TheTriveneto (Italian:[triˈvɛːneto]) orTre Venezie (Italian:[ˈtrevveˈnɛttsje];Venetian:Tre Venesie,lit. 'Three Venetias';German:Venetien), also often referred to asNorth-Eastern Italy or simplyNorth-East[note 1] (Italian:Italia nord-orientale orNord-Est), is ahistorical region ofItaly, traditionally including western areas of present-daySlovenia andCroatia. The area is made up of the three smaller historical regions ofVenezia Euganea ("Euganean Venetia"),Venezia Giulia ("Julian Venetia") andVenezia Tridentina ("Tridentine Venetia").[1] This territory was named after theRoman region ofVenetia et Histria.
Nowadays, the nameTriveneto is more commonly used in theNorthern Italian languages, while its original titleTre Venezie is still in use in theSouthern Italian languages,[citation needed] and it is restricted to the three administrative regions ofVeneto,Friuli-Venezia Giulia andTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol (that is to say, the provinces ofBelluno,Bolzano,Gorizia,Padua,Pordenone,Rovigo,Trento,Treviso,Trieste,Udine,Venice,Verona, andVicenza). This area also corresponds to theRoman Catholic Ecclesiastical Region of Triveneto.[2]
Until theFrench Revolutionary Wars theRepublic of Venice controlled Venezia Euganea (theDomini di Terraferma) and some parts of Venezia Giulia (Monfalcone and most ofIstria; some other areas were also held at various times). The other areas were part of theHoly Roman Empire: Venezia Tridentina corresponded to the Prince-Bishoprics ofTrent andBrixen and southern parts of theCounty of Tyrol; the remainder of Venezia Giulia was split between thePrincely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, theImperial Free City of Trieste, theMargraviate of Istria and parts of theDuchy of Carniola. Aside from the ecclesiastical states all of these were controlled by theHabsburg monarchy (Austria); Trent and Brixen were both incorporated into Tyrol in 1803 (Reichsdeputationshauptschluss). The city of Fiume was removed from the Empire and transferred as aCorpus separatum to theKingdom of Hungary (which was also ruled by the Habsburgs) in 1779.
The Republic of Venice was occupied and dissolved byFrench Republican forces during theItalian campaign of 1796–1797. While its formerLombard areas became part of theCisalpine Republic, the eastern areas corresponding to Venezia Euganea and Venezia Giulia (as well asDalmatia) passed to the Habsburgs as theVenetian Province, giving them control of the wholeTriveneto region (after 1803). This was short-lived however as in 1805 (Peace of Pressburg) Austria was forced to cede Tyrol toBavaria and the Venetian Province to theNapoleonic Kingdom of Italy; western parts of Gorizia were also ceded to Napoleonic Italy in 1807. In 1809 (Treaty of Schönbrunn) Bavaria ceded southern Tyrol (including all of the modernTrentino province and the area aroundBolzano) to Napoleonic Italy (Department of Alto Adige), while Austria ceded large amounts of territory, including all of its remaining parts of Venezia Giulia to the NapoleonicIllyrian Provinces; Istria and Dalmatia were also transferred from Italy to the Illyrian Provinces. This division of territory remained until Napoleon's defeat.
From 1815 (Congress of Vienna) until 1866 the entire area was once again underAustrian rule, with Venezia Tridentina forming part of the County of Tyrol, Venezia Euganea theKingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, and Venezia Giulia theKingdom of Illyria until 1849, then theAustrian Littoral thereafter. Although initially part of Illyria, Fiume was restored to Hungary in 1822; it was transferred toCroatia in 1849 (March Constitution (Austria)) but restored to Hungary again in 1860.
Italy annexed Venezia Euganea in the 1866Peace of Prague following theThird Italian War of Independence and a controversial plebiscite (seeVenetian nationalism); Venezia Giulia and Venezia Tridentina passed to Italy in 1920, following the end ofWorld War I (Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)); Fiume briefly became theFree State of Fiume until it was annexed by Italy to Venezia Giulia in 1924.
AfterWorld War II, Italy retained the majority of Tre Venezie, but lost Slovenian and Croatian majority areas of the upperIsonzo valley (together with the eastern part of Gorizia, today calledNova Gorica), the city ofFiume, most of theCarso region and most of Istria toYugoslavia (Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947). The areas of Trieste (Zone A) and north-west Istria (Zone B) were formed into theFree Territory of Trieste: in 1954, Italy reannexed Zone A, while Zone B was ceded to Yugoslavia.
This territory [specifically Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia] is known well for its close ties with the German and Slavic worlds. Its cultural history dates back to the people who inhabited the area before and during the Roman Empire (Euganei,ancient Veneti,Raeti,Carni, andCenomani); to the Medieval duchies ofBavaria andCarinthia,Patriarchate of Aquileia andcomuni; to theRepublic of Venice and theAustrian Empire.
Currently,Italian is used as the official language in all the regions, but other local languages are spoken by the population:Venetian,Friulian,German,Ladin, andSlovene, in their several dialects. German is a co-official language in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol; Friulian is co-official language in Friuli-Venezia Giulia; Slovene (Friuli-Venezia Giulia) and Ladin (Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol) are co-official languages in some municipalities.