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ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS, MIGRATION, AND INTERCULTURAL

RELATIONS IN TRIESTE, ITALY

Evgenia Bitsani, Department of Management of Health and Welfare Unit,

Technological Educational Institute of Kalamata, Kalamata, 24100, Greece, email:

venia_nino@yahoo.gr, tel: 2721096675 fax: 2721021630

Androniki Kavoura, Department of Marketing and Advertising, Technological

Educational Institute of Athens, Aigaleo, 12210, Greece, email: nkavoura@teiath.gr,

tel./fax: 2109828455

Submission: November 2009

Revision: December 2009

Eugenia Bitsani is Assistant Professor at the Technological Educational Institute of

Kalamata, Greece in the field of Administration of Human Resources with emphasis

on social/cultural services. Her research focuses on human resources management,

models of intracultural management, general cultural management and planning

cultural policies especially in multicultural societies.

Androniki Kavoura is Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing and Advertising,

at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens, Greece in the field of advertising

and communication. Research interests include communication, advertising, cultural

policy, tourism.

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ΑBSTRACT

¨ Purpose: Τhe present paper is part of a study associated with the migration

phenomenon and the formation of intercultural social and economic relations which

emerged in Italy in the 19th

century and its practical and social implications in the 21st

century. The city of Trieste, Italy consists of a case study which examines the

formation of organizational networks in the Mediterranean and in Europe which

consist of the basic body of the so called Greek commercial dispersion.

Design/methodology/approach: This study presents data collected from the analysis

of archival documents. It is part of the scientific field of social anthropology and is a

case study where participative observation was employed. Interviews with people

offered the researchers ground to explain the purposes and reasons for the

implementation of decisions related to the creation of the organizational networks.

Findings: It discusses the relation between the national group with its unique cultural

identity and entrepreneurship, emphasizing the cultural characteristics of such

relation. The consequences from the existence of these networks in all sectors of the

life of the community of these areas are investigated. To a third level of discussion,

the mapping and analysis of the cultural interactions which emerged as a result of

these networks shaping an integrated cultural identity is examined.

Originality/ Value: The project succeeds in making a theoretical and practical

contribution to the way the development of organizational networks presented for

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Trieste, Italy can consist of a typical recourse for other areas of the Mediterranean

where cultures and identities intermingle nowadays and migration and policy

directions need to be implemented.

Paper type: Research Paper

Keywords

entrepreneural networks; commercial dispersion; organizational networks; national

teams and cultural influences; cultural interactions; interstate identity; migration.

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1 The theoretical framework of the research

Networks consist of a system of relations which develop due to different factors,

which interrelate to each other, through a common channel of communication.

Through these relations, flow of information emerges as well as services and

resources (Beriatos, 1999; Bitsani, Kavoura and Kalomenidis, 2008). Organizational

networks are characterized from the element of co-operation among ‘partners’ who

represent a specific geographical space as well as legal entities, public or private.

Specifically, for the area of the Mediterranean Sea, they consist of the dominant

analytic framework of history of commercial business (Gekas, 2005).

The dynamic and forceful states which were created in the 17th

and 18th

centuries

in Europe and in South East Asia in the 19th

century, new sources of funding were

created, mainly through commercial exchanges. Under these circumstances, specific

groups were activated from different international minorities such as Jewish and

Chinese who quickly responded to the needs of commercialization of goods and this

is still the case nowadays (Danos, 2006). This is a complex issue for which economic

or cultural explanations are not enough (Casson, 1990). The close relation between

the national group and entreprereneurship has been highlighted from relevant

literature. Enterprise activity depended on familial and on national networks, which

assured capital, social and psychological security and technical knowledge.

The concept of commercial entrepreneurship depended on economic theory.

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According to the specific approach, the meaning of business entrepreneurship is

illustrated by the Austrian School of Hayek and Kirzner, who focus their interest on

the way private information is used in the competitive procedure of the market so that

balanced tendencies are created, especially at markets which are under continuous

fluctuations. According to this approach, businessmen function as mediators aiming at

the profit which is mainly assured in the abnormal conditions of the market (Godley,

2001), while the national teams adapt to the possibilities that the new environment has

to offer which differ in time and space. That is why it is interesting to focus on the

mutual relation between the national dispersed group and entrepreneurship

(Chatziioannou, 2003).

On the other hand, the meaning of networks has been a necessary tool for the study

of national groups and businesses. Networks as an analytic tool were used in

sociology and social pcychology in the 1930s to define a typology of interpersonal

relations, which led to the formation of the ‘clique’. In the 1950s, sociologists from

Harvard and anthropologists from the School of Manchester processed the informal,

intercultural relation which developed in the networks even with mathematical types.

Research for cliques, groups (e.g., cliques, clusters, and blocks) quickly led to the

empirical discovery that these systems consisted of coherent subgroups which formed

relations through conflict and the exercise of power (Scott, 1991; Wellman and

Berkowitz, 1988).

Discussion around economic activities, emphasize the significance of trust which

develops especially in small networks. A basic function of the network is the flow of

information which develops among members, a characteristic which may have more

importance from the movement of products. Social bonds which support the networks

decrease the cost of the same information, while at the same time, guarantee their

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validity. This perspective, which concerns the cost of information, emphasizes the

social basis of the economic activity; they are the private networks of the family,

within which ethical education and technical skill of the members. The basic elements

of ethical education are summarised to the respect towards the elderly and the more

experienced. At the same time, transmission of commercial knowledge is important

within the same family.

Since the 18th

century, the structure of family business and also its strategy, relate

closely on national and local ancestry and the traditions of the new venue. Multiple

motives for volute, such as psychological, economic, religious, will ask endogamy

within the local group and will determine the economic behaviour in the framework

of determining its economic behaviour within the framework of craft union. The

geographical space of ancestry, that functions as the connecting bond and leads to the

society of ancestry, consists of the reference and psychological boost, the place of

social security and fulfilment, the first source of economic knowledge. The evaluation

of cultural standards in the social composition of national groups has been discussed

in the literature: a number of people believe that they belong in a national team either

because of a virtue, or because of a real or a concept of common ancestry (Casson,

1997, p.117; Kitromilides, 1989; Shibutani and Kwan, 1965).

The reproduction, the evolution and the development of network are the most

important parameters of entrepreneurship. The knowledge of these parameters takes

place with apprenticeship through the offices of business establishments. Within these

establishments, tacit knowledge is transmitted in combination with the essential

technical knowledge, the merchandise, the way means of exchange function, the

correct use of book-keeping, elements which brings the apprentice in contact with the

mechanisms of the market but also with the moral standards of public and private

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behaviour. Book-keeping from merchants of the commercial correspondence, of the

exchange archives (shipping bills, bills, insurance policies) followed the same typical

procedure for a long period with few differences. The business text books and letter

cards present a consistent typology not only in time from the 18th

till the 19th

century,

but also in different languages. Merchant apprenticeship passed through stages,

scriveners of different grades, such as underlings and mates, up to the last stage of

apprenticeship where the apprentice was awarded with his professional and social

position (Papageorgiou, 1986).

Knowledge and reproduction of business behavior within the national network

safeguarded economic and social security in its members. At the same time, the

protection of the network could be tight for the members who decided to abandon

commercial career. Inclusion in the network because of national, religious and local

ancestry functioned as a security shield since the powerful members of the group

offered economic and social protection (Bitsani and D’Arcangeli, 2009).

On the other hand, personal and group identity refers to the ancestry of each one;

identities are shaped through the interrelation with the others (Kiriakidis, 2008,

p.2014; Lytras, 1998) which nowadays have been multiplied because of globalization

(Kavoura, 2007). That is why, there is emphasis on the distinctiveness and

multiplicity of identities, all of which claim their position in society. Nowadays,

quality of life is associated with indexes which refer to the dimensions of health,

education, environmental quality, economy, social schemes and social security, social

participation and personal satisfaction (Berg, 1986). Thus, public security and

discipline depend on the harmonious symbiosis of the different groups. They have

specificities and different cultures, yet they live in the same space.

The aim of this research focuses on examining the way entrepreneurship activity

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through the commercial channel of dispersion may influence a specific culture using

as a case study the Greek community in Trieste, Italy and how the cultural

interrelation of the Greek merchants in Trieste, Italy are employed in every day life, in

the people’s communication and contribute to the quality of life (Goffman, 1974,

1975). People are not only influenced by their culture but they construct it, build it,

elaborate it with different strategies according to their needs and circumstances

(Kiriakidis, 2008, p.2213). Intercultural orientation consists of another way to analyse

the cultural variety, not through cultural characteristics which are considered to be

independent situations and homogeneous entities but through interactions based on

the logic of variety and complexity and not on differences (Balandier, 1985).

Intercultural approach does not have as an objective aim to determine the other

confining him/her within a network of meanings, neither to create a series of

comparisons based on an enthnocentric scale. Through such perspective, cultural

differences and similarities are determined, not as objective standards with statistical

character, but as powerful relations between two entities where one attributes meaning

to the other (Abdallah-Pretceille, 1986). The paper focuses on dynamics and strategies

rather than on structures and categories.

2 Research Method

After World War II influences between social anthropology and history were many

and mutual, the influences which emerged from the convergence of these two

scientific branches are mainly detected in methodology. The first anthropological

projects which deal more methodically with the incorporataion of historiographic

practise took place in the 1970s. In most cases, these are anthropological projects

which focus on the demonstration of social change and dela with agricultural

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communities of Europe (Block, 1974; Silverman, 1979).

In the 1980s, the issue of the relation of history and anthropology had new

dimensions. New explicit models are formed which give meaning to the

methodological emphasis to the action of subjects, while new definitions of social

experience and social practise the approach of histoy from anthropology is being

reoriented (Kotsoni-Dimitriou, 1996).

This study is a case study. In particular, the study is part of the larger study,

“Administration of social services in multicultural societies, contemporary approaches

of the intercultural relations and of the intercultural education: The case of Goritzia-

Trieste-Komotinis-Thessalonikis” within the framework of co-operation with the

Italian University of L’aquila, School of Education. Case studies provide the

possibility for identifying patterns of concepts that emerge (Yin, 1989, p.33). This

study presents data collected from the analysis of archival documents including

original archival documents from the library of Trieste, Italy (Biblioteca civica), the

archives of the Greek community there, archives of the Stock Market-the Chamber

Commerce there (Borsa), as well as the archives of the Greek embassy in Italy, so that

the commercial entrepreneurship in the area could be examined longitudinally. In that

way, the results which emerge from the archives, the texts and the historic records for

the specific society, contribute to the further research.

Meanwhile, due to the fact that research is part of the scientific field of social

anthropology and is a case study, participative observation is employed and

interviews with people who offer the researchers ground to explain the purposes and

reasons for the implementation of decisions related to the creation of the

organizational networks, such as members of both Greek and Italian communities,

businessmen, officials, the president of the Greek community in Trieste, Italy, the

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president of the Chamber Commerce, the president of the Greek-Italian Chamber

Commerce and the mayor of Trieste, Italy.

Besides, the researchers contact interviews with businessmen of Greek ancestry

and present testimonies of members of the Greek community, and of Italians so that

the intercultural character of the city is certified. On these grounds, a system of

relations interacts and shared by a group, past or the experience of migration. In

particular, open interviews in the frame of discussion took place during 2008 and

2009 and duplication checks of the results from the field study, the notes from the

archives, the promotional material for the

city and the results which emerged from particpant observation. In order to

understand the national group and entrepreneurship, there are three factors which

interact: the structures of opportunities (market conditions), the characteristics of the

group (selective migration, culture, creation of social networks), group strategy

(relations of opportunities and national characteristics) which develop at different

periods of routes followed by merchants-businessmen who moved towards Trieste.

The combination of field participant observation at a concurrent level with historic

research from the available archival sources and at the same time, the use of these

resources for the checking of data of field research, restores the dialectic relation

between past and present. In that way, concurrent research records social behaviours

and interprets their cultural meaning while at the same time, by adopting the historic

perspective a time frame inserts the system of relations, determining through the

continuities and discontinuities of the society under study, the dimensions of social

change (Douglas, 1992).

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A diverse range of sources is searched in order to verify the results from multiple

sources of data employing ‘triangulation’ as Maxwell mentions and thus, “gain a

better assessment of the validity of the explanations” (Maxwell, 1996, p.75-76).

Ιnterpretative phenomenology is a method which permits the identification of themes

-a statement of meaning that runs through all or most of the pertinent data or one in

the minority that carries heavy emotional or factual impact (Holstein and Gubrium,

1998, p.150; Myrray and Chamberlain, 1999, p.220). Issues that emerge in the data

and are repeated, create patterns for the research. Then, themes are headed under the

umbrella of a superordinate theme, a theme that incorporates many sub-themes. The

first issue that the results brought forth is the significance of the Greek

entrepreneurship in Trieste, Italy. The second issue which emerges from the research

is associated with the cultural influences of the Greek business dispersion.

3 Main Results

3.1 Greek entrepreneurship in Trieste, Italy.

In the axis of ground forces, the Absvourgian Empire is equivalent in power to that

of British Empire, in the sense of the institutionally organised geopolitical space,

which includes different population groups of merchants-businessmen in a

homogeneous economic and political environment. The ground merchant networks

depend on the transmission of agricultural raw materials of animal husbandry and of

cottage industry. The movement of the migrants who followed the ground routes of

the Ottoman Empire were mainly cities of Macedonia, Ipirus and Thessaly having as

destination which were economic centres of the Balkans and of Central Europe. The

presence of Greeks in these routes, but also in the organisation of ground merchandise

was of great significance (Charlaftis, 1993).

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At a period when the limits between being a driver or merchant were not stable in

ground routes, selective settings could be established in major civil merchant centres.

In the Roman Empire, the meaning of limes emerges, as frontiers (Nouzille, 1991, pp.

255-256). A well established route led from Moschopolis to Thessaloniki, then to

Zemoun and to Boudapest. The entrepreneurhsip horizon of ground migrations was

more confined in combination with that of sea migrations. Sea movement offer big

possibilities of capital gathering with the prerequisite that the merchant captain, would

participate to the merchant capital and to the profit, offering the ship and the

movement. The drivers (carriers) of the ground routes do not seem to play the same

role in the merchant exchanges. In the ground routes businessmen do not follow the

standards of the sea transfer which led many Greeks to shipowner activities (Charlafti,

2001).

The place sojourners stayed is of importance for the tranformation of their

businesses. The feudal order in Hungary with the “Roman” type social stratification,

within the political cluster of the Abvourgian monarchy hindered modernisation in the

economy of place for a long period (Kasaba, 1988). With the motive of the

development of agrarian and husbandry products from Hungarian areas and their

merchant feed from Austria, many Balkan merchants will move to the

Austrohungarian area, for which Stoianovich has mainly suggested non-economic

evaluation criteria such as ideology, alliances, leading ability, education etc

(Stoianovich, 1992).

The first Greeks who inhabited Trieste came there in 1718, during the treaties of

Pasarovits; all foreign merchants were allowed to develop economic activities in the

geographical space of the Apsvourgian Empire with favourable conditions (Bitsani

and D’Arcangeli, 2009). From this point onwards and throughout the 18th

century,

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Greek presence in Trieste, develops rapidly, which coincides with the urban plannig

of the city (Katsiardi-Hering, 1986). Trieste, a new city in 1718 was in position to

absorb quite easily the foreign population in contrast with other neighbouring

commercial centres such as Venice, which began to compete it until it surpassed it in

the end of the 18th

century.

In 1719, the emperor Charles the Sixth, declared it together with Fioume (Rijeka)

as a free port. The core of the new city was built in the foothills of San Giusto (where

the medieval city is located), when Maria Thiresia was the queen, after the alluvion of

the salterns and the city slowly expanded surrounding the port (Archives of the Greek

Community, No 173).

Greek sojourners mainly come from Ionian islands, Peloponnese, Crete, Cyprus,

Konstantinoupole and Smirni and in the beginning were doing business as retail

merchants (History of the Greeks, 2005). In the passage of time, they succeed in more

daring activities owing to the international circumstances, such as the Treaty of

Kioutsouk Kainartzi (1774) according to which Greek ships could get permission to

travel under the Russian flag. Besides, the Napoleonian wars (1790-1815) and the

isolation of France from the British navy, creates a huge gap for the merchandise at

the East Mediterranean, which was substituted, by the Greek shipowners and the

merchants from the islands and west coast either unlawfully, or lawfully (Katsiardi-

Hering, 1986, p.539-546). The port of Trieste, after 1815 becomes a great merchant

centre, since it consists of the “connecting bond” between East and West, due to its

strategic position between Levante (Zante) and Central Europe. In the 19th

century,

the port of Trieste, is connected with many other ports opening up new sea co-

operations which create a wide organizational network covering the whole Europe. In

particular, coastal business routes were carried out with those business routes of

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Western Balkans, such as Ragouza, Preveza, Galaksidi, and with the Ionian islands in

Greece (Katsiardi-Hering, 1986).

After the foundation of the Greek state, Trieste, is connected with new merchant

centres such as Patras, Kalamata and Hermoupolis, Greece. The merchant co-

operations are of equivalent significance with Ottoman (Turkish) centres, such as

Konstantinoupole, Smirni, Tsesme, as well as with the islands of the Eastern Aegean

such as Chios, a region from where most merchants of the Greek community in

Trieste came from. A significant merchant partner was Aleksandria, Egypt with which

was connected with in 1837 (Katsiardi-Hering, 1986).

With every merchant centre Trieste was connected, Greek merchandise was

dominant and this had as a result the development of bigger cooperations raising the

richness and the power of the community of Trieste (Bitsani and D’Arcangeli, 2009).

This fact illustrates and the number of Greek ship owners which came in the port,

which were second to the Austrian ones (Katsiardi-Hering, 1986). Gradually, they

developed partnerships which were mainly personal family oriented businesses based

in Smirni, Konstantinoupole, Chios Crete, Peloponnese, Ipirus or Vienna, Odissos,

Livorno, Marseilles, London and later in New York. The contribution of Greeks was

embryonic in the industrial life of Trieste till the mid 19th

century. The only sample of

such Greek contribution was illustrated with the tradecrafts of red dying strings

according to the Levantine art, soap industries, laboratories for the production of the

drink rosoglio at a period when the mill of the Oikonomou family reached its highest

point in 1875 when 350 wrights worked. The same period, Greek merchants are stock

holders in cotton spinning mills, refineries, emery factories, chaferies etc (Archives of

Biblioteca Civica, Vol. II, III, IV).

The insurance industry is where Greeks excell even nowadays. In 1789 the first

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Greek insurance company (Società Grecadi Assicurazioni) was established, and other

follow where Greeks participate with the majority or with a huge capital (Compagnia

d’ Assicuratori Particolari/1801, Stabilimento d’ Assicurazioni/1804). In other

businesses (Amici Assicuratori/1801, Nuova Compagnia d’ Assicurazioni/1822) the

cooperation of Greeks with “Illirious” was definite. In the business sector, the

obstacles which created the separation of the community in 1782 could not be seen, as

well as religious reasons which did not suspend the cooperation with Hebrews which

is obvious in the security and the bank sector (Archives of the Greek Community File

1).

In 1826, Angelos Yannikesis from Zante established Adriatico Banco d’

Assicurazioni, while in 1838 due to his efforts the famous Insurance business

Riunione Adriatica di Siturtà was created with the majority of the capitals coming

from Greeks but also from Hebrews, Italians, Austrian till after the first World War I.

This was also the case for the big insurance business of Assicurazioni Generali where

Hebrews from Trieste and the area of Venice, Austians and Germans, Italians from

Trento, Greeks (Rallis, Skaramagas, Stamatis among them) and Serbs from Dalmatia

(archives of the Stock Market-the Chamber Commerce ‘Borsa’, File 91).

It was after 1850 that a Greek aristocracy of merchants is in charge of business and

industry of Trieste while the Greek population there amounts 5000 people and many

Greeks of Trieste also develop commercial activities in Greece. The Greek Kiriakos

Katraros had the initiative for the creation of the stock market of Trieste which was

created by Greeks and he became his first president. Greeks who covered the 28% of

the capital will have two more presidents in the stock market of Trieste, Antonio

Dimtriou in 1905 till 1911 and Ioannis Skaramagas from 1914 till 1916. There are

few of the most affluent Greek business merchants who neverthless, distinguish for

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their cultural sensitivities and activities such as Amvrosios, Rallis, Alexander

Manousis, Konstantinou Chatzikonsta, Paul Ralli and George Afentoulis.

There are also Skaramaga and Stavropoulos families. The families of Skaramaga

were from Chios, and have proved to be competent in organizational management

(Pagnini, undated). Their activities are geographically located in Austria, Hungary

and Russia. In the middle of the 19th

century, part of the Skaramaga family, came in

Trieste and becomes part of the Austrian aristocracy cycle and attains the title of

Altomonte (Archives of the Stock Market-the Chamber Commerce ‘Borsa’, File

1929/D /33). Paul Rallis (1845-1907) who attain the title of the baron had developed

famous business activity while he contributes in various ways the Community.

Meanwhile, Trieste reaches the number of 24000 inhabitants in 1800, 4% of whom

were Greeks, from 10000 inhabitants in 1700. Trieste was under three French

Commands (1797, 1805 and 1809). Greeks succeeded in creating the first insurance

business and till nowadays, Trieste is the centre of Insurances. There were 15

insurance businesses between 1805 and 1807, four of which belonged to Greeks. In

the 21st century, Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà, the General Insurance Businesses of

Trieste, still have their headquarters in Trieste but also Greek merchant and insurance

businesses.Some tankers and container ships reach the port due to the crisis in the

ground routes of the Balkans.

3.2 Cultural influences of the Greek business dispersion

Cultural influences of the Greek business dispersion is the second issue which

emerges from the research. The economic development of the Greek communtiy

results in the creation of an important social and spiritual work (personal interviews

with the president of the Greek Community Mr Kosmidis and the distinguished

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member of the community and Mr Cuccagna, president of the Non Profit Institution

Skaramagas, in 2008 and results from the participant observation throughout 2008).

Trieste is a city that takes the initiative of supporting different cultural values and

their diffusion. Through the diffusion of language, education and culture Italians,

Greeks, Jewish, Germans, Slovaks, preserve and stabilise their presence in Trieste.

Tangible works of the cultural influence of Greeks can be seen in the port, the

building of the Greek community Palazzo Carciotti and the Greek Orthodoxan temple

of Holy Spirit and Saint Nikolas. A few meters away the canal is located and there

lies the catholic temple of Saint Antonios and the Serb Orhtodox temple of Saint

Spiridonas. Piazza Tommaseo, the Provincial Command post, the old building of

Lloyd Triestino on the left and right hand side of the big piazza Unita d’ Italia

surrounded by the City Hall and the General Insurances building of Trieste

(Assicurazioni Generali) which was the old residence of Nikolaou Strati (casa Strati)

which was built in 1824 (Volume ‘Arte e Pieta, I patrimoni culturali delle opere pie’

Catalogo della Mostra, 1980).

The merchants and the economy with which they were associated, put their mark

on the character of the city. Trieste is the city of multilingualism, multiculturalism and

mixed marriages is a solution for young couples and complaisance is the case. It is in

this distinct identity, the so called triestinità, that we owe the rich literature production

of Trieste such as Italo Svevo or Umberto Saba.

In regard to the Greek community, the Church consists of the connecting bond,-

among Greek schools and Greek libraries. A determining step immediately afterwards

was the creation of the first Greek school in 1801 και of the Library which is even

nowadays is the most significant that Hellenism has created abroad. One may find in

the library the issues of the newspaper “New Day” published in Trieste since 1855.

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Unique masterpieces are printed in Trieste, old publications and few printed material

of religious content. In particular, there are the Argonaftika of Apollonios Rodios

(Frankfourt 1546) and the publication of Geoponikou Agapiou Landou (Venetiou

1686). Rare works of Byzantine writers, theologians, classical scholars and historians

such as the Divine Mass of John Christomos (Venice 1644), the Myriobiblos of Fotios

(Magentia 1653), the Chronicles of John Zonara (Venice 1729) and the Sixth Bible of

Konstantinos Armenopoulos (Venice 1766). Other important works is the book for the

holy and saint of Gabrihl Seviros (Venice 1691) the Treasure of four lanaguages of

Gerasimos Vlachos (Venice 1723), Geography of Meletios Mitros (Venice 1728), the

History of Byzantium of Ioannis Stanos (Venice 1767) and the Church History of

Meletios Mitros (Venice 1783-1795). The richness of the library contributed to the

Economian Award. Since 1882, the Library was enriched from the books that were

sent in the Committee of the Economian Endowment for participating in the prize till

the Second World War II. 1940 could be considered to be an arris. The library

stopped being enriched (Papaioannou, 1982). After Margaritis Konstantinidis death

(1933), interest for the library was shown by Ioannis Skaramagas and Kleovoulos

Kedros but also Konstantinos Pizanis, Emmanouil Trakakis, Georgios Konstantinidis,

Spuridon Nikolaidis and Evangelos Pantarrotas, who willingly accepted the

contribution offered by the Greek state through the Hellenic Institute in Venice.

Nowadays, according to the interview with Mr Kosmidis, the president of the Greek

community in 2008 aims to create a new library which could securely host the whole

archival material of the community (Library of the Greek community, 21/31).

The Museum and the Library are in perfect condition, open to the public, while the

archives and the Greek cemetary in Trieste have been preserved so that researchers

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may document the historic archives. The Greek School operates nowadays and a lot of

Italians attend Greek lessons offered by the Greek community.

Ioannis Skaramagas collected old artifacts, valuable pieces of art and in general,

everything that was associated with the history of Trieste. His collection became

known since it was permanently enriched and “Fondazione” was converted to a

museum which operates nowadays. The Skaramaga Museum is run from a special

committee of the Municipality of Trieste. A member of the Board of the Greek

Community of Trieste participates as a member and this member is elected from

Board of the Greek Community of Trieste.

The personal passion of Socrates Stavropoulos for art and culture led to the set up

of another big collection which formed a demanding museum housed in Via Imbriani.

Stavropoulos was born in Trieste in 1882. His father was Greek and his mother

coming from Trieste. He studied business in Vienna and began to publish papers and

research in magazines and newspapers of Trieste. He transmitted his business interests

in Boudapest, where he built a company which produced paper and kept it till 1945.

He began collecting valuable books pieces of art since the beginning of the century .

The municipality of Trieste showed interest in the preservation of his collection which

took place in 1952 in the form of a museum under the name Collezione including

paintings, sculptures and designs of European artists, mainly Hungarians of the 20th

century (personal interview with the president of the Greek Community Mr Kosmidis

in 2008). Among the collections of the abovementioned museums and the other

museums of the city of Trieste, there are many works of art of Greek and Greek

Italian artists who lived in the Greek community in Trieste. This is the work of painter

and poet Kaisara Sofianopoulou (1889-1968), which was distinct. There are three

Greek museums in the city. The Strati residence in Trieste, accommodates the Town

21

Museum of History and Art. The town had a Greek hospital during1788-1822. Two

Greek schools were created offering an innovative for their age programme since

demotic language and the sciences were taught, courses which provide students with

the necessary knowledge for the practise of merchandize. The teaching of these

courses consisted of the application of the beliefs of Korais according to the education

Greek students should attain (Volume ‘Il Nuovo Giorno, La Comunita Greco-

Orientale di Trieste: Storia e patrimonio artistico-culturale’, 1982).

Finally, within the framework of girls’ care in 1828 the Greek community

established the community school for girls. The Greek community was reinforced

when migrants came during the Greek evolution, who developed significant merchant

activity. Merchant activities were the most essential way of participating in the

ecomonic life of the city, this is why those abstaining had a serious problem of

survival (Katsiardi-Hering, 1986, p.563-564).The decline of the Greek community

came with the end of the First World War I and the annexation of the city to the

Italian state.

3.3 The organisation-administration of the Greek community in Trieste

The cultural standards of the businesman in the Empire of Austria-Hungary were

connected with ownership of land and titles of respect. Especially, in the Hungarian

grounds, where a big percentage of Greek merchants was gathered, the social

synthesis of the non agricultural populations was mainly formed by the clergy,

aristocracy, the inhabitants of the free cities and depended on a complex

administrative system (Smith, 2000).

A lot of information exists in the local and central archives of the states where

Greek emigrants gathered in regard to the organisation of the communities, the

22

rleigious and spiritual activities and their everyday life which is kept in the Greek

communities outside Greece, such as Comunita Greco Orientale di Trieste. Secreatries

General of the Community and mainly Margaritis Konstantinidis were responsible for

keeping order in the files of the archives. Katsiardi- Hering also contributes to the

maintenance of the files.

Since 1750, the presence of the Community is associated with the presence of

Greeks in Trieste. People from all over Greece came to live their mark on the huge

books of Trieste where weddings, baptisms, deaths and burials of the people in the

community are recorded. The community records its members in special boards since

1783. These catalogs on their base of which contributions and fees for the Community

were collected provide a picture for the economic presence of the Greeks and it is of

significance for the city. The multiple economic functions of the Community cover

the mos part of the Archives. Since the end of the 18th

century till nowadays receipts,

documents, blocks and financial statements accompany the book keeping of the

Community. There are also interesting data for the behaviour of the community as an

owner and capital holder and for the history of building and housing for this great port

of Adriatiki. The part of archives associated with the banks and the movement of

capitals, underlines the involvement of the communities in the more contemporary

economic practices of their period.

The administration of the community as is seen from the deeds of meetings of the

Parliament and its assembly, as well as the ‘protocol’, or the archives under the

heading ‘correspondence’, form the picture of a well organised institution. The effort

of detailed and reliable registrations, not only for the economic but also for the

administrative issues, is also seen from the Cemetery. There is rich informative

material concerning the acitivities of Greeks in Italy. Its thematic and temporal

23

definition of such material is such, where its equivalent in Greece does not exist

which may be explained from the difference in the development of state bureaucracy

and the culture of administration between the West European states and the Ottoman

Empire or the Greek reign in the 19th century and opens up ways for the study of the

Greek community. There is specificity in the religious practice in Trieste

encompassing the community practices towards priests and the strict programming of

the devotional activities, as this is outlined in the communication of the Community

with the priest. Teaching of the Greek language and training of the young members of

the community is presented with the function of the community school, from 1801 till

1930. The documents of the school in combination with text books and the teaching

aid material comprise of a valuable material for the historian of Greek education.

The archives of the community includes old maps and plans such as this of Athens

of 1837. Nowadays, it is located in a specially designed space of the third floor of the

building of the Community in Via III Novembre 6. Its most significant part, the so

called ‘Archives’, the wills of the donators, the registers of births and deaths are kept

in the safe of the first floor (Cassa Forte). After its preservation and classification, the

publication of the catalog of the arhcives is afoot. Due to the multiple character and

the parallel historic route of the city and the Greek community, the archives consist of

a valuable capital for the history of the Community and the bridge of communication

of Greek scholars with the historians of other nations of equivalent historic

experience.

The Greek Community functions under the Charter of 1786, which has not actually

changed although there have been small changes and publications. The twelve

member Parliament (Capitolo), elected every two years from the General Assembly of

Greek members of the Community, has the general advisory initiative for the

24

adminitration of the issues of the community, the executive power passed and passes

to the three Commissioners elected by its members. There are documents of the

organisation of the community of the Greeks from their point of departure (which was

mainly the Ionian and the Aegean, the coast of Peloponnese and Minor Asia) but also

the tradition of the religious communities and parishes of the Catholic Austria

(personal interview with Mr Cuccagna president of the Non Profit Institution

Skaramagas in 2008; personal interview with Mr Lagouvardos, member of the

Administrative Committee of the Non Profit Institution Skaramagas in 2008; Il

Capitolo 1786).

4 Conclusion: the intercultural identity of the city

The contemporary scholar of Trieste Elio Apin wrote in 1968, “Trieste has been to

a greater degree than Vienna the city where populations of monarchy felt like it was

their own”. Trieste is the city loved by James Joyce who stayed in the old town in the

beginning of the 20th

century and tried to speak Greek from a Greek under the name

Santos. It is the city where multilingualism and multiculturalism is the rule, the mixed

marrriages the common solution and quite obvious the tolerance (with some

exceptions in regard to the Slovenian issue) towards the different culture. Trieste was

and is rich in contrasts which could not be dissolved. It does not have a central base

neither a unitary system of values. Since it has become a free port, Trieste owes an

important part of its affluence to the interest shown by the state to the development of

the city and the boost which was given to it from the affluence of Trieste. The port of

Venice and the border geopolitical location of Trieste, do not allow a big development

to such a degree that tradition maintains hopes to the older generation and

expectations for the younger generation for the revival of the glorious past under the

25

Empire of Austria-Hungary (personal interview with Mr Cuccagna, president of the

Non Profit Institution Skaramagas in 2008).

The dissolve of the Empire of Austria-Hungary consisted for Trieste its point of

decline and its population immobility. After the shrinkage caused by the Second

World War II, Trieste and the few Greeks tried to be incorporated within the new

orientations of the city. According to Mr Cuccagna (personal interview with the

president of the Non Profit Institution Skaramagas in 2008) another reason for the

city’s decay is its cut from the country which belongs after the Second World War II

in Yugoslavia (the area of Istria which belongs nowadays in Slovenia and in Croatia

with the prevalence of socialism there and the declaration of Cold War. The route of

the Greek community is in an extremely sensitive point, the community will be stiff in

the past as a museumised item which will decrease till it finally dies or new

innovations should emerge changing many things from nowadays established order of

the community.

Communities in Trieste, Italy such as the German and Greek ones managed to

preserve to a significant degree their cultural heritage and values since they did not

refer to it as opposite but as supplementary to the Italian culture and within this model

of intercultural relations, not only have they created diglossy but also a double

culture, an intercultural one which shows how well people of different cultures may

live together. In contrast, the belief in the Slovenian (Istrian) community, is that the

distinct lingual and cultural identity may only be preserved through the preservation

of national identity, otherwise, there is the one way towards social and cultural Italian

pressure of assimilation. Trieste, Italy can consist of a typical recourse for other areas

of the Mediterranean where cultures and identities intermingle with migration and

26

policy directions need to be implemented so that people who migrate to live in

another country are not dealt as tourists or visitors or as foreigners.

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