Relatively recently, I participated in the Rotary Trieste International Club conference. The speech and subsequent debates concerned the connections between the most important port of the north-eastern Adriatic and the Romanian space. Besides the approximately 25 thousand compatriots living in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, especially in its most important cities (Trieste, Udine, Pordenone), I discovered a Romanian presence that completes the picture of this city at the intersection of religions, cultures and civilizations. I am referring to Elena Schutz-Crissoveloni, the wife of the French diplomat Paul Moran, who lived most of her life in Trieste, or the novelist Claudio Magris from Trieste, whose words about Timisoara are flattering not only by their beauty, but also by their relevance: “Beautiful and not devoid of melancholy, despite the ubiquitous greenery, Timisoara tells a multiworld and complex story through every stone… the magnificent, huge and silent Unirii Square is watched over by the Trinity Column, as in all the squares of Central Europe… The city is the capital, the epic center of endless history of the ancient Danube”. The examples could go on, but the size and history of the Romanian consulates is fascinating, and this aspect is even more important because the writer Panait Istrati himself appears in relevant documents related to what we now call consular assistance and protection.

The city of Trieste had and still has its dynamism, a hub for road, sea and commercial transport, as well as a banking and insurance center, a space for different communities and religions. The first consulates appeared as early as 1732 as a logical continuation of international dynamics that promoted economic exchanges: the “Declaration on the Establishment of Freedom of Movement and Transit in the Adriatic Sea”, signed on June 2, 1717 by King Charles VI of Habsburg, the provisions of the Peace of Passarowitz, according to which trade with all Ottoman territories was allowed without restrictions, the declaration of the cities of Trieste and Fiume Porto Franco in 1719 by the same sovereign, etc. From the Middle Ages in Trieste, both the “Banca Della Madonna Per La Sicurta Maritime” and the notarial office were active, as mentioned in the first document of this type drawn up by a notary from Monfalcone (October 14, 1328), a town located a few dozen kilometers from Trieste. The appearance of other institutions completed the economic development of the port city: Trieste Stock Exchange (1755), Lloyd Austriaco Navigation Society (1836), Assicurazioni Generale Austro-Italiche (1831), which in 1848 became Assicurazioni Generali, Banca Commerciale Triestina” (1859), “Banca Popolare di Trieste” (1868), “Scuola Superiore di Commercio” (1877), the last one, the foundation of Baron Pasquale Revoltella, whose donations form part of the picture gallery to the museum of the same name: “Revoltella”.

Therefore, starting from October 18, 1732, when Giacomo Bazeo was named “consul of the Greek and Turkish nation”, more and more states were represented in Trieste: the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily (1751), Denmark (1752), Spain (1753), France ( 1769), Great Britain (1774), Portugal (1784), Prussia (1784), Raised gate/Ottoman Empire (1800), etc. It is also worth noting the appointment of the first consul of Venice in Trieste, Girolamo Marzani (1761), as well as the opening of the consulates of the Duchy of Modena (1778) and the Republic of Genoa. (1780) or the Kingdom of Sardinia (1780). The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 contributed to the expansion of consular activity in Trieste. At the end of the 19th century, the consulates of Belgium, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil appeared. The completion of the construction of the Transalpina railway line (1909) further facilitated the transportation of goods and people from the German states and imperial Austria to the latter’s main port, Trieste. Also relevant in the context is the fact that ships transported goods from the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Tuscany, the Papal States, WallachiaIonian islands, Hanseatic cities, Oldenburg, Rostock and Jerusalem, Sardinia and Prussia.

The first consul of Romania in Trieste was Niccolò Sevastopoulo, co-founder of the Alba factory in Trieste and the Greek insurance company La Fenice. He is described as an “entrepreneur who, at the age of 18, started a commercial career with a subsidiary of Ralli Brothers in India, after which he returned to Trieste and devoted himself to the business running his father’s company.” It is important to mention the opening of the Romanian consulate in Fiume (1884), whose consul was J.M. Papiniu. In fact, the current Croatian port of Rijeka was one of the favorite places of travel for the royal couple Charles I and Queen Elizabeth, as evidenced by periodic visits in 1896, 1897, 1898, 1900, 1901, 1903. Later In 1926, the Fiume Prefecture report described the Romanian consul Francesco Vio (1863-1954) as “a declared Austrian. Only German is spoken at his residence.”

Romania’s second consul in Trieste, appointed in 1879, Giovanni Antonio di Demetrio, had a long career as a result of the tumultuous years after the end of the First World War. From his headquarters at 2 Rossini Street, he handled the repatriation formalities of Romanians returning from the American continent (Trieste and Genoa were the main ports used by Transylvanian Romanians going to/from the USA, especially in the early 20th century), and also participants in the battles of the First World War, especially Transylvanians from the Austro-Hungarian army. Some of them even during the war formed the so-called “Legione Romena” and transferred with Italian logistical support to the Moldavian front, becoming “Volontari della Grande Unione”, which will take place on December 1, 1918. May Late, January 14, 1920, military the ministry in Rome appealed to the General Commissariat in Trieste with a request for “assistance measures for emigrants in transit in the city bound for Romania.”

The profile of Consul Giovanni Antonio di Demetrio was similar to that of his predecessor: an entrepreneur of Greek origin, with probable family ties to Greeks from Romania: “In 1911 he entered the Southern Administration… married to Fanny Vernudaci, whose sister Despina is the Wife Constantino Costi…

An important document is a written request dated September 11, 1920, by which Giovanni Antonio di Demetrio addressed the General Civil Commissariat of Venice Giulia regarding the members of the staff of his mission:

“His Majesty the King of Romania decreed the following by Decree No. 3215, issued on July 30, 1920, in Bucharest:

– Mr. Antonio Giovanni di Demetrio, Vice-Consul

– Mr. Walter Smokino, secretary.”

Earlier, with the entry of Romania into the war in 1916, the activity of the consulate was interrupted. After its restoration, by decree No. 1121/July 4, 1919, the mission was transformed into the Honorary Consulate General, which was active in the interwar years. On December 15, 1921, the consular mission organized a conference in the Small Hall of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry entitled “Romania and its relations with Italy”, which was conducted in Italian by the Romanian writer Zoe Garbea-Tomellini, the wife of the Romanian consul. in Genoa, the promoter of our country in numerous cultural events in “Genoa, Milan, Turin, Padua and Trieste” and the daughter of the writer Smaranda Georgiou.

The Demetrio family enjoyed the attention and gratitude of the local authorities, as stated in the report of the Quaestor of Trieste, Pietro de Filippis, to the prefect, Bruno Fornaciari, dated March 5, 1924: “Giovanni Antonio and Glavina Betkovici with their son. Demetrio Antonio, born in Trieste in 1894, a tenant in Via Romagna no. 24, of good moral and political conduct…

The father is a businessman and consul general of Romania in Trieste, who was knighted by the Romanian government to the title of baron.” The holder of this office (Baron Giovanni Antonio di Demetrio) died after 48 years of mission on April 23, 1927. Later, on October 23, 1927, his son Antonio di Demetrio was proposed as Honorary Consul General of Romania with the territorial electoral jurisdiction: “Trieste, Gorizia, Zara, Fiume, Udine, Belluno, Istria”. The exequatur was obtained on October 25, 1928, and the headquarters of the mission was at Via San Niccolò No. 14. Antonio di Demetrio, the owner of a commercial company specializing in the import of tobacco and wood from Romania, was supported in his consular activities by Mrs. Natalie Flogel. In a report of the Trieste Quaesture dated December 15, 1935, the new Consul General was described as follows: “He is not a member of the National Fascist Party, but shows loyalty to the institutions of the regime. Married to Afenduli, Xenia di Alessandro…is engaged in the commercial activity of rice and other foodstuffs…performs the consular service with zeal and justice.”

The context created by the Second World War was different, and obviously the post-conflict institutional evolution in Trieste was in turn very different. In the case of the Honorary Consulate General of Romania, the conflict also brought with it a family tragedy. It is about the death of Alessandro di Demetrio, one of the sons of Antonio di Demetrio, a volunteer of the UNPA, an institution similar to the “Civil Defense”. The young man, who was only 18 years old, participated in operations to provide relief to the civilian population of Trieste after the bombing by Allied aircraft on June 10, 1944, accidentally died in those dramatic days. It should be noted that Alessandro di Demetrio worked in the consular mission of Romania since January 4, 1944. – Read the entire article and comment on contributors.ro