Image of Gorizia’s Healthy Environment and of Gorizia as the “Austrian Nice” between Enlightenment and Nationalisms

Carl von Czörnig’s image of Gorizia and its surroundings as the “Austrian Nice” or, more precisely, his work Görz Oesterreich’s Nizza; nebst einer Darstellung des Landes Görz und Gradisca (1873–1874) contributed to the development of the climatic health resort in Gorizia. The belief in the healthy climate and clean waters of the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca was already present and also attracted some respectable, albeit few, visitors. The scientific basis of this belief very likely comes from the work Clima Goritiense (1781), written by Anton Muznik, chief provincial physician of the Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca. Czörnig’s work, which connects several historiographical traditions of the wider area, belongs to the period of increasing national conflicts. In the context of Central European multi-ethnic areas of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, national relations should also be taken into consideration when researching the tourist development of a certain destination or, better yet, its stagnation.