Ustje - zgodovina

History of Ustje

The date when Ustje was first mentioned is unknown. The nearby town Ajdovscina (Castrum ad Fluvium Frigidum - The Fortress by the Cold River) existed already in the antique times.

The name of the village (in Slovene language means "a confluence of two rivers") most likely derives from the nearby confluence of the rivers Hubelj (Fluvius Frigidus) and Vipava. The second explanation that seems possible is connected with the name of the patron saint of the church, St. Justus, to whom the parish church was dedicated in 1776. According to tradition the original name of the village was Justje, which then gradually changed into the present name Ustje. The presence of the rather uncommonly used name "Justus" in the history of the village shows the historical connection between Ustje and Triest - the town of St. Justus. In the medieval sources os Trieste (The Third Book of the Trieste Catedral Donations), the name of the vilage appears for the first time in connection with the death of a certain Hermacora (Mohor) de Ustia.

The oldest preserved monument in Ustje is the church of St. John at the top of the hill. The portal at the entrance carries the date 1618 engraved in stone. The position and architecture of the church and the walls prove that this very place probably stood as a watch tower with a camp at the time of Turkish invasion.

During the period of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy the village flourished up to the year 1914 when the "Great War" began. Men of all ages had to leave their homes and several lost their lives for the Emperor in the trenches of the far-away Russia and Carpathian Mountains. In 1915 "steel arms began their bitter battle" as the poet Gregorcic wrote, very close to Ustje on the river Soca.

The villagers found themselves in the frightening frontline hinterland.

After the downfall of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy the Italians gained supremacy over these parts. The progress of the Italian fascism brought people two dark decades and eventually the second "Great War".

The darkest chapter in the history of Ustje is undoubtedly August 8, 1942.

At that time there were soldiers of the Italian Alpine Division Giulia placed in the barracks of Ajdovscina. The commander of the carabineers (the Italian police) in Ajdovscina was Cir Pasquale Marone, undoubtedly an Italian. By many he was respected as an honest man. Responding to complaints of the local people he persecuted his own fellow-countrymen, above all the soldiers of the Alpine Division Giulia, who looted in the villages and troubled people. He supposedly even slapped a non-commissioned officer. That is why his soldiers plotted against their carabineer college. In the night from 7^th to 8^th August 1942 they enticed him to Ustje under false pretenses that there were partisans in that village. There they themselves shot him from an ambush and put the guilt on the villagers. Ustje awoke that morning to find the village encircled by Italian soldiers and hardly anyone could forebode what the day would bring. People were driven from their homes to the small square in front of the church where machine guns were waiting for them. They put all male inhabitants along the churchyard walls with the intent of killing them. The worst that could happen was prevented by the intervention of the mayor of Ajdovscina and the owner of a sow-mill (the present factory LIPA in Ajdovscina), Rizzato. Nevertheless, eight people were killed and all male villagers were taken to the prisons of Gorizia where they spent 40 days in uncertainty. The women and children were confined to the Ajdovscina school, but they were released the next day. The village was completely burnt down, with the exception of the church, the school and a few houses. Danilo Lokar, a writer from Ajdovscina, described this sad event in his book: "The Doomsday in the Village".

The difficult postwar years followed. This was a period of great poverty, renovation of houses and not at last the disappointment with the heartily expected "freedom", which became an empty promise and brought back words to people, but stole their thoughts.

The villagers returned to cultivating their fields and vineyards again, mowing their meadows and built a new Ustje.

A new danger threatened the village once more in summer 1991 with the ten-day war for the independence of Slovenia. Young men from Ustje put on their uniforms again, but not the Austrian uniforms like their grandfathers, nor the Italian uniforms like their fathers or the Yugoslav uniforms like their older brothers...

Those days the Yugoslav Army tanks roared along the fields by the village continuing their inglorious advance to Rozna Dolina and other border-crossings near Gorizia. The inhabitants of Ustje "bid them welcome" on the bridge by the old village oak-tree, not far from the spot, where the carabineers' commander Marone was killed on August 8, 1942...