Austrian Littoral

The Austrian Littoral was a crown land (Kronland) of the Austrian Empire, established in 1849. It consisted of three regions: the Margraviate of Istria, Gorizia and Gradisca, and the Imperial Free City of Trieste. Throughout history, the region has been contested frequently, with parts of it controlled at various times by the Republic of Venice, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Yugoslavia among others. The Kingdom of Italy annexed greatest part of it after World War I according to the Treaty of London and later Treaty of Rapallo. After World War II, it was split between Italy (West) and Yugoslavia (East). Trieste had strategic importance as Austria-Hungary's primary seaport and the coast of the Littoral was a resort destination, the Austrian Riviera. The region was a multi-national one, with Italians, Slovenes, Croats, Germans and Friulians being the main ethnic groups. In 1910, it had an area of and a population of 894,287. History The territory of the medieval Patriarchate of Aquileia had gradually been conquered by the Republic of Venice (Domini di Terraferma) until the early 15th century. In the east, the Habsburg archdukes of Austria, based on the March of Carniola they held from 1335, had gained Suzerainty over Istrian Pazin in 1374 and the port of Trieste in 1382. They also purchased Duino and Rijeka (Fiume) on the northern Adriatic coast in 1474, and inherited more territory in Friuli when the line of the Counts of Görz died out in 1500. In 1511, Emperor Maximilian I annexed the city of Gradisca from Venice.