Ruzzier Giacomo

Giacomo Ruzzier (Piran, 3 June 1905 -21 March 2004)

 

He was the son of Anna Fornasaro, who died prematurely during the tragic pandemics of the Spanish flu, and seafarer Giorgio Ruzzieri, who served in the Austro-Hungarian Navy at Mali Lošinj during World War I. Already as a young man, Giacomo began to sail initially on board various Piran sailing ships (San Giusto, Marietta, Buonavia, Giordano) and subsequently across all world seas on board ocean going ships owned by Lloyd Triestino. In 1926, he was one of the co-founders of the Piran Maritime Consortium, in which numerous Piran seafarers were integrated.

He completed his military in the Venetian Arsenal on board the OS-47 torpedo boat, then earned his living on numerous Italian ships. In 1930 he married Nicolina Petronio »Baldissera«, a citizen of Piran, in the Church of Saint Mary of Health. He lived with her no less than 73 years. The news about the birth of his son reached the seafarer Giacomo in Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) in India.
Giacomo Ruzzier was, the same as his father Giorgio earlier on, an ardent socialist. Out of deep respect for the ideas of Antonio Sema, a citizen of Piran, and for friendly relations with his son Paolo, he came closer to the Communist Party of Italy. As a fervid anti-fascist, he was also active in the resistance movement after 8 September 1943 and the arrival of the German Army.
After the liberation and arrival of the Yugoslav Army, Giacomo strived, as an ardent Communist, for a fair coexistence with the new authorities, but when increasingly disappointed he ascertained that new injustices were taking place he resigned from the SIAU (Slavic-Italian Anti-fascist Union). During the Cominform (Communist Information Bureau) crisis in 1948 he experienced ever greater pressures owing to the Italian Communists' loyalty to Stalin. Among other things, the Police arrested and took away, in his presence, his 14-year old son suspected of anti-Yugoslav operations. Father and son, who later also became a seafarer and officer of the Italian Financial  Police at Sea, stuck to their different political views which, however, in no way diminished their close ties, love and mutual respect.

In his 94th year, Giacomo Ruzzier  created with his own hands a model of the Piran trabaccolo, which was eventually donated by his son Gianni to the Maritime Museum Sergej Mašera Piran. A few years ago, Giacomo donated the Piran Seafarers' Banner to the Museum of Istrian History and Culture in Trieste (IRCI).
Giacomo Ruzzier died on 21 March 2004 and is resting along his wife Nicolina in the cemetery of his native Piran.

 

Franco Juri