It is a major industrial centre for manufacturing ships, airplanes, textiles, chemicals, and refined oil, and the home of the Fincantieri cruise ship building company. Monfalcone is the northernmost city on the Mediterranean Sea.
Geography
Monfalcone port
Monfalcone is the fifth most populous town in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the main centre of Bisiacaria territory. Joined to its neighbourhoods, it has about 50,000 inhabitants. The town lies between the Karst hills and the Adriatic coast, and it is the northernmost port of the Mediterranean Sea.
History
In prehistoric times the area of Monfalcone housed several fortified villages called castellieri. After the foundation of the Roman city of Aquileia (181 BC), some thermal buildings were created on the hills, known as Insulae Clarae.
After Ostrogoth, Byzantine, Lombard, and Frankish domination, Monfalcone was controlled by the Patriarchs of Aquileia starting from 967.[3] The Venetians conquered it in 1420 after three days of siege, keeping it until 1511, when it fell to the French. Conquered back by Venice, it was ravaged by the troops of Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I in 1513, who destroyed the Rocca fortress. In 1521 it was returned to the Republic of Venice, under which it remained until its dissolution by the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio.
Adria factories in Monfalcone during Austrian bombing in World War I
Rocca fortress. Of medieval origin (according to a legend, it was founded by Theoderic the Great, King of the Ostrogoths), its current appearance dates to Venetian restorations in the early 16th century. The interior houses a speleology exhibition.
Roman villas and thermae: Several remains of Roman villas have been found on the territory of the municipality of Monfalcone. The sites are object of archaeological research but are not open to public. A thermae dating back to the Roman era is also present and what remains of the ancient edifice is now included in the current thermal establishment that was reactivated in 2014.[4]
The construction and design records of the ships produced in Monfalcone Shipyard Number 1 from 1909 - 1967 have been preserved in the Fondo Egone Missio Archives (Egone Missio Archives).
^Touring Club Italia: Gorizia e provincia: Grado, la laguna, il Collio, Redipuglia, l'Isonzo page 103: "...attraverso un «priviliegium imperiale» Ottone I assegnò nel 967 il «vicus Panzani», primo nucleo abitato della futura Monfalcone, al patriarca di Aquileia."; in English: "...through a priviliegium imperiale of the year 967, Otto I granted the territory called vicus Panzani, the original nucleus of the future village of Monfalcone, to the patriarch of Aquileia."
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