Based on a review of the research results of historiographers and other experts on mining in the Labin region, and a critical evaluation of the archival sources preserved at the State Archive in Pazin, in this paper we are analysing the circumstances and reasons for building the miners’ town in Raša.⁹ Namely, it has usually been considered as an example of fascist régime architecture in Istria or evaluated for its architectural features.

However, although this architectural complex indisputably exhibits certain stylistic features of fascist architecture, it was not built by the régime, but by a company engaged in the extraction of coal in the Istrian mines and placing it on the market, which is why, in our opinion, the town reflects the importance of this branch of economy, of coal as an energy resource, and of the need to accommodate non‐domicile workers, all of which was essential for maintaining and increasing the annual coal production, which peaked shortly before World War II and exceeded 1,000,000 tons of coal per year.

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The construction works began in April 1936 and were carried out by workers from Bergamo, and on August 7 that same year, Mussolini visited the site. […] However, regarding the construction of the settlement, although the régime’s publicity claimed that it would be completed within 547 days, it was still being built in 1938, when 500 workers were employed to this purpose.³³

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Looking at the plan of the settlement, one can see that the central position is occupied by a square with the church of St. Barbara in the form of a mining wagon turned upside down, its belfry shaped like a miner’s lamp, and the rectory. Other public and representative buildings were located there as well, and so was the football field (and the football club, which was briefly in the Third Italian League).

To the northeast, in the direction of Labin, there was a smaller élite part of the settlement intended for the management (the villette), while to the west of the main square there were houses for the miners’ families, each comprising four two‐room apartments, as well as a hotel for single workers with four‐bed rooms.³⁴ The houses had hot water supply and sewage, and all the facilities were equipped with furniture, specially designed for this purpose.

There was also a telephone exchange with 130 lines, waterworks, public lighting, a 22‐room staff hotel, and a 152‐bed workers’ hotel (in four‐bed rooms), a heating plant, an ambulance, a post office, a school, a kindergarten, a swimming pool and other public offices, 22,000 square meters of streets and roads, a regulated stream, driveways, etc.³⁵ Of course, the whole complex seems to have been intended for workers and their families from other parts of the country, while workers from Labin and their families were not to be accommodated there.³⁶

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According to the above, and based on the scholarly literature and an analysis of archival sources, it can be concluded that the workers’ settlement of Arsia or Raša was built primarily to increase the number of workers at the local mines and boost the production of coal, and since the domicile workforce was not enough, miners had to be brought from other parts of Italy.

But although the village of Raša was built with this purpose in mind, it had particularly high infrastructure standards with regard to other contemporaneous settlements of this type (with hot water, a heating plant, sports fields, a kindergarten, a cinema, a theatre hall, etc.). Thus, Raša was created as an investment in mining, although the company was increasingly taking on features of a state‐owned enterprise and the [Fascist] régime was inclined to claim all the merits and everything that was considered a success.

Although none of this might sound especially harmful, keep in mind that the Fascist bourgeoisie needed to maximize its extraction of domestic resources not only for its policy of autarky but also to facilitate its imperialist campaigns.