More than a bookshop, which will also supply textbooks for Slovenian schools in Italy, the Trieste Book Centre will seek to link both communities and nations while advancing diversity in the border city.

A second such institution abroad after the Slovenian Cultural and Information Centre (Skica) in Vienna, the Trieste centre will also provide a place for youth to socialise and spend their spare time in.

The book centre is being launched after the only Slovenian bookshop in Trieste was closed down in spring last year due to business failure.

It is situated in Oberdan Square by the regional parliament building and close to several other Slovenian institutions, including Narodni dom, a symbol of Slovenian presence in Trieste.

The building was purchased by Trieste-based Slovenian entrepreneur Vanja Lokar, while money for the centre was also provided by the Slovenian government and both umbrella Slovenian minority organisations.

Aside from the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad, Culture Ministry and both minority organisations, the Slovenian Book Agency and two Trieste-based Slovenian publishers were also involved in the project.

"This is a new story on the ruins of an old one that will provide answers to the challenges of tomorrow," Dejan Podgoršek, an advisor to the minister for Slovenians abroad, has said.

Minority officials see the new centre as a great opportunity for the community to underline its presence in the city and to promote the Slovenian language and culture in a modern and appealing way.

"Last century was a time of difficult challenges and fierce opposition that marked us profoundly. Today it's time to look ahead without forgetting about the past," president of the SKGZ minority organisation Rudi Pavšič has said.

He highlighted that the centre "will become a place of dialogue" not far from Narodni dom, which burnt by the Fascists in the 1920s, was visited by the presidents of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia five years ago.

The other minority organisation, SSO, believes the centre will enrich the cultural scene in Trieste and will serve as an "ambassador of Slovenian culture in Italy".