Construction of the Miners' Town in Raša (1936/37)

Abstract

Although historiography (as part of the local history of the Labin region and its coal mines) and scholarly literature from other disciplines (primarily the history of architecture) have addressed different aspects of the construction of the miners’ town in Raša, this paper focuses on the reasons, circumstances, and processes of infrastructure construction in Arsia / Raša, based both on a critical evaluation of the present research and on a study of archival sources. It has been observed that Raša – built within 547 days from April 1936 to November 1937 – was not primarily a project of the fascist regime intended to serve its glorification, but was constructed by the administration of the coal mine due to its need of new workers, in the context of increasing the production of coal for industrial and transportation purposes (railroad, navy, and maritime transport) at the time when approximately 1,000,000 tons or 10% of the Italian needs for this energy resource were pumped from the Raška Basin. The town’s construction was preceded by extensive land reclamation works in the area.