Rupa

Rupa is a small village in Gorizia province with a population of 170. It is located very close to the border with Slovenia. Our main reason for visiting this spot was to discover what the border between Italy and Slovenia looks like away from border crossings and urban areas. We visited this point as part of the IBRG SITEX-23 expedition.

The village was very peaceful, and I do not recall seeing anyone at all during our visit there. The most noticeable buildings were the Italian church and across the border on a hill a Slovenian castle illustrating a historical defensive position.

The border and border markers.

It was clear where the border was when there were hedgerows, where the vegetation was dense, the markers were supplemented by tall metal poles. In the open fields the markers were not at edges of fields suggesting perhaps that land use occurred around the markers rather than up to them.