The origin of the town of Gorizia – dilemmas and new perspectives

Abstract

Gorizia was according to the prevalent opinion, in 1210 granted borough rights and thus became a town settlement. A new interpretation of the document (privilege) allows a conclusion that the borough with citizens (cives) existed earlier. That year, the count of Gorizia Meinhard II acquired from the emperor legalisation of the weekly fair, and carried out removal of the borough settlement to a new location at the castle. Already in the 12^th century, it was a strong central settlement of early urban character. The representatives of the Spanheim family were in that time named after Gorizia, and from the middle of the 12^th century on the counts of Gorizia. Narrative sources on the return of King Richard the Lionhearted from the third crusade in 1192 offer footing for the hypothesis. They witness on the significance of Gorizia where the counts of Gorizia lived as dominus provintie. With the year 1210, a new proper urban phase in the development of Gorica began, and at the same times the topographic duality of the settlement: the borough at the castle and the village in the flatland beneath them. The village too had a strong non-agrarian character and was in 1455 legally joined with the town.