"Bari marks 70 years of Villaggio Trieste: a story of memory and renewal" by Carlo Coppola
Questo articolo di Carlo Coppola dal titolo "Bari celebra i 70 anni del Villaggio Trieste: memoria, storia e rinascita di una comunità" è apparso in lingua italiana sul giornale "In città Giovinazzo" indiretto dal prof. Antonio Calisi
BARI — Seventy years ago, one of the richest neighborhoods in history and memory in the Apulian capital took shape in Bari: Villaggio Trieste. To mark this anniversary, the Villaggio Trieste Committee, together with the Municipality of Bari and the Don Policarpo Scagliarini Historical Institute, is promoting a public event on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., at the former Treasury Hall (Sala ex Tesoreria) of the Municipality on Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Chi è Andrea l'Cesar che hanno bloccato gli operai di
The event aims to recall the saga of the Italian refugees who arrived in Apulia in the post-war period: not only the exiles from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia fleeing the tragedies of the eastern border, but also the families who returned from the former African colonies (Libya, Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia), from the Dodecanese, from Greece, from Romania and from the Abruzzi (sic). After years of precarious living in the city's reception centers — S. Chiara; Positano (the former convent of S. Francesco alla Scarpa); the Baracche di via Napoli (also known as Campo Badoglio, located near the municipal cemetery); the Fesca camp (in the premises of the former Ferruccio Barletta seaside holiday camp); and, at least for a period, Torre Tresca (demolished only in 1968) — in the early 1950s the IACP (Autonomous Institute for Public Housing) began building a proper masonry neighborhood, inaugurated in 1956 under the name Villaggio Trieste, to offer dignity, a home and a future to those who had lost everything. As Attorney Paolo Scagliarini points out: "The sacrifice of the Italian refugees is part of the nation's history. Preserving their memory is a duty toward the past and a commitment for the future." The evening will feature greetings from Mayor Vito Leccese, historical contributions, recollections from residents, readings by the actor Leo Lestingi, and musical interludes with Giuseppe Visaggio.
This historical and communal identity is reflected in the commemorative emblem that opens the initiative. The logo is a circular medallion enclosed at the top by the words "VILLAGGIO TRIESTE." At the center it shows a perspective view of the typical apartment buildings erected in the 1950s, among trees and the neighborhood life of the time; in the lower part, two intertwined laurel branches encircle the year of founding, 1956. The image combines the architecture of reconstruction with the symbolic value of the laurel, summing up the transformation of the pain of exodus into a new collective identity, integrated into the city of Bari.
By Carlo Coppola
