Izola

Izola (pronounced [ˈiːzɔla]; Italian: Isola) is an old fishing town and a municipality in southwestern Slovenia on the Adriatic coast of the Istrian peninsula. Its name originates from the Italian Isola, which means 'island'.

History

An ancient Roman port and settlement known as Haliaetum stood to the southwest of the present town as early as the 2nd century BC. The town of Izola was established on a small island by refugees from Aquileia in the 7th century . The coastal areas of Istria came under Venetian influence in the 9th century. The settlement was first mentioned in writing as Insula in a Venetian document entitled Liber albus in 932AD. It became definitely the territory of the Republic of Venice in 1267, and the centuries of Venetian rule left a strong and enduring mark on the region. The Venetian part of the peninsula passed to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in 1797 with the Treaty of Campo Formio, until the period of Napoleonic rule from 1805 to 1813 when Istria became part of the Illyrian provinces of the Napoleonic Empire. After this short period, during which Izola's walls were torn down and used to fill in the channel that separated the island from the mainland, the newly established Austrian Empire ruled Istria until November 1918. Then Istria became part of the Kingdom of Italy, until Italian capitulation in September 1943, whereupon control passed to Germany. Izola was liberated by a naval unit from Koper at the end of April 1945. After the end of World War II, Izola was part of Zone B of the provisionally independent Free Territory of Trieste; after the de facto dissolution of the Free Territory in 1954 it was incorporated into Slovenia, then a part of Yugoslavia. The newly defined Italo-Yugoslav border saw the migration of many people from one side to the other. In Izola's case, many Italian speakers chose to leave, and in their place Slovenian-speaking people from neighbouring villages settled in the town.

Izola (appliances)

Izola is one of the most historic brand names in Greek industrial history. The company was founded in 1930 as a manufacturer of metal products (mostly metal tubing) and in 1934 was taken over by Panagiotis Drakos who since 1906 owned a company involved in hydraulic equipment trading. Panagiotis and his son Georgios are connected with the spectacular rise of this company that became a dominant manufacturer of home appliances in Greece after World War II.

Izola produced equipment for the Greek military during preparations after the outbreak of World War II, while during the Axis occupation its facilities were used by the occupying powers for vehicle repair and maintenance. It recovered soon after the war and in 1951 it introduced its first electric home appliances. Soon an extended range of products was introduced (kitchen ovens, refrigerators, freezers, heaters, TV sets etc.) and the company became a legendary success story in Greek industrial history. These were the times of the Greek economic miracle and industries like Izola benefited greatly from improving living standards. Izola was a classic case of a brand name associated in people's minds with progress, modernity and a more comfortable life. Its demise, however, is equally spectacular and is in a way representative of the sad evolutions in Greek industry in general, after 1980. The beginning of the end came with the disastrous merger with Eskimo, a former competitor, in 1977, after the company had already started facing some economic problems. The new company (Elinda, for [H]ellenic Industry of Appliances) was a financial ruin only a few years later, and in 1991 it effectively went out of business altogether. Today, a huge, idle and run-down factory near Thiva bears testimony to the downfall of one of Greece's most beloved and (once) successful brand names.