Rosandra Valley

Trieste as seen from the Rosandra Valley

Melting pot of cultures

Val Rosandra is a borderland where the border has now ceased to have meaning, allowing two peoples who had been united for centuries to reunify as part of the European Union. This whole area, in fact, before the Great War was simply Austria-Hungary and had been so for many centuries. Today it is possible to breathe again that historical brotherhood that allows one to consider typical here dishes of Slavic, Germanic and Hungarian names and origins, clearly Slavic surnames, and the customs and traditions of a bilingual community that has never really divided, despite the many barriers.

Sportsman's Paradise

Nature here has remained undisturbed and everyone's, and the valley is equipped for sports such as trekking or climbing. Italy's first "climbing school" was born right here, founded in 1929 by Italian climber Emilio Comici, after whom it is named. The rocky spur in the center of the valley, the Cippo Comici, also bears his name. Last but not least, a bicycle and pedestrian path skirts the Rosandra Valley and, following an old railway line, connects nearby Trieste to the small Slovenian town of Kozina.

The bike path, along the former railroad

Centuries of history

The Valley was inhabited since the Paleolithic period without interruption. There are many traces of human interventions over the centuries: archaeological remains found in the caves that line the right wall of the valley (now at the Winckelmann Museum of Antiquities in Trieste), the remains of the Roman aqueduct that probably remained in operation until the 6th century AD, the remains of the Moccò Castle that once acted as a stronghold of the territory controlling what was the Salt Route.

The "little Matterhorn"

The valley was in fact crossed inland by an ancient trade route that connected the salt pans to the outlet of the Rosandra stream and fostered its trade. It was precisely this ancient source of wealth that was the reason for continued attacks by neighboring Venice during the Middle Ages, which led to the dedication of Trieste and the surrounding area to the dukes of Austria and the house of Habsburg. With the salt pans destroyed by imposition of the Venetians, the area remained in the background, leaving its control to nature. Only the mills remained, which until the late 1970s harnessed the water's energy for flour production and of which few ruins now remain.

In 1841 the Austro-Hungarian Vienna-Ljubljana-Trieste railway arrived at the edge of the Rosandra Valley. With a peripheral section, the railway also connected the town to the small settlement of Draga Sant'Elia, where today in place of the tracks, removed in 1966, the Cottur cycle-pedestrian path passes.

In 1996 the Nature Reserve was established by regional law, and in 2006 it came directly under the control of the Municipality of San Dorligo della Valle. The modern visitor center of Val Rosandra promotes, activities, meetings, guided tours to popularize its faunistic, floristic, botanical, geological and paleontological beauties. Today many study it, many care for it, and many visit it, because it is truly felt as a collective heritage.