Monfalcone

Monfalcone (moɱfalˈkoːne; Bisiacco: Mofalcòn; Monfalcon; Tržič; archaic Falkenberg) is a town and comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Gorizia in Friuli Venezia Giulia, northern Italy, located on the Gulf of Trieste. Its name means 'falcon mountain' (see Montfaucon in French and Falkenberg in Germanic languages). It is a major industrial centre for manufacturing ships, airplanes, textiles, chemicals, and refined oil, and the home of the Fincantieri cruise ship building company. Monfalcone is the northernmost city on the Mediterranean Sea. Monfalcone is the fifth most populous town in Friuli Venezia Giulia and the main centre of Bisiacaria territory. Joined to its neighbourhoods, it has about 50,000 inhabitants. The town lies between the Karst hills and the Adriatic coast, and it is the northernmost port of the Mediterranean Sea. In prehistoric times the area of Monfalcone housed several fortified villages called castellieri. After the foundation of the Roman city of Aquileia (181 BC), some thermal buildings were created on the hills, known as Insulae Clarae. After Ostrogoth, Byzantine, Lombard, and Frankish domination, Monfalcone was controlled by the Patriarchs of Aquileia starting from 967. The Venetians conquered it in 1420 after three days of siege, keeping it until 1511, when it fell to the French. Conquered back by Venice, it was ravaged by the troops of Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I in 1513, who destroyed the Rocca fortress. In 1521 it was returned to the Republic of Venice, under which it remained until its dissolution by the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio. From 1805 it was controlled by the French Empire until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, after which it was included in the Kingdom of Illyria, part of the Austrian Empire. Incorporated into the crown land of Gorizia and Gradisca, it belonged to the Austrian Littoral from 1849. The first shipyards arose from about 1908 onwards, among them the Cantiere Navale Triestino company building steamships for the Austro-Americana Line based in Trieste.