Amedeo Duca D'Aosta Airport – Gorizia

Gorizia's Amedeo Duca d'Aosta Airport is one of those places that tell a story before being explained. Built in 1912, when Gorizia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was initially conceived as a military flight school, in a then-peripheral but strategic area, already embracing the idea of borders as spaces of connection.

With the passage of Italian control after the First World War, the airport grew rapidly and became a key hub for Italian military aviation, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. Units, pilots, and aircraft operated here, contributing to the development of the national air force during a crucial phase of its technological and strategic evolution.

In 1942, the airport was named after Amedeo di Savoia, Duke of Aosta, a symbolic figure of Italian aviation and twentieth-century military history. This naming definitively established the site's identity, not only as an infrastructure, but as a space of remembrance.

After World War II, the airport entered a new phase: alongside military operations, it also hosted civilian and scheduled flights, maintaining an active role until the early 1960s, when commercial traffic was gradually transferred to Ronchi dei Legionari Airport. From that moment on, the area did not lose its function, but rather transformed it: it became a space dedicated to sports aviation, specialized aeronautical activities, and cultural and educational initiatives.

Today, Gorizia Airport is a place of great historical and symbolic value, recounting over a century of European aviation evolution and, at the same time, the history of a frontier territory. The presence of the Monument to the Aviator, dedicated to the Duke of Aosta, strengthens the connection between memory, landscape, and cultural identity.

Part of the cross-border context of GO! 2025, the airport represents a point of interest that combines history, technology, and tourism potential: a place worth discovering to understand how Gorizia and its surrounding area have always engaged with Europe, long before the term "borderless" became fashionable.

A site that not only looks to the past, but continues to offer inspiration for new cultural narratives, events, and development paths, making it a significant stop for those visiting the cross-border European Capital of Culture.