studia universitatis hereditati 111 https:/ /doi.org/10.26493/2350-5443.11(2)111-131 © author/authors Abstract: In the border region of northern Istria, the decade after W orld War II was a time of political, social and demographic changes that accompanied the introduction of the socialist system. The demarcation pro - cess between Italy and Y ugoslavia led to an almost complete replacement and ethnic transformation of the urban population. A striking example of this transition is the development of primary education, which is analysed here in terms of social and architectural history. With the help of statistics and school records, we observe the impacts of emigration and immigration on the size and structure of the school population, as well as on the process of establishing the Slovenian school in the city of Koper/Capodis- tria. Through architectural and symbolic discourses on school infrastructure, we also question the her - itage significance of school buildings and institutions for contemporary local society. Keywords: Istria, post WWII period, population transfers, primary school, architecture, school build- ings, heritage Izvleček: V obmejni pokrajini severni Istri je bilo desetletje po drugi svetovni vojni čas političnih, socialnih in de- mografskih sprememb, ki so spremljale uvedbo socialističnega sistema. Razmejitev med Italijo in Ju- goslavijo je povzročila skoraj popolno zamenjavo in etnično preobrazbo mestnega prebivalstva. Izrazit primer tega prehoda je razvoj osnovnega šolstva, ki ga v prispevku analizirava z vidika družbene in arhi- tekturne zgodovine. S pomočjo statistik in šolskih evidenc opazujeva vplive izseljevanja in priseljevanja na obseg ter strukturo šolske populacije in na proces ustanavljanja slovenske šole v mestu Koper. Sko- zi arhitekturne in simbolne diskurze o šolski arhitekturi preizprašujeva tudi dediščinski pomen šolskih zgradb in institucij za sodobno lokalno družbo. Ključne besede: Istra, čas po drugi svetovni vojni, premiki prebivalstva, osnovna šola, arhitektura, šolske zgradbe, dediščina The Primary School in Postwar Koper/Capodistria as a Social Laboratory Osnovna šola v povojnem Kopru/Capodistrii kot socialni laboratorij Neža Čebron Lipovec University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities neza.cl@fhs.upr.si Aleksej Kalc Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts – Slovenian Migration Institute; University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities akalc@zrc-sazu.si studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 112 Introduction I n 2005 and 2008 two seemingly minor build - ings were demolished in Koper/Capodistria, 1 a seaside town in northern Istria, Slovenia. The buildings were the Janko Premrl Vojko pri - mary school and another primary school named after Pinko Tomažič. The site of the former is currently an empty void in the heart of the old town. Meanwhile the latter building, located on the outskirts of the town, has been replaced by a modern, box-shaped building that now ac - commodates the pupils and teachers of the two demolished schools. The two old buildings, built after the end of World War II in the years that represented a turning point in the history of the town and Istria as a whole, were demol - ished without any analysis of their heritage val - ues. The demolitions did not provoke much pub - lic debate at the time. However, aversion to and regret about these irreversible interventions has come to light in recent years on social networks. The unresponsiveness of society at the time of the demolitions raises many questions about the significance of this architectural heritage for the local community, and its perception of the post- war history of the town and region. These ques - tions represent the starting point of the present paper. In his seminal classic work Louis Althuss - er (2018) singled out education as the first of the state’s ideological apparatuses. The same role has been attributed to urbanism and architecture by several authors (e.g. Rotar 1980), following Hen - ri Lefebvre’s (1992) trialectic of production of 1 Since the end of World War II the city has two official names, Koper in Slovenian, and Capodistria in Italian, as the area is officially bilingual. The denomination Cap - odistria, written also in different forms in earlier periods (Capo d’Istria, Caput Histriae etc), derives from the Mid - dle Ages and was the official name of the city throughout its history, especially during the rule of the Venetian Re - public (1279–1797), and during the short French and later Austrian rule in the 19th century. The Slovene denomina - tion, Koper, was also present in the later centuries, yet of - ficially in use only during the Austrian rule and later after WWII. Currently, the city officially has both names, how - ever, due to space limitations we only use the Slovene one here, with all due respect for the city’s bilingual identity. space in particular. Observing the development of schools – both as institutions and as architec - ture – can thus give us insight into the socio-his - torical dynamics of the region in question. The challenge is even greater in a region with a his - tory of ethnic and ideological conflict like Istria. From the point of view of Slovenian national identity, establishing an education system after World War II represented the basis for empow - ering the Slovenian population. However, from an external perspective the construction of the Slovenian-centralist school system may be per - ceived as one of Althusser’s ideological state ap - paratuses through which the new Slovenian au - thorities established their political, national, ideological and cultural sovereignty on the terri - tory acquired after World War II. The primary school named after Janko Premrl Vojko, which operated in the centre of Koper between 1951 and 2006, was the embod - iment of the turbulent socio-political, demo - graphic and ethnic changes in Istria following World War II. The school’s history, activities and social pulse are discussed here as a case-study with the help of archival material from the Kop - er Regional Archive and existing studies. We fo - cus on the early post-war years, the period of the temporary buffer-state between Italy and Slove - nia, the Free Territory of Trieste (FTT) (1947– 1954), and especially on the period immediately Figure 1: Demolition of the Janko Premrl Vojko Primary School, 14 May 2008 (source: Personal Archive of Miloš Beltram) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 113 after its abolition (1954–1962). In terms of ed - ucation, this second period was marked by the school reform, but from the political-adminis - trative point of view it was the time when the border dispute and the division of the FTT be - tween Italy and Yugoslavia (1954) gave way to the full integration of Zone B of the FTT into the Slovenian republic and the state of Yugosla - via. The geopolitical restructuring was accom - panied by profound demographic, ethnic and social changes, linked to strategic plans for the economic renewal and development of the area as the Slovenian coastal region. The two main factors of economic restructuring, which went hand in hand with demographic and social re - structuring, were industrialisation (especial - ly with the TOMOS motorcycle factory, 1954– 1959) and the establishment and accelerated development of the Port of Koper (1957–1961). Recent historical and especially anthro - pological-ethnological research has highlight - ed the core issue of the population changes af - ter WWII in northern Istria, especially in the coastal, urbanised zone, and described them as ‘Slovenisation’ and/or ‘Yugoslavisation’ (Hro - bat Virloget 2021; Čebron Lipovec 2019a; Kalc 2019). The present analysis 2 aims to test this find - ing by looking at the development of post-war education and school infrastructure. We want to highlight how the school positioned itself and what role it played in this dynamic series of his - torical events, what it can tell us about them, and how the ruptures and transitions were reflected in its mission and its work, on a symbolic level, and in people’s perceptions. We look at these issues from two perspec - tives. Firstly through the prism of the institu - tional and social history of schools and educa - tion as the foundations of a new social, political 2 The paper is the result of two scientific research projects and one programme, financed by the Slovene Research Agency (ARIS): the project ‘The potential of ethnograph - ic methods in conservation of built heritage in contested places: the case of northern Istria’ (Z6-3226) and the pro - ject ‘Migration and social transformation in comparative perspective: the case of Western Slovenia after WWII’ (J5- 2571) as well as of the research programme ‘National and Cultural Identity of the Slovene Emigration in the Con - text of Migration Studies’ (Program P5-0070). and national paradigm, and secondly from the perspective of architectural history, i.e. by ana - lysing the social and spatial positioning of school buildings as representational and social spaces. The Education System and ‘The Revival of the Slovene School in Istria’ During the decade following World War II, the northern Adriatic border region between Socialist Yugoslavia (now Slovenia) and Italy was marked by several years of negotiations on a new border between the two countries. A provision - al solution was the multicultural state of the Free Territory of Trieste, or FTT (1947–1954). This was divided into Zone A in the west, includ - ing the city of Trieste and its rural surround - ings and administered by the Anglo-American Allied Administration, and Zone B in the east, between Koper (now Slovenia) and Novi Grad (now Croatia), administered by the military ad - ministration of the Yugoslav Army. In the years after World War II, the main tasks of the peo - ple’s authorities in northern Istria (i.e. in the ter - ritory of Zone B of the FTT) were reviving the economy and renewing cultural life and the ed - ucation system. The former involved satisfying the basic needs of the population and restructur - ing the economic region, which was cut off from its historic centre of gravity - the city of Trieste - by the abolition of the FTT and the delimitation in 1954. As regards education, it was a question of restoring Slovene schools after a 20-year vio - lent fascist ban on the Slovene language and thus providing mother-tongue education to all the inhabitants. The aim was also to repair the cul - tural and national damage that the assimilation and the fascist Italianisation policies had inflict - ed on the Slovenian population of this ethnical - ly mixed area. Establishing and elevating Slovene educa - tion to an adequate organisational level faced two objective problems: a shortage of teaching staff and school premises. Many schools were housed in makeshift buildings, some teach - ers were recruited from the interior of Slovenia and local candidates underwent training to be - studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 114 come teachers (Perovšek 1995, 45). While wait - ing for teaching staff to arrive, some schools were merged and others temporarily closed (Peterle Grahonja 2004, 93). Most of the school build - ings in the Istrian countryside were damaged or even destroyed during the war. Some served as military barracks for the occupying forces during the war, and after the war the Yugoslav army was stationed in some of them. The school buildings were renovated thanks to the volun - tary work of local people and the help of state loans, but this took time so school classes were held in makeshift buildings. Another problem was the inadequate design of the buildings. Al - though they had been built recently by the fas - cist regime, they were just simple one-classroom buildings designed to meet the needs of the peas - ant population, which received only the most ba - sic education. One teacher in a single classroom taught children from several years and of differ - ent ages, often in morning and afternoon shifts, demanding much organisation and work, but this was generally typical of education in the post-war years (Petelin 2020, 168). The results of repairs to existing schools and the construction of new school buildings and improvements in equipment were not visible until after 1948 (Pe - terle Grahonja 2004, 92–95). The Italian language schools were restored wherever an Italian population was present. They enjoyed administrative and curricular autono - my, but the people’s authorities sought to adapt the curricula to the new times and the ideologi - cal goals of popular democracy. There were elev - en Italian primary schools and seven secondary schools. The latter included grammar schools in Koper, Piran and Izola, a private church gram - mar school ( seminario) in Koper, and in 1950 an Italian teachers’ college was founded in Koper (Peterle Grahonja 2004, 98). However, the mass emigration of ethnic Italians to Trieste, especial - ly after 1947, meant that the number of pupils attending Italian school shrank. The decline in numbers was also caused by the 1952 decree (Slu - ga and Jelen Madruša 2006, 9) which stipulat - ed that children whose surname appeared Slav - ic (i.e. they were of allegedly Slavic parents), were obliged to attend a Slovene school, even if they did not feel Slovene and regardless of their par - ents’ wishes (Beltram 1997, 207; Hrobat Virlo - get 2021, 96−97). Children with Italian or ethni - cally mixed parents could enrol in either Italian or Slovene schools 3 . In the so-called ‘exodus’ – the mass emigration of those who opted for Ita - ly when the FTT’s Zone B was taken over by Yu - goslavia in 1954 – many Italian teachers also left (Peterle Grahonja 2004, 92). They were initially replaced by Slovene teachers who had completed the Italian teacher training college and Italian students. Later, Italian teachers from the Cro - at part of Istria took up these positions (Beltram 1997, 207; Perovšek 1995). During this period, and especially in the 1950s, the school system also had to cope with the social dynamics associated with the restruc - turing of the region, specifically with the immi - gration of new populations, a phenomenon that accompanied or followed the mass departure of the so-called optants. While the number of Ital - ian schoolchildren shrank sharply with the peak of the ‘exodus’ in the mid-1950s, the demograph - ic pressure on the Slovene school structures in Koper, Izola and Piran and their new residential areas grew rapidly. For example, in 1956 there were 42 primary schools in the municipality of Koper, 38 of them were Slovene with 2,237 pu - pils, and four were Italian with 122 pupils. De - spite progress, the school structure was still poor, with half (47.7%) the Slovene schools being sin - gle-form-entry, just under 30% two-form entry, 15.7% three-form entry, and only four schools (10%) had a larger number of classes. In addition, many children did not meet the eight-year com - pulsory schooling requirement because most ru - ral schools taught only the first four years, while further years were taught in schools that were far away. The secondary schools included the Slovene grammar school (430 pupils), the Ital - ian grammar school (70), the teacher training college (70) and the secondary school for eco - 3 PAK, 936_2, OŠ Janko Premrl Vojko Koper 1946–2006, Šolska kronika 1952–53. studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 115 nomics (119), all in Koper (Svoljšak 1956, 281– 286). The problem of compulsory primary edu - cation was solved in 1958 by a school reform that abolished the four-year primary and post-prima - ry schools and introduced a single eight-year pri - mary school (Peterle Grahonja 2004, 104). Difficulties in Planning School Needs Immigration and population growth fol - lowing the departure of the optants for Italy dictated the further development of school in - frastructure. Meanwhile, planning in the sec - ond half of the 1950s was difficult and risky. The dynamics, size and above all the age and social structure of the population (which form the ba - sis for educational planning) depended on the progress of major economic projects, the con - struction of the railway, the extension of the har - bour, land reclamation, and the growth of indus - try, tourism and other branches of the economy (Svoljšak 1956, 287). Another problem was the high population turnover. In the years 1954– 57, the coastal towns of Koper, Izola and Piran showed the greatest migratory pull in Slovenia, receiving as much as 30% of the republic’s migra - tion to urban areas (Vogelnik 1959). However, immigration was quite fluid, with people com - ing and going in large numbers. This was mainly due to a shortage of hous - ing. In the spring of 1956, there were 1,409 ap - plications for housing in Koper, which were only partially met by the authorities. New blocks of flats were still being built, and the houses left behind by the optants were only partially usa - ble due to uncontrolled management and the poor state they were in. The old housing stock generally consisted of far from comfortable ac - commodation, so it was difficult to retain new - comers from central Slovenia, especially profes - sional staff, even though their accommodation was treated as a priority. The housing crisis, the constant turnover of experts and the shortage of professional workers prevented more vigorous economic development and the opening of new businesses 4 . In 1956 the projection of school needs was therefore hypothetical. The drafters of the mu - nicipal development plan foresaw a strong influx of industrial workers and other personnel from Slovenia and the other republics, but the ques - tion of the nature of immigration (permanent or temporary) and the family structure of immi - grants was raised. Migratory movements with - in the coastal region were also more difficult to predict. Although there was a clear tendency to move from the inland, rural areas towards the coastal zone (Svoljšak 1956, 287–289), the devel - opment conditions of the different regions var - ied. For example, rural areas that were more fa - vourable for intensive agriculture with good transport connections were soon revitalised by immigration despite the loss of population due to the ‘exodus’ (Titl 1961, 22–24). However, the remoter parts of the municipality stagnated de - mographically due to the emigration to Italy, out-migration towards the coastal towns, and declining birth rates, and in many places expe - rienced depopulation. Between 1953 and 1961, individual local communities in these areas lost more than half their population. In the coastal towns, the population grew rapidly in number and demographic vitality (Piry 1983, 21–22; Titl 1961, 34). Towards the end of the 1950s, immi - gration stabilised and there was a growing need for school structures in areas of old and new ur - banisation, as existing school facilities could no longer cope with the demographic pressure (Jur - man and Medveš 1974). Koper Primary School  – Its Pupils and Teachers Let us now turn to the specific case of the Janko Premrl Vojko Primary School in Koper, which opened in the autumn of 1945. It was the first Slovene state school in the town because dur - ing the Austrian era (when compulsory prima - ry education was established) the Italian nation - 4 PAK, 712_1, 2 Minutes of the Municipality of Koper as - sembly 1955–1957, 9th regular session of the Koper assem - bly, 3. April 1956. studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 116 al-liberal municipal administrations prevented the opening of Slovene schools in order to pre - serve the traditional Romance identity of the coastal towns against the ‘Slavisation’ that was intensifying with immigration from the Slavic hinterland. In the school year 1911–12, the Ciril Methodius Society (a Slovenian cultural and ed - ucational institution), opened a private Slovene primary school in Koper, but in 1919 it was closed by the Italian occupation authorities. From then on Slovene children could only attend the Ital - ian school ( Pahor 1970, 249–260 ). After the liberation in 1945, the reopen - ing of Slovene schools in Koper and other coast - al towns, where the Italian cultural milieu was predominant, was therefore not a simple matter. Although part of the population was of Slovene or Slavic origin, most families intended to con - tinue sending their children to Italian schools. Some simply did not want the hassle of chang - ing their children’s school, others were dissuaded by practical or logistical reasons and others were indifferent about their nationality. The Slovene school was able to come alive thanks to teach - ers who visited parents and convinced them of the need to ‘teach children a language they had forgotten or never learned’ 5 . The presence of the Slovene schools in Koper, Izola and Piran was also important ahead of the visit by the demar - cation commission. It made the Slovene presence visible in the towns – an argument in favour of 5 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1945/46. Yugoslav territorial claims (Peterle Grahonja 2004, 96). The school was housed in the renovated building of the former Italian Scuola Marinara in a street with the bilingual denomination Vi - ale XX Settembre / Ulica 20. septembra (today’s Cankarjeva ulica), which had housed the teach - er training school before World War I. In 1951, the school moved to a new building, which was built in the old town centre in an area called Bel - veder, where there had previously been a prison. In the first year it had three classes with about 70 pupils from Koper and the immediate surround - ings, mostly children of suburban small farmers, agricultural laborers and officials. According to the school records, the beginnings were difficult because the pupils’ knowledge of the Slovene language was poor. This was due to the shortage of and frequent replacement of teaching staff, but also social reasons, a lack of discipline and other reasons, which the writer of the records at - tributed to the parents’ reservations regarding school, and to the impact of Italianisation and Italian education 6 . These difficulties continued to plague the school for several years, but it is true that the school was establishing and strengthening itself not only as an educational institution, but also as a fundamental social institution, embedded in the social dynamics and quite turbulent po - litical developments in the region. These histor - ical processes are reflected in the enrolment sta - 6 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1948/49; Šolska kronika 1949/50. Figure 2: School children of the elementary school in Koper, 1954-1956 (source: Personal Archive of Rudi Pavlič) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 117 tistics, which were directly influenced by various factors. The school consolidation process lasted un - til the early 1950s, when the number of pupils no longer changed significantly. The fluctuations were influenced by the annual change of gener - ations, as well as by pupils coming over from the Italian school. The school year 1953–54 marked a new, landmark phase of development, as the number of pupils more than quadrupled by the end of the decade. The number of departments multiplied accordingly, from seven in the school year 1952–53 to 21 five years later, with a teach - ing staff of 24. The rapid growth outlined here coincides with the resolution of the so-called Trieste is - sue and the migratory dynamics triggered by the division of the FTT between Yugoslavia and It - aly. Emigration from Zone B to Zone A of the FTT and immigration to Zone B from Slovenia and elsewhere had been taking place through - out the previous years. From 1953 and especially from 1955 onwards, the final, most intense phase of the ‘exodus’ began. It lasted until February 1957 – the deadline by which residents who had opted for Italian citizenship and emigration to Italy (in accordance with the London Memo - randum) had to depart. At the same time immi - gration increased sharply and by the end of the decade it had overcome the demographic deficit caused by the ‘exodus’. Increased birth rates also began to have an impact on population growth (Kalc 2019, 149–153). The migration process and the effect of the population replacement was not only reflected in schools on an annual basis, but also in an increase in the number of pupils in the course of the school year. From the beginning to the end of the 1955/56 school year, the num - ber of pupils at the Janko Premrl Vojko school increased from 330 to 409, and the same trend continued. In the following years, school enrol - ment reflects a continuous immigration of fami - Table 1: Growth in the number of pupils at the Janko Premrl Vojko Primary School in Koper between the school years 1945–46 and 1959–60.* *PAK, 963_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolske kronike. 70 97 124 109 108 97 159 180 295 409 536 719 742 850 0 225 450 675 900 1945-46 1948-49 1950-51 1952-53 1954-55 1956-57 1958-59 studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 118 lies, accompanied by increasingly stable econom - ic development and the urbanisation of the area. Within a few years, the construction of another school in the town was deemed necessary 7 (Sluga and Jelen Madruša 2006, 10). The new settlers in the city of Koper came mainly from Slovenia, but many also came from the Croat part of Istria, especially from around Buje which had also belonged to Zone B of the FTT before 1954. The social and national com - position of Koper and the coastal region as a whole underwent a radical change in a very short period of time. The proportion of the population that had been born in the urban coastal towns fell from 85% in 1948 to 33% in 1956. Meanwhile, the Italian population shrunk to 10%. Its age structure rose sharply, while the immigrant pop - ulation was dominated by younger, demograph - ically active generations. Slovenian Istria and es - pecially its urbanised coastal zone, which had been predominantly Italian, thus acquired a Slo - venian and partly Yugoslav character (Kalc 2019, 155–156). The school increasingly became a social lab - oratory for this new urban reality, which consist - ed of people of different origins and also social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. In the social - ist social order, the school as a basic education - al institution was one of the key elements in the renewal of social values and relations to form a people’s democracy. The programme of the League of Communists of Slovenia emphasised how schools were connected with socio-eco - nomic reality and were bound to express the cul - tural needs of the pupils and to conform them to the needs of society 8 . The special task of schools in northern Istria, which became part of the So - cialist Republic of Slovenia, was to help integrate the region into the Slovenian national and cul - tural space. In order to achieve this, it was neces - sary to transform the cultural environment and establish the Slovene language. As can be seen from the school records, the school invested a 7 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1957/1958. 8 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1958/59. lot of effort in language education and inculcat - ing new ideas during the post-war years because it had to deal with a very complex cultural and linguistic reality. The pupils’ insufficient knowl - edge of Slovene had a negative impact on their learning progress. There were problems with im - migrant children of other Yugoslav nationalities, as well as with children from the Slovene part of Istria. As regards the latter, the difficulties were attributed to the mother tongue having been ne - glected and a lack of Slovene national conscious - ness due to the persistent assimilation process - es and fascist education, which meant Italian was frequently used in everyday communica - tion at home and in general 9 . There was also an attachment to the Slovene Istrian dialect, which was full of words borrowed from Italian or Cro - atian. Towards the end of the 1950s, school re - cords mention the positive effects of schools on language skills and learning abilities. Children learnt Slovene faster, their reading culture im - proved and they became more involved in school and extracurricular activities. Visits to theatre performances, educational excursions, participa - tion in events and celebrations, additional cours - es in Slovene and local history and geography all paid off. Special credit for mastery of the Slovene language was given to the ‘hard-working pupils from Yugoslavia’ who spoke beautiful Slovene and became role models for the locals 10 . The Political Situation and Education In order to understand the school’s role and work in the turbulent 1940s and 1950s, it is also necessary to take into account the political sit - uation. The opening of Slovene schools in Ko - per and other coastal towns meant the redress - ing of fascist attempts to assimilate and destroy the Slovene identity. At the same time, it meant eliminating the historical ideological-nation - al dichotomy between the Italian town and the Slovene countryside. Under Austria-Hunga - ry, the Italian local authorities had used this di - 9 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1945/46. 10 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1950/51. studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 119 chotomy to prevent the Slovene population from moving to the towns and exercising their nation - al rights there. The Slovene or Yugoslav people’s power, which emerged from the National Liber - ation Struggle (NOB), overcame this by imple - menting the socialist principle of national equal - ity and the policy of fraternity among nations. It considered this territory to be Yugoslav and in - troduced the political-administrative structures and systems of the socialist order from Yugo - slavia into Zone B of the FTT. In the geopoliti - cal configuration of the Littoral, when the peace treaty assigned Gorizia to Italy in 1947 and Tri - este to Zone A of the FTT, the towns of Koper, Izola and Piran were conceived as the new cen - tres of the Slovene territory. In the border dis - pute, the authorities pursued a principled policy in favour of the annexation of Zone B to Y ugosla - via, and sought to create the conditions and gain the consensus of the population for this, not on the basis of nationality but on the principle of so - cialist belonging. However, this stumbled upon many obstacles, both national and ideological. Political opposition came not only from the Ital - ian bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes, which manifested nationalist and irredentist tenden - cies, but also from workers who were in favour of the Free Territory of Trieste. Since 1948, this idea had been intertwined with the Cominform positions and the pro-FTT propaganda of the ‘Cominformists’ 11 (Rogoznica 2011, 301–302; Čebron Lipovec 2019a, 205). This kind of an - ti-Yugoslavism was supported mainly by Italian communists, and was still alive in certain areas of Zone B in 1953. At the same time, there was strong political pressure from the esuli (Istrian émigrés) organisations and Italian political cir - cles from Zone A and from Italy, which spread rumours of persecution and dangers for Italians under the Yugoslav regime. For all these reasons, the consolidation of socialist positions in Zone B and the integration of Italians into the pro- Yu - goslav socio-political structures, as well as put - ting the principles of socialist democracy into 11 PAK, 450, Okrajni komite Zveze komunistov Slovenije Koper (1945–1965). practice (beginning with bilingualism) did not proceed as planned and without conflict. The authorities also experienced disagreements and tensions between local political cadres and those from Slovenia, who accused the former of a lack of political integrity in the struggle to eliminate anti-Yugoslav political factors. One of the aims of establishing Slovene schools during the FTT years was therefore to repair the damage suffered by the Slovenes under and before fascism due to social and national dis - crimination. At the same time, it was part of the political struggle for Zone B to belong to Yugo - slavia through the implementation of the social - ist social order and the socialist concept for regu - lating national relations. On the socialist basis of equality, the authorities recognised the nation - al rights of the Italian population while enforc - ing the principle that ‘a Slovene child belongs in a Slovene school’ and implemented it on the ba - sis of ‘objective’ criteria for determining nation - al belonging (surname, language, origin). This was their way of exerting political pressure, and in many cases it paid off and contributed to the process of integrating the local Istrian popula - tion into the Slovene nation. However, they also encountered resistance and accusations from Italian representatives for imposing Slovene edu - cation and disrespecting people’s personal iden - tity. Getting children to enrol in Slovene schools continued after the territory was annexed to Yu - goslavia and the exodus of Italian- speaking pop - ulation, along with efforts to consolidate the re - gion’s Slovene character. Complaints were made in political circles that even the Slovene com - munists often spoke Italian among themselves 12 . However, due to the mass immigration and the influence of the prevailing Slovene social and cultural environment, implementing the princi - ple of a national school policy became easier. The Architecture of School Buildings How did the architecture and specifically the new primary school of Janko Premrl Vojko at 12 AS, 1589 III, Centralni komite Zveze komunistov Sloveni - je, 4, 249, Zapisnik seje s tovariši iz Okrajnega komiteja Koper, 24. July 1953. studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 120 Belveder fit into the political, ideological and social dynamics? The story of this first post - war school in the centre of Koper has a lengthy prelude connected with a modern, unfinished school building from the fascist era, and a fol - low-up that mirrors the town’s demographic and urban development after Zone B was annexed to Yugoslavia. The Fascist Primary School Scuola Anna Depangher Sauro In the interwar period, the fascist authorities built several rural schools in the Istrian country - side. These were typical one-room schoolhous - es aimed at providing the most basic education for the peasant population. The aesthetics of these buildings followed the official style of the time, the so-called Stile Littorio . By reinterpret - ing elements from Roman antiquity, it served as a tool for legitimising the alleged continuity of the Roman – and consequently presumably Ital - ian – civilisational and territorial domination. A monumental but unfinished primary school complex was built in the same spirit and style – but much more ambitiously – on the waterfront of Koper/Capodistria (today Pristaniška uli - ca) in 1940. It was dedicated to Anna Depangh - er Sauro, the mother of the local irredentist hero Nazario Sauro. The new school was designed in 1938, at the height of fascism, with an exceptional rep - resentational significance. It served as the dom - inant feature of the monumental scenery on the promenade leading to the equally monumen - tal memorial to Nazario Sauro from 1935. In or - der for construction to begin, much of the anon - ymous fabric of the town’s Brazzol district was demolished (Cherini 1990, 265–266), follow - ing the example of Mussolini paving the way for fascist modernity in Rome. The plan for the new school complex consisted of a central dom - inant part and two wings (one for girls and one for boys). Due to disputes over symbolic aesthet - ics, in which the Minister of National Educa - tion Giuseppe Bottai intervened, 13 and the out - break of war, construction came to a standstill and the building, with its extraordinary symbol - ic charge, remained unfinished. After the end of World War II, especially af - ter the Free Territory of Trieste was established, the school building became relevant again. The new authorities – the Military Administration of the Yugoslav Army – intended to complete the school, but again the plan was not realised as they decided to build a new school at a new lo - cation – on the site of the demolished prison at 13 SABAP FVG, fondo Istra Quarnero Dalmazia, b. 4, fasc. 172, Nuova Scuola Capodistria, prot. n. 141, 20 February 1940. Figure 3: Photomontage of the panorama of the southern edge of the old town of Koper/Capodistria with the planned monumental school dedicated to Anna Depangher Sauro, 1939–1940 (source: Personal Archive of Mario Fonda) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 121 Figure 4: The original plan for the new Slovene-Italian primary school in Koper, architect Ervino Velušček, 1948 (source: PAK, 24 OLO Projekti, 312.9) studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 122 Belveder. Between 1949 and 1951, the unfinished fascist school was converted into the Triglav ho - tel and Omnia department store. The plans for the adaptation were drawn up by one of Slove - nia’s leading post-war architects, Edo Mihevc (Čebron Lipovec 2012, 216–217; Čebron Lipov - ec 2020, 259–261). The Primary School in Koper: From Osnovna šola – Scuola cittadina to Osnovna šola Janko Premrl Vojko The decision to build a new school was made for practical and ideological reasons. The practical reasons included the outdatedness and inadequate furnishings of the building used for the Slovene school, as evidenced by the school re - cords. The main Italian school was located in a wing of the former convent of the Poor Clares, while the Slovene school did not have its own premises. As already mentioned, it was original - ly housed together with the grammar school in the renovated building of the former fascist na - val school. The primary school was located on the upper floors on the north side of the build - ing, and from 1948 onwards it was housed in three dark classrooms on the ground floor. The first makeshift benches, which satisfied neither the requirements nor the hygiene regulations, were provided by the Military Administration, and it was not until the school year 1947/ 48 that the Education Department provided new bench - es and cupboards. The primary school pupils had a separate entrance from the grammar school pupils, but they came together in the courtyard during breaks. In 1948, the unknown local architect Ma - tossi was still planning to complete the pre-war fascist school building, but the authorities de - cided to demolish the former monumental pris - on on the old town’s highest point, the Belveder, and build a new school on that site. The demoli - tion of the old building and the construction of the new one, which began in 1949, 14 was the first and most visible urban intervention in the town 14 PAK, 23, Istrski okrožni ljudski odbor, 9, 11. November 1950. centre. The plan for the new school was drawn up by Ervino Velušček (Kregar 1952, 36; Čebron Lipovec 2018), an architect who originated from Trieste and who was completely unknown at the time but who emigrated to Italy in 1950 and created a prominent architectural oeuvre. The original plan for the school building envisaged a monumental complex with three three-storey wings to be built on the floor plan of the former prison. One wing was intended for the Slovene classes, another for Italian classes, and the third was for the administration (Kregar 1952, 36; Če - bron Lipovec 2018). In the end, only one simple single-sto - rey wing was built and handed over for use on 3 March 1951 (La nostra lotta 1951, 2). The new school building, which had only 16 class - rooms and not the larger number that had been planned, also deviated from the conceptual plan in terms of design, as it lost its original character with the reduction in size and a different roof. It is said that the original plan was abandoned due to a lack of funds (Kregar 1952, 36). From a socio-historical point of view, the po - litical-ideological function of this school build - ing was crucial as it was built to house Slovene and Italian pupils under the same roof. In pub - lic discourse it was presented as a Slovene-Italian primary school or scuola cittadina , which sym- bolised the so-called fratellanza − the brother - hood of Slovenes and Italians in Istria. It there - Figure 5: Janko Premrl Vojko Primary School, built on the site of the former penitentiary (photo: Neža Čebron Lipovec, 2007) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 123 fore embodied the fundamental declared ideal of the FTT Zone B, as advocated by the Slavic-Ital - ian anti-fascist union – the Unione antifascista italo-slava (SIAU/UAIS) (La nostra lotta 1951, 2). The newspaper Istrski tednik reported on the opening as follows: ‘On the foundations of the infamous old prison, which many of us know from the time of fascist violence and terror, the first wing of the new school has been built, a magnificent build - ing that will now welcome our young generation. From now on, they will be educated to become new socialist people in the spirit of brotherhood and unity between Slovenes and Italians’ (Istrski tednik 1951, 3). The school initially housed a Slovene 5-year primary school and an Italian 5-year primary school. However, in the school year 1956/57 the Italian primary school moved out of the build - ing to another site in the historic centre 15 . From then onwards, the school was intended only for Slovene-speaking pupils. Due to intensive economic development – thanks to the TOMOS factory and the port – the first years after the annexation (1954) were a time of intensive workforce inflow, and conse - quently of children and schoolchildren. As a re - sult of the large population influx, and in view of the forthcoming school reform, the school was enlarged in the year 1957/1958 and given a sec - ond floor 16 with an additional eight classrooms, but these were used by the teacher training col - lege 17 . The plans for the extension were drawn up by Miloš Hohnjec, an unknown but very prolific architect of the architectural bureau Projektivni biro in Koper in the first years following the an - nexation (Čebron Lipovec 2018, 227). In addi - tion to the second floor extension, the architect proposed a new, lower, simple pavilion with of - fices for teachers and workshops, but despite the growing space constraints, the plan remained on paper. School records report of planned ex - 15 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1955/1956. 16 PAK, 24.2, OLO Projekti, 336, 4. 17 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1957/58. tensions to the administrative building and the integration of the school into the growing new modern neighbourhood in the immediate vi - cinity, as well as a planned park at the front, but these plans were never realised. In 1954 and then in 1957, development plans were drawn up for Koper by the architect Nikolaj Bežek (Čebron Lipovec 2019b, 249– 253; 2020, 262–265). They outlined the devel - opment of new urbanisation on the southern bank of the former salt pans in Semedela, and in the long term also in Bonifika - the reclaimed marshy area of the former salt pans. These devel - opment guidelines also led to decisions concern - ing the location of new school buildings. As the new school at Belveder was short of space, a de - cision was made in 1957 to found a new school and build a completely new building 18 . How - ever, the school was not built until later. In the school year 1959/60, the school at Belveder had 24 units, one of which was temporarily housed in the building of the Italian primary school in order to avoid the third shift of classes 19 . Finally, in 1962, the new school in Koper acquired prem - ises in a new building at Bonifika. The Primary School’s Symbolism and Heritage Significance The prison, which was demolished in 1948, pri - marily symbolised the place where Slovene free - dom fighters were oppressed (Beltram 2008, 8). Already in 1930, members of the Slovene secret organisation Borba were imprisoned and tor - tured there; they were the first to protest violent - ly against fascism and the attempts to annihilate Slovene and Croat identity in the region. Con - structing the school on the site of the prison, therefore, carried a multilayered symbolic mean - ing. In the first place, there was the counterpoint between the prison’s negative and repressive function of negating an individual’s freedom, and the positive and philanthropic function of the school – an educational institution that pro - 18 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1957/58. 19 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1959/60. studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 124 vides young generations with knowledge as a tool for achieving freedom. There is also a sym - bolic contrast in ethnic terms: the prison was an allegory of national struggles and attempts at ethnic domination. In Austrian times Italian ir - redentists were imprisoned here, during the Ital - ian rule Slavs and antifascists were the prisoners. As a contrast to these dynamics, the post-WWII authorities wanted to celebrate inter-ethnic fra - ternity – fratellanza – with a joint Slovene-Ital - ian school as a model of a just relationship be - tween Slovenes and Italians in Istria. The school therefore symbolised respectful coexistence, and its origins and first years of operation can be con - sidered a monument to the utopia that the FTT tried to implement. Yet the utopia dissolved rap - idly with the emigration of the Italians, which peaked in 1955–56. Then the declining Italian classes were moved out of the building and the school was enlarged to accommodate the rap - idly growing population of newly arrived Slo - venes and Croats. In the school year 1959/60, the school was renamed after the Slovene parti - san hero Janko Premrl Vojko. 20 In 1959, a com - memorative plaque was placed on the school’s side façade in memory of the prison, the suffer - ing of the freedom fighters who were imprisoned 20 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika 1959/60. there under fascism, and the founding of Yugo - slavia’s communist party. Meanwhile, the ideal of fraternity between Slovenes and Italians was no longer present. In 1985, a commemorative plaque was added to commemorate the re-estab - lishment of Slovenian education in Istria. In this process we see not only the dissolu - tion of utopia, but in fact its opposite: from the annexation to Yugoslavia onwards, schools re - flected the expansion of Slovene identity and a change in the region’s ethnic structure and ap - pearance. However, they not only reflected the ‘exodus’ of the pre-war population, but also the process of ‘Yugoslavisation’, as the development of the port in particular brought many people from other Yugoslav republics to Koper. Pinko Tomažič Primary School This ‘ethnic metamorphosis’ (Purini 2010) and the socio-economic development of Koper and the whole region into a flourishing Slovene, Yu - goslav and socialist landscape was also symbol - ised by the establishment of the second primary school in Koper in 1958. The first post-war school was then renamed Primary School I (one year later renamed after Janko Premrl Vojko) while the new one was called Primary School II. Both schools initially shared the older, first post-war building. Primary School II moved into a new Figure 6: The commemorative plaque erected in 1959 on the side façade of the primary school. Alongside it there is a plaque with an Italian translation of the text that was added later (photo: Neža Čebron Lipovec, 2007) Figure 7: The commemorative plaque erected in 1985 on the side façade of the primary school marking 40 years since the re-establishment of Slovene education in Istria (photo: Neža Čebron Lipovec, 2007) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 125 building at Bonifika in 1962, 21 and was renamed after the national hero of the partisan movement, Pinko Tomažič. Although the area of drained salt pans had started to be reclaimed already un - der the Kingdom of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s (Čebron Lipovec 2020, 249–251), it did not ac - tually undergo urbanisation until after it was an - nexed to Yugoslavia. The plan to develop Bonifi - ka with modern neighbourhoods making up the ‘New Koper’ was prepared by the leading archi - tect and urban planner in the region at the time, Edo Mihevc, as part of the Urban Plan for Koper in 1961. The latter was part of the larger Region - al Plan for the Slovenian Coast (the area of the northern Istrian coast within the Socialist Re - public of Slovenia) which was drawn up between 1959 and 1963. Mihevc developed a distinctive ar - chitectural idiom of ‘progressive’ and ‘Mediter - ranean architecture’ (Čebron Lipovec 2018, 245– 265) for the newly annexed region, consisting of modern architecture with elements inspired by local, vernacular Mediterranean architecture, es - pecially from the countryside. Through this lo - cally influenced yet modern architectural style, he wanted to lay the foundations for modern de - velopment in the newly annexed region, based on the qualities of historical and geographi - cal features. The new, modern villa-blocks were contemporary in their floor plans and furnish - ings, while their exteriors bore vivid earthy col - ours, accented with tile roofs, vertical windows, wooden shutters, stone details, pergolas and lush greenery. The architect wrote that this was in - tended to preserve the ‘visual continuity of the landscape’ (Mihevc 1963, 42). This way, he want - ed to create at least an external appearance that sought continuity with the region’s tradition. In this gesture we can recognise both a desire to re - spect this region, but also a desire to conceal the obvious cut in the region’s development and his - tory caused by the drastic socio-political revolu - tion and the change of population. Neverthe - less, the Mediterranean character was mainly achieved in residential and tourist architecture, 21 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska kronika, 1962/63. while for public buildings  – including school buildings – he drew more directly on contempo - rary modernist trends. It was in the context of school buildings that a major breakthrough was made in Slove - nia at the time, as an echo of the development and modernisation of the teaching process (the need for a less rigid learning space, the limitation of the number of pupils, new teaching methods, etc.) (Petelin 2020, 172–173). Changes in the field of architecture began to take effect with the introduction of a new form of education after a new Law on Primary Education was adopted in 1959. It was based on the principles of the Com - munist League of Yugoslavia and established a balance between education and upbringing (Sluga and Jelen Madruša 2006, 10). All school buildings were built according to the same mod - ernist principles: the basic unit was the class - room, which was to provide the pupil with suf - ficient space, and the floor plan of the classroom should be close to square, adequately lit and have large windows; the new floor plans should be more varied and allow for a more appropriate school design; the schools should not have more than a single storey and have dynamic, asymmet - rical compositions; construction should be pos - sible using a concrete structure, but at the same time it should be organically adapted to region - al specificities; finally, schools should stand in parks, in the middle of greenery, in contact with nature. All these principles can be found in sev - eral proposed variants for the new school at Bon - ifika. At least four variants were made 22 , propos - ing a subdivided construction around a central pavilion (variant A); an even more subdivided, clustered design of pavilions (variant B); and a simpler, rectangular pavilion design with a wide atrium (variant C). These three variants, which directly mirror the principles of the ‘new school’, were presented only in plan form. A fourth var - iant was developed, representing the realised building: an elongated, single-storey pavilion building on columns, with three connecting tracts and two spacious, external staircases. 22 PAK, 24.2, OLO Projekti, 377, 5. studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 126 All the designs provided for lush green - ery. The pavilion design provided a solution for building on the unstable ground of the former salt pans. The building was in fact the first to be built in the poor load-bearing area (Kresal 2016, 96–97). The school was mainly attended by pu - pils from the suburban estates. All the plans that were drawn up testify to the commitment of the already established Slovenian authorities who shifted the focus from not just solving the spatial problem and asserting Slovenian identi - ty, but also to expressing a special concern for the most modern trends in school architecture and also in education. In 2000, professional crit - ics described the Pinko T omažič Primary School as ‘the only example of a pavilion-like transpar - ent building in the Bonifika area between the old centre of Koper and Semedela, and it could become the standard form of construction in this area’. (Ravnikar et al. 2000) They proposed it should be protected as a cultural heritage site. However, structural problems meant the build - ing was demolished in 2005, despite its architec - tural qualities. The Pinko T omažič Primary School was the embodiment of the grand plan to expand post - war Koper beyond the former salt pans, i.e. the reclaimed Bonifika, towards the neighbouring hills. The town’s expansion and the construc - tion of new residential estates, which became necessary with the economic development that followed the construction of the TOMOS fac - tory and the Port of Koper, led to the construc - tion of several schools in the following decades. The new estates were built in concentric circles from the old town centre southwards. In the centre of Semedela, the new modernist, terraced neighbourhood, a new school was built in 1972 and named after the national hero Dušan Bor - don (Čebron Lipovec 2018, 228–229). Only sev - en years later, in 1979, a school named after An - ton Ukmar, another national hero, was built on Markovec, a hilly suburban area, west of Seme - dela. The latter complex is characterised by a dis - tinctly organic approach in its subdivided wings and its location on a ridge overlooking Koper Bay. The colour scheme of white walls, blue roofs and red details is reminiscent of the Yugoslav and Slovenian flags, although there is no docu - ment that explicitly mentions such symbolism being intentional. The school was intended for children from the newly built blocks of flats be - tween Semedela and Žusterna, which were built due to the intensive population growth, main - ly of workers from other Yugoslav republics, af - ter the intensive expansion of the Port of Koper and the extremely rapid economic development in the late 1960s and 1970s. The new and mod - ern school, located on one of the most beautiful vantage points overlooking the Gulf of Trieste, reflected the peak of ‘Yugoslav’ Koper’s econom - ic development. Concluding Discussion A dual  – historical and architectural-histori - cal – analysis of schools in post-war Koper illus - trates the dramatic changes that took place in the north Istrian region after the war, and also before it. The motives and mechanisms behind the establishment of Slovene education clearly reflect a desire to redress the injustices of fascism and earlier historical periods. This is manifested above all in the primary concern for the Slovene language, for the ‘restoration’ of Slovene identi - ty in children who had supposedly ‘forgotten’ their mother tongue or renounced it under pres - sure from the forces that wanted to assimilate and erase the Slovene character of this ethnically Figure 8: Pinko T omažič Primary School in the 1980s. (source: Personal Archive of Zdenko Bombek) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 127 mixed area. At the same time, these approaches clearly reveal the processes of establishing Slove - nian dominance in the urban space of the ac - quired territory, through the construction of a socialist social order within the Yugoslav state. However, an architectural-historical analysis of the construction and aesthetics of schools, es - pecially the first post-war primary school in the town centre, reveals a partially different inter - pretation: in the public media discourse, espe - cially during border-negotiation period of the Free Territory of Trieste (1947–1954), the school was a symbol of the coexistence of Slovenes and Italians, united under the common ideal of a so - cialist future and of fraternity – fratellanza  – be- tween two equal peoples. It was this fratellanza that the new school in the town centre was sup - posed to foster, as it was originally conceived as a school for pupils of both languages. Despite the monumental plan for a two-nation school, only the Slovene wing was built, and shortly af - ter the incorporation of Zone B of the Free Ter - ritory of Trieste to Yugoslavia, the Italian class - es were relocated. The first school then acquired a different population and – under the influence of rapid economic development and mass immi - gration – became a school for immigrants from different Slovenian regions and other Yugoslav republics. So, what is the heritage value of the Janko Premrl Vojko Primary School? It was a monu - 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 - tion. At the same time it undoubtedly testified to a historic process that could be called a post-fas - cist reaction to the suppression of Slovene identi - ty. However, due to the newly acquired post-war position of power, the Slovenian population be - came numerically and culturally dominant, also as a result of the national or republican context and the establishment of the nation state. At the same time, educational institu - tions were a monument to the new socialist re - ality where education was implemented in a new value system. This was based on the equal - ity of social classes, self-management, the secu - lar state and the integration of the Yugoslav peo - ples, while upholding the values of the National Liberation Struggle ( Narodnoosvobodilna bor- ba, NOB) – the struggle for freedom, peace and anti-fascism. The buildings of the Janko Premrl Vojko and Pinko Tomažič primary schools were therefore the primary carriers of these histori - cal and social values, while their heritage signif - icance is also based on specific architectural and technical achievements, such as adaptation to lo - cal specificities, modernist solutions, etc. It is an eloquent fact that both the town’s first post-war school and the second school in Bonifika were demolished in a short period of time at the beginning of the 3rd millennium. The official, technical justification for the demo - lition on the grounds of poor construction qual - ity is undermined by the fact that the irrevers - ible intervention was carried out without any professional evaluation of the significance of the destroyed buildings. The demolition is a typical example of symbolic erasure and negation ( nega- tion symbolique, Veschambre 2008) of the mon - uments of a bygone era and past ideologies – in this case socialism. Equally eloquent is the fact that the demolition of the schools was not ac - companied by a professional debate on their heritage significance, in which elements of so- called ‘extruded history’ can be identified. This concept, as defined by Pamela Ballinger (2012, 380), concerns attitudes towards history that ad - dress ‘uncomfortable’ topics – particularly in the post-war period. These are usually stories of de - feat, which enter the public consciousness at in - appropriate moments and are difficult to fit into public narratives and into scientific conceptual frameworks; such problematic and disputed nar - rative is the issue of the ‘exodus’ (Hrobat Virlo - get 2021). However, the demolished schools do mark the local collective memory, as proven by the jubilee monograph on the school which was published when the school was closed down and demolished (Poklar and Jelen Madruša 2006). It was prepared by former teachers and pupils. The school’s exceptional importance for the lo - studia universitatis hereditati studia universitatis hereditati, letnik 11 (2023), številka 2 / volume 11 (2023), number 2 128 cal population is also evidenced by the exist - ence of the social media Facebook groups and their exceptional activity. The Janko Premrl Vo - jko Primary School has almost 2,000 follow - ers and was founded only a few months after the building was demolished (November 2008), while Pinko Tomažič Primary School often ap - pears in posts on various Facebook groups about Koper’s history, for example Koper, kot je bil ne - koč / Capodistria com’era una volta (Koper as it used to be). The comments under the posts dis - play a wide range of different reactions – from pure nostalgia and a sense of belonging, to igno - rance about the presence of Italians. The variety of comments, emotions and attitudes expressed testify to the extraordinary heritage of these two schools, while the lack of knowledge about the history behind the buildings and the institution can again be considered ‘extruded’ history. For 15 years, the site of the Janko Premrl Vojko school lay empty, awaiting the construction of an un - derground car park and a new public park on top of it. Since 2022, the existence of the first post- war school building has been commemorated in the new ‘Museum Square’ above the car park. Each of the three entrances to the car park has a large white slab with a short introductory text and an axonometric projection of the building. This ‘site of memory’ is presently (autumn 2023) visible but invisible: the white letters carved into the white slab are completely illegible. The mem - ory of the school and its dissonant heritage sig - nificance is ‘invisibly commemorated’. However, in the absence of any interest from the academic and political spheres in eval - uating the significance of the post-war schools in the northern Istrian urban space, a special, co - incidental and symbolic moment is taking place right now (autumn 2023). After 67 years, the Slovenian and Italian primary schools in Kop - er have been reunited, albeit temporarily, in the same building – the new building of the Kop - er Primary School, while the old building of the Italian school is undergoing renovation. Archival Sources AS: Arhiv Republike Slovenije. SABAP FGV: Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio del Friuli Venezia Giulia PAK: Pokrajinski arhiv Koper / Archivio Regionale di Capodistria. Figure 9: The ‘invisibly commemorated’ history of the post-war primary school on white slabs with white letters at the northern entrance to the new underground car park on the site of the old school (photo: Neža Čebron Lipovec, 2023) studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 129 References Althusser, L. 2018. Ideologija in ideološki aparati države in drugi spisi. Translated by Z. Skušek. Ljubljana: Založba /*cf. Ballinger, P. 2012. ‘Entangled or “Extruded” Histories? Displacement, National Refugees, and Repatriation after the Second World War.’ Journal of Refugee Studies 25 (3): 366–386. Beltram, V. 1997 ‘Razvoj šolstva.’ In Zbornik Primorske: 50 let, edited by S. Valentinčič, 202–207. Koper: Primorske novice. Beltram, V. 2008. Koprski zapori: s poudarkom na političnih zapornikih v obdobju faš istične vladavine; ob 65. obletnici prve osvoboditve politi čnih zapornikov septembra 1943. 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Ljubljana: Delavska enotnost. Sluga, N., and M. Jelen Madruša. 2006. ‘Iz šolske kronike: naših šestdeset let.’ In Osnovna š ola Janka Premrla Vojka Koper 1945/46–2005/2006, edited by I. Poklar and M. Jelen Madruša, 9–12. Koper: Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka. Svoljšak, I. 1956. Koper urbanistični program. Ljubljana: Projektivni atelje. Titl, J. 1961. Populacijske spremembe v Koprskem Primorju: Koprski okraj bivše cone B. Koper: Titl. Veschambre, V. 2008. Traces et mémoires urbaines: enjeux sociaux de la patrimonialisation et de la destruction. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes. Vogelnik, D. 1959. ‘Selitve delovne sile v Sloveniji 1954–1957.’ Ekonomska revija 10 (2): 183–236. Summary The article analyses the role of establishing education and constructing primary schools after World War II in Koper, along the north Istrian coast. This is the re - gion that was the subject of major international negotia - tions on the demarcation between Italy and Y ugoslavia. The central topic is observed from two interconnect - ed perspectives and methodologies: on the one hand through the social history of the development of edu - cation, and on the other through an architectural-his - torical lens that considers the aesthetics and meaning of school buildings. The central case study is the first pri - mary school building, which was built in the historical centre of Koper after the W orld War II (in 1951), and lat - er renamed the Janko Premrl Vojko Primary School. The institution’s development is observed with the help of detailed data from school chronicles, which testify to the revival of Slovenian education in the city and re - gion. This was abolished during the fascist violence, but after World War II it became the focal point of the na - tional and political empowerment of the Slovenian pop - ulation. We also note that in the process of empower - ing the Slovenian part of the population, the institution of the school contributed to exerting pressure on the Italian-speaking population, which was gradually emi - grating from the region. After the annexation of Istria to Y ugoslavia in 1954, another process took place within the framework of the development of education, main - ly in the city centre, but also in the city surroundings - the Yugoslavisation of the urban coastal area. This was the result of intensive immigration of new residents from the entire republic and federation due to the inten - sive industrial development (TOMOS factory, port). The architectural-historical analysis of the first post-war elementary school also sheds light on the symbolism of the building at the time of its construction, during the temporary buffer state of the Free Territory of Trieste, when the building, erected on the ruins of a prison, sym - bolized the still-living ideal of brotherhood ( fratellan - za) between Slovenians and Italians in Istria, but van - ished with the abolition of the buffer-state in 1954. We also discuss Koper’s second post-war school, dedicated to Pinko Tomažič and built in 1961 on the outskirts of the city centre on the dried salt pans, or Bonifika, which marked the period of exceptional population and eco - nomic growth after the annexation to Yugoslavia. We conclude by reflecting on the heritage significance of both schools as architecture and as institution in gener - al: the first post-war school was initially a monument to utopia, and then became a monument to the city’s post- studia universitatis hereditati the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory 131 war Yugoslav identity, while the second primary school is primarily of exceptional importance as modernist ar - chitecture. These findings are crucial in light of the fact that both schools were demolished 15 and 18 years ago, respectively. Povzetek Članek obravnava vlogo vzpostavljanja šolstva in grad - nje šol po drugi svetovni vojni v Kopru, ob severnoistrski obali, torej pokrajini, ki je bila predmet velikih medna - rodnih pogajanj o razmejitvi med Italijo in Jugoslavijo. Osrednjo temo opazujemo z dveh povezanih zornih ko - tov in metodologij: na eni strani skozi perspektivo soci - alne zgodovine razvoja šolstva, na drugi skozi arhitek - turnozgodovinsko analizo estetike in pomena šolskih zgradb. Osrednja študija primera je prva stavba osnov - ne šole, ki je bila po 2. svetovni vojni zgrajena v historič - nem jedru Kopra, kasneje pa preimenovana v OŠ Janka Premrla Vojka. Razvoj ustanove opazujemo skozi na - tančne podatke iz šolskih kronik, ki pričajo o oživlja - nju slovenskega šolstva v mestu in regiji, ki je bilo v času fašističnega nasilja ukinjeno, po drugi svetovni vojni pa je postalo osrednja točka nacionalnega in političnega opolnomočenja slovenskega prebivalstva. Ugotovimo pa tudi, da je v procesu opolnomočenja slovenskega dela prebivalstva prav institucija šole prispevala k pritiskom na italijansko govoreče prebivalstvo, ki se je postopoma, hote ali nehote, odseljevalo. Po priključitvi Istre Jugo - slaviji leta 1954 se je v okviru razvoja šolstva, predvsem v mestnem jedru, a tudi v mestni okolici, odvil drugi pro - ces – »jugoslavizacije« urbanega obmor skega prostora. Ta je bil posledica intenzivnega priseljevanja novih pre - bivalcev iz celotne republike in federacije zaradi inten - zivnega ekonomskega razvoja industrije (tovarna TO - MOS, pristanišče). Arhitekturnozgodovinska analiza prve povojne osnovne šole, zgrajene leta 1951, pa osvetli še pomen stavbe ob njeni izgradnji, v času začasne tam - ponske države Svobodno tržaško ozemlje, ko je zgrad - ba, postavljena na ruševinah zapora, simbolizirala takrat še živ ideal bratstva (it. fratellanza ) med Slovenci in Ita - lijani v Istri, ki pa je z ukinitvijo STO izumrl. Obravna - vamo tudi drugo povojno šolo, posvečeno Pinku To - mažiču, zgrajeno leta 1961 na obrobju mestnega jedra, na osušenih solinah ali Bonifiki, ki je zaznamovala prav čas izjemne rasti prebivalstva in gospodarstva po priključitvi Jugoslaviji. Sklenemo z razmislekom o dediščinskem pomenu obeh objektov ter šol kot ustanove nasploh in ugotovimo, da je predvsem prva povojna šola (OŠ Janka Premrla Vojka) bila sprva spomenik utopiji, nato pa po - vojni jugoslovanski identiteti mesta, medtem ko je dru - ga osnovna šola predvsem izjemnega pomena kot mo - dernistična arhitektura. Ti ugotovitvi sta ključni v luči dejstva, da sta obe šoli bili porušeni 15 oz. 18 let nazaj.