Story
The focus is on the history and stories of stately homes and special people in Carinthia and Friuli-Venezia Giulia against the backdrop of an impressive landscape of mountains, rolling hills and the blue Adriatic Sea.
The federal state of Carinthia and the province of Friuli in the heart of the Alps-Adriatic region are not only connected by their geographical proximity, but also by their shared thousand-year history, which still has an impact on their culture today. In Carinthia, master builders from Friuli were hired to build the new provincial capital of Klagenfurt in the 16th century and later to rebuild or erect one or two castles. And for centuries, when the region did not yet know its current borders, many a Carinthian noble family determined the fortunes of large parts of today’s Friuli. There were even Friulian noble families with seats and votes in the Carinthian provincial parliament.
The cinematic journey leads from Mageregg and Eberstein castles in Carinthia to magnificent estates in Friuli such as Villa Manin, Villa Pace, Villa Tissano and Villalta Castle, on to the town villas of Görz/Gorizia/Gorica and Miramare Castle on a rocky outcrop near Trieste.
The two filmmakers were guests of Contessa Maria Teresa Christalnigg von und zu Gillitzstein at Villa Cigolotti Montereale, Teresa Pace Perusini at Villa Pace and Conte Giorgio Strassoldo at the two castles of Strassoldo.
In Trieste, which is often referred to as “Vienna by the sea”, the journey takes you to the city’s oldest coffee house, Café San Marco. To this day, the once Austrian port city with its imperial buildings exudes Habsburg flair. And you get the impression that this corner of the world – as the writer Paolo Maurensig put it – really is the universe in miniature.
Production data:
Format
Documentary, 52 min, 2022
Production
GS-Film, ORF/3sat
Written and directed by
Björn Kölz and Gernot Stadler
Camera
Gernot Stadler
First broadcast
5.9.2022, 20.15 ORF/3sat
Production management
Monika Orsini-Rosenberg
Distribution
ORF Enterprise