Page 127 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

mixed area. At the same time, these approaches ity of social classes, self-management, the secu-
clearly reveal the processes of establishing Slove- lar state and the integration of the Yugoslav peo-
nian dominance in the urban space of the ac- ples, while upholding the values of the National
quired territory, through the construction of a Liberation Struggle (Narodnoosvobodilna bor-
socialist social order within the Yugoslav state. ba, NOB) – the struggle for freedom, peace and
However, an architectural-historical analysis of anti-fascism. The buildings of the Janko Premrl
the construction and aesthetics of schools, es- Vojko and Pinko Tomažič primary schools were
pecially the first post-war primary school in the therefore the primary carriers of these histori-
town centre, reveals a partially different inter- cal and social values, while their heritage signif-
pretation: in the public media discourse, espe- icance is also based on specific architectural and
cially during border-negotiation period of the technical achievements, such as adaptation to lo-
Free Territory of Trieste (1947–1954), the school cal specificities, modernist solutions, etc.
was a symbol of the coexistence of Slovenes and first post-war school and the second school in 127
It is an eloquent fact that both the town’s
Italians, united under the common ideal of a so-
ti cialist future and of fraternity – fratellanza – be- Bonifika were demolished in a short period of
tween two equal peoples. It was this fratellanza
time at the beginning of the 3rd millennium.
that the new school in the town centre was sup- The official, technical justification for the demo-
ta a school for pupils of both languages. Despite ity is undermined by the fact that the irrevers-
lition on the grounds of poor construction qual-
posed to foster, as it was originally conceived as
ible intervention was carried out without any
the monumental plan for a two-nation school,
only the Slovene wing was built, and shortly af-
professional evaluation of the significance of the
di ter the incorporation of Zone B of the Free Ter- destroyed buildings. The demolition is a typical
example of symbolic erasure and negation (nega-
ritory of Trieste to Yugoslavia, the Italian class-
es were relocated. The first school then acquired
tion symbolique, Veschambre 2008) of the mon-
a different population and – under the influence
this case socialism. Equally eloquent is the fact
of rapid economic development and mass immi- uments of a bygone era and past ideologies – in the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory
here republics. heritage significance, in which elements of so-
gration – became a school for immigrants from
that the demolition of the schools was not ac-
different Slovenian regions and other Yugoslav
companied by a professional debate on their
So, what is the heritage value of the Janko
called ‘extruded history’ can be identified. This
Premrl Vojko Primary School? It was a monu-
concept, as defined by Pamela Ballinger (2012,
380), concerns attitudes towards history that ad-
ment to the short and utopian period of the FTT
and its fate, as well as a material bearer of the col-
lective memory of Koper’s new, post-war popula-
post-war period. These are usually stories of de-
studiauniversitatis
tion. At the same time it undoubtedly testified to dress ‘uncomfortable’ topics – particularly in the
feat, which enter the public consciousness at in-
a historic process that could be called a post-fas- appropriate moments and are difficult to fit into
cist reaction to the suppression of Slovene identi- public narratives and into scientific conceptual
ty. However, due to the newly acquired post-war frameworks; such problematic and disputed nar-
position of power, the Slovenian population be- rative is the issue of the ‘exodus’ (Hrobat Virlo-
came numerically and culturally dominant, also get 2021). However, the demolished schools do
as a result of the national or republican context mark the local collective memory, as proven by
and the establishment of the nation state. the jubilee monograph on the school which was
At the same time, educational institu- published when the school was closed down and
tions were a monument to the new socialist re- demolished (Poklar and Jelen Madruša 2006).
ality where education was implemented in a It was prepared by former teachers and pupils.
new value system. This was based on the equal- The school’s exceptional importance for the lo-