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1: INTRODUCTION
World War II dividing the area between Italy and Yugoslavia. On either
side of the border the two towns of Gorizia and Nova Gorica grew
separately but still intertwined, affected by Cold War politics. The border
between Italy and Slovenia has had a long and complex history and its
relationship with the Iron Curtain is far from clear. Many would say this
border, formerly between Yugoslavia and Italy, was never part of the Iron
Curtain. This is why I chose this border for my first case study as it would
help my discussions of what the Iron Curtain really was, or was not. Located
in a valley south of the Alps and north of the Karst plateau this area consists
of arable land which has been cultivated for centuries.
Apart from my fieldwork in the Gorizia/Nova Gorica area I also travelled
along the western and northern borders of Slovenia. Starting from the town
of Koper, on the Adriatic Coast, I headed north until reaching the border
with Austria and following the Slovenian-Austrian border I tried to cross
the border in as many places as possible until I reached the tripoint between
Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. I wanted to get an idea of how the landscape
changed throughout this border and what the actual border and its
crossing points look like today.
My second field study was carried out on the border between the Czech
Republic and Austria in the area around the Podyji Park located near the
town of Znojmo in southern Czech area of South Moravia (Chapter 5). The
park developed as part of the grounds of Vranov Castle in the 18 th century
and became part of a war landscape from the 1930s as it was drawn into
World War II and subsequently the Cold War. The, then Czechoslovakian,
border was heavily militarised from the 1950s until early 1990s. My studies
here, in contrast to the study in Slovenia, dealt with the type of border that
we traditionally connect with the Iron Curtain. The study here was mainly
focussed on the Czech side of the border although some observations were
also made of the landscape on the Austrian side.
I also conducted research into the situation along the Inner German
Border and in particular Berlin (Chapter 3). Although I did not carry out
fieldwork to the same extent as the two other studies I was able to get a good
understanding of the history and the changing fabric also of this border.
The Inner German Border, especially the Berlin Wall, is highly important
for the understanding of what the Iron Curtain was, or still is, and the fact
that I did not carry out a study to the same amount of detail here does not
suggest I find it less important. In the study of the German-German border
I was also able to rely on the fairly extensive research that has already been
carried out here, including archaeological studies of the Berlin Wall. I also
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