yugoslavia onwards, schools re-
ternity – fratellanza – with a joint Slovene-Ital- flected the expansion of Slovene identity and a
ian school as a model of a just relationship be- change in the region’s ethnic structure and ap-
tween Slovenes and Italians in Istria. The school pearance. However, they not only reflected the
therefore symbolised respectful coexistence, and ‘exodus’ of the pre-war population, but also the here
its origins and first years of operation can be con- process of ‘Yugoslavisation’, as the development
sidered a monument to the utopia that the FTT of the port in particular brought many people
tried to implement. Yet the utopia dissolved rap- from other Yugoslav republics to Koper.
idly with the emigration of the Italians, which
peaked in 1955–56. Then the declining Italian Pinko Tomažič Primary School
classes were moved out of the building and the This ‘ethnic metamorphosis’ (Purini 2010) and
school was enlarged to accommodate the rap- the socio-economic development of Koper and
idly growing population of newly arrived Slo- the whole region into a flourishing Slovene, Yu-
venes and Croats. In the school year 1959/60, goslav and socialist landscape was also symbol-
the school was renamed after the Slovene parti- ised by the establishment of the second primary
20
san hero Janko Premrl Vojko. In 1959, a com- school in Koper in 1958. The first post-war school
memorative plaque was placed on the school’s was then renamed Primary School I (one year
side façade in memory of the prison, the suffer- later renamed after Janko Premrl Vojko) while studiauniversitatis
ing of the freedom fighters who were imprisoned the new one was called Primary School II. Both
schools initially shared the older, first post-war
20 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska
kronika 1959/60. building. Primary School II moved into a new