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Opicina Opčine | |
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 Carnival feast at Opicina | |
  Opicina Opčine Location of Opicina Opčine in Italy | |
| Coordinates:45°41′15″N13°47′19″E / 45.68750°N 13.78861°E /45.68750; 13.78861 | |
| Country | Italy |
| Region |  Friuli-Venezia Giulia |
| Province | Trieste (TS) |
| Comune | Trieste |
| Elevation | 330 m (1,080 ft) |
| Population (2015)[1] | |
• Total | 8,009 |
| Demonym | Opicinesi |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 34151 |
| Dialing code | (+39) 040 |
| Patron saint | Bartholomew the Apostle |
Opicina (Slovene:Opčine), formerlyPoggioreale del Carso in Italian, is a town in northeasternItaly, close to theSlovenian border at Fernetti (Slovene:Fernetiči). Opicina is afrazione of thecomune ofTrieste, the provincial and regional capital. The town has a large Slovene population, with Slovenian being widely used alongside Italian in private and public institutions. The first town near Opicina isSežana in Slovenia, there is also the nextrailway station.
It is located on theKarst Plateau, 3 miles north ofTrieste, a seaport on theAdriatic Sea.
The name Opicina is ofSlovene origin. It derives from "ob p'čine" ("ob pečini" in modern standard Slovene), meaning "by the cliff". Thus, it is among the Italian towns and villages inFriuli-Venezia Giulia with a name ofSlavic origin. BeforeWorld War I, it used to be known in Italian as Opcina, a name still used in the localTriestine dialect. During theFascist regime, the name was firstItalianized into Villa Opicina, and subsequently renamed to Poggioreale del Carso. In 1966 it was renamed again as Villa Opicina. However, it has been frequently referred to as Opicina, including on road signs.
It is inhabited by aSlovene minority in Italy. According to the last Austrian census of 1911, over 89% of the population was of Slovene ethnicity.[2] In the following decades, this number fell significantly: according to the census of 1971, just above half of the population of the settlement belonged to the Slovene speaking community, while the rest were mostly Italian speakers.[3]
Since the 1990s, immigration from the city of Trieste and other predominantly Italian-speaking areas has most probably reduced the Slovene speakers to a minority. However,Slovene language is still widely used in the settlement, both in private and public life. Most of the official signs arebilingual, Italian and Slovene.
The local Slovenes speak a distinctive version of theInner Carniolan dialect, which shows strong influences of the neighboringKarst dialect.
The railway station Villa Opicina serves trains entering Italy fromSlovenia, and as of 2025, provides three daily services to and from Trieste. At railway station is bus station also. From there the local buses connect village center and Trieste.
TheTrieste–Opicina tramway, a unique hybrid of atramway andfunicular railway, links Villa Opicina with Oberdan Square in Trieste's city centre.
Media related toOpicina at Wikimedia Commons
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