[6] Originating as a watchtower or a prehistoric castle controlling the fords of the Isonzo River, Gorizia first emerged as a small village not far from the former Via Gemina, the Roman road linking Aquileia and Emona (modern Ljubljana).

The name Gorizia was recorded for the first time in a document dated April 28, 1001, in which Holy Roman Emperor Otto III donated the castle and the village of Goriza to the Patriarch of Aquileia John II and to Count Verihen Eppenstein of Friuli.

Count Meinhard of the Bavarian Meinhardiner noble lineage, with possessions around Lienz in Tyrol, is mentioned as early as 1107; as a vogt of the Patriarchate of Aquileia he was enfeoffed with large estates in the former March of Friuli, including the town of Gorizia, and as early as 1127 called himself Graf von Görz, Count of Gorizia.

Between the 12th century and early 16th century, the town served as the political and administrative center of this essentially independent County of Gorizia, which at the height of its power comprised the territory of the present-day regions of Goriška, southeast Friuli, the Karst Plateau, central Istria, western Carinthia and East Tyrol, and the Windic March with Bela Krajina.

In 1500, the dynasty of the Counts of Gorizia died out and their County passed to Austrian Habsburg rule, after a short occupation by the Republic of Venice in the years 1508 and 1509.

By the end of the century, however, the Catholic Counter-Reformation had gained force in Gorizia, led by the local dean Johann Tautscher, who later became bishop of Ljubljana.

In ecclesiastical matters, after the suppression of the Patriarchate of Aquileia in 1751, the Archdiocese of Gorizia was established as its legal successor on the territory of the Habsburg monarchy.

Unlike in most neighboring areas, the revolutionary spring of nations of 1848 passed almost unnoticed in Gorizia, thus reaffirming its reputation of a calm and loyal provincial town.

On the eve of World War I, Gorizia had around 31,000 inhabitants and was the third-largest city in the Austrian Littoral, following Trieste and Pula (Pola).

Another 14,000 people lived in the suburbs, making it one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the Alpe-Adria area, ahead of Klagenfurt, Maribor, Salzburg, Bozen or Trento.

The Italian Army occupied Gorizia during the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo in August 1916, with the front line moving to the eastern outskirts of the town.

With the Battle of Caporetto in October and November 1917, when the Central Powers pushed the Italians back to the Piave River, the town returned to Austro-Hungarian control.

After the Battle of Caporetto, Gorizia became the focus of three competing political camps: the unified Slovene nationalist parties that demanded a semi-independent Yugoslav state under the House of Habsburg, the Friulian conservatives and Christian Socialists who demanded a separate and autonomous Eastern Friuli within an Austrian confederation, and the underground Italian irredentist movement working for unification with Italy.

In early November 1918, it was occupied by Italian troops again, who immediately dissolved the two competing authorities and introduced their own civil administration.

The borders of the town were expanded, absorbing the suburbs of Salcano (Solkan), Podgora, Lucinico, and San Pietro di Gorizia (Šempeter pri Gorici), as well as the predominantly rural settlements of Vertoiba (Vrtojba), Boccavizza (Bukovica) and Sant'Andrea (Štandrež).

After the Italian armistice in September 1943, the town was shortly occupied by the Slovene partisan resistance, but soon fell under Nazi German administration.

The national border was drawn just off the town center, essentially just to the west of the Bohinj Railway line, putting Gorizia into a peripheral zone.

Several landmarks of the town, such as the Kostanjevica Monastery (Convento di Castagnevizza), Kromberk Castle (Castello Coronini, the Sveta Gora (Monte Santo) pilgrimage site, the old Jewish cemetery, and the northern railway station, were on the Yugoslav side of the border.

In 1948, the authorities of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia (with president Josip Broz Tito's special support) started building a new town called Nova Gorica (lit.

Sheltered from the north and from the east by a mountain ridge, Gorizia is completely protected from the cold bora wind, which affects the rest of the neighboring areas.

Designated border crossings are (Gorizia-Nova Gorica): The chart shows the historical development of the population of Gorizia from the late 18th century to the eve of World War I, according to official Austrian censuses.

Religious figures who lived and worked in Gorizia during this period include Cardinal Jakob Missia, Bishop Frančišek Borgia Sedej, theologians Anton Mahnič and Josip Srebrnič, and the Franciscan friar and philologian Stanislav Škrabec.

There are many important Roman Catholic sacral buildings in the area, among them the sanctuaries of Sveta Gora ("Holy Mountain") and the Kostanjevica Monastery, both of which are now located in Slovenia.