Once the diplomatic battle for Gorizia/Gorica was lost in the aftermath of World War II, the new communist authorities in Belgrade hastily decided in 1946 to build the «Ersatz» administrative, economic and cultural center of the Slovenian-populated region of northern Littoral (severna Primorska). Adopting principles of Western pre-war modern-ist urbanism (Le Corbusier’s The Athens Charter), Nova Gorica, as the nascent town was called, intended to become an ideal environment for the «new working man», a showpiece of socialism vis-à-vis «crumbling» capitalist landscape on the other side of the newly settled border, conveying also the message of anti-fascism and national lib-eration struggle. However, after Tito’s split with Moscow when new conflicts erupted along Yugoslavian eastern borders, the erection of the «lighthouse» of socialism on the western border became a task of secondary importance for the authorities in Ljubljana and even less in Belgrade. Using materials from archives in Nova Gorica, Ljubljana, and Belgrade, this article sheds light on the relationship between the authorities at local and republican level concerning this prominent project. It shows how the authoritative decision about radical modernization was imposed by the top communist decision-makers in close collaboration with the architects, who considered themselves the teachers of the new way of life. Eventually, this millenarian mission failed in a couple of years, leaving further development of the new urban center of the border region to the initiative of local political and economic elites, which shaped the town.
