From France where he lives,during his several travels to Trieste, Sergio Gnesda doesn’t forget to organize “Istrian” days to come back to his beloved Verteneglio/Brtonigla. He likes to take pictures of the dear places that he’s discovering only now in an always full of surprises land.
After his wanderings he often stops at CDM (Multimedia Documentation Centre), to talk together about his last discoveries.
During one of his last visits he gave us a document that we have put on-line for the navigators but that naturally can be consulted at our Centre, via Filzi 6 (5th floor).
It is the original document of the rental agreement of the building that hosts the Capodistria/Koper Seminary.
How he managed to find it. This is the story that he told us:

“In the immediate postwar my brother Lino went to Capodistria/Koper Liceo. One day wandering in the town he noticed, on a fishmonger’s counter, something different from the usual book pages used for wrapping the fish. Actually the lack of paper was considerable, for this reason books and documents from the Episcopal Seminary of Capodistria had been taken and lost and they were normally used in different ways. His instinct had well advised him: it was indeed the original document of the rental agreement of Capodistria Seminary.
He regained it and took it to Verteneglio/Brtonigla, at our home.
The document laid in a box in the attic, with his books.
Lino in 1954 left for the USA ( he is still living in Chicago) and the box stood peaceful for many years.
Then in the ‘80s I went back to Verteneglio with my sons and we went up to the attic “to look for” the treasures.
We found books, personal letters, school reports and also the agreement that we brought to Trieste.
Then we left for France where, stored in a small safety box, it remained peaceful until this year. I had to work on some lectures about the dry stone architecture and this took me to be interested in the Istrian casite ( little houses called kažuni) and making me find the Multimedia Centre of Documentation about Istrian, Fiuman and Dalmatian culture.
It was natural for me to make a gift of this document to the Centre, an institution which is devoted to preservation and valorization of Istrian History and Culture.
Now I hope it will be awaken from its sleep by who will find it interesting and useful.”

Sincerely,