Abstract
In July 1946, the debate concerning the establishment of the eastern border of Italy was specially fierce. In response to the manifesto of a group of French intellectuals who supported the annexation of Trieste to Yugoslavia, Fiera letteraria dedicated an issue about writers and artists from Venezia Giulia. Gianfranco Contini, having published a prescient political essay one year earlier in which Italy’s relations with the Balkan area were addressed from a federalist perspective, presented an overview of Trieste’s literature as evidence of the exemplary role played by the “Eastern gateway” in the development of Europe. The text of Contini’s essay, never republished, is provided herein.