Cankar Housing Estate

The Largest Residential Neighbourhood in the Town

At the end of the 1960s, under the leadership of the city’s chief urban planner at the time, Tomaž Vuga (1939), the largest urban development project in the history of Nova Gorica was launched: the construction of a residential district that today houses the majority of the city’s inhabitants and physically connects Nova Gorica with Solkan.

In 1968, the first apartment blocks were built in the Ledine area, followed by developments along Cankarjeva Street, while the most ambitious part of the project was the complex on Gradnik Brigade Street.

The series of high-rise buildings was once nicknamed the “Chinese Wall” and remains the most prominent cluster of tall structures in the city. The neighbourhood was notably inclusive, attracting residents from across other Yugoslav republics, while social diversity was reflected in the fact that both company directors and cleaners lived in the same buildings. The Cankarjeva district was developed from west to east, partly to facilitate infrastructure development, but also to ensure that construction closer to the main boulevard (Magistrala) would be of higher quality, taller, and more urban in character. As such, the “Chinese Wall” was conceived as the edge of the city centre, which—due to the still-empty green area between Magistrala and Gradnik Brigade Street—continues to await further development.

The entire Cankarjeva neighbourhood contains around 2,500 apartments, which initially housed approximately 9,000 residents. Due to ageing and outmigration, this number has since declined to fewer than 7,000, though this still represents more than half of the city’s population.

Gradnik Brigade Street is named after the assault brigade of the IX Corps, which liberated Gorizia, Trieste, and the surrounding region on 1 May 1945. The brigade itself was named after Ivan Gradnik, leader of the Tolmin peasant revolt of 1713—the last major peasant uprising in the Slovenian lands, in which around 3,000 peasants protested against taxes on salt and meat. Gradnik and the other leaders were executed in Travnik (Piazza Vittoria) in Gorizia.

Avtor: Blaž Kosovel

Kraj: Nova Gorica

Vir:

• Tomaž Vuga: Projekt Nova Gorica, Založba ZRC, 2018

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