As with other towns in this region, the tranquillity of present-day GORIZIA – virtually midway along the Trieste-Udine rail line – belies the turbulence of its past. The castle that dominates the old centre was the power-base of the dukes of Gorizia, who ruled the area for four centuries. After their eclipse, Venice briefly ruled the town at the start of the sixteenth century, before the Habsburgs took over. It was controlled from Vienna uninterruptedly until August 8, 1916, when the Italian army occupied it – but only until the rout at Caporetto, some 50km north. The border settlement after World War II literally split houses in Gorizia down the middle. Italy kept the town proper but lost its eastern perimeter to what was then Yugoslavia, where the new regime resolved to build its own Gorizia: Nova Gorica – “New Gorizia”- is the result.