In centuries past, local people referred to Mount Cucusso in a variety of ways. The inhabitants of Basovizza nicknamed it Maček ("Cat"), perceiving in it a resemblance to a large cat with glowing eyes (two bonfires were often lit on Velika Groblja and near Jirmanec). In
Lokev, a village in Slovenia just a few kilometers from Italy, the place name Ožeg ("Burned," from the Slovene vžgati, meaning to kindle) took hold, following a fire that developed on the northern slope and spread to the outskirts of the town. Finally, the people of Grozzana called the mountain Golina, from the Slovene Gol ("bare.")[4] The eastern slope was in fact stony, devoid of trees and shrubby vegetation.
Berg Monte Kokos, Jermantze = Jirmanec, Berg Hora (i.e. Gora) = Obrovnik
Berg Tusti Verh (tolsti = fat) = Vel. Gradišče.
Some authors, such as the Slovenian Boris Čok, report that the present name Cocusso would derive from the
oronymGolina. Golina would have been translated, by assonance, into Gallina (hen), later retranslated into Kokoš (Hen in Slovene) and finally toponymically Italianized into Cocusso.[6]
Dante Cannarella, a scientific popularizer and author of numerous publications on
Trieste and the
Karst, provides another explanation.[7] According to him, Cocusso is a modern
toponym, the Italian form of Kokus, which in Slavic languages has no meaning but is simply the Slovene euphony of the pre-existing Concusso, deprived of a letter since in Slovene grammar the n cannot precede the c. The first toponym was therefore Concusso (with n), already found in maps of the 17th century and in this form still in use in the first decades of the 20th century.[8][9]
The toponym Kokoš is already present in the first Austro-Hungarian military maps of 1790. In the 1947 Treaty of Peace between Italy and the Allied Powers, the spelling Cocusso (without the n) appeared for the first time.[1] Since then, all official documents and publications mention the mountain as Cocusso, thus accepting the Slovene version that removed the n from the original name Concusso, the
etymon of which is traced back to the common root cuc, or kuk (peak),[10] found in ancient pre-Roman idioms.[11] The toponym Kuk, Kovk or Kouk is found in Slovenia in various localities.
Mount Cocusso can be reached by
CAI trails 3 and 28, which, from Basovizza, Grozzana, or Pesek, lead to the Jirmanec peak, connected with numerous trails or cart tracks also from the Slovenian slopes.
Flora and fauna
The vegetation is mainly characterized by extensive
black pine forests. On the western slope, at 550 m above sea level, there is an experimental plot of
Greek fir, planted by Austrian foresters in 1884. Just above, at an elevation of 643 m a.s.l., is a hundred
spruce trees, planted in 1936.[13][18] The southern slope is home to the typical karst thicket of
European hop-hornbeam. A few large trees are notable, including an imposing
small-leaved linden (circumference 353 cm) and an isolated
beech (circumference 273 cm).[19]
On the Slovenian northwestern slope of Mount Cocusso, a huge stone inscription had been erected in the period of the former
Yugoslavia, praising
Tito. Repeatedly removed and restored,[26] in 2004 it was the subject of an institutional clash between the
Province of Trieste and the
Republic of Slovenia. The subject of the dispute was the appropriateness of maintaining such an inscription, for some "exalting the political and moral leader of the tragic military occupation of Trieste in May 1945," for others a reminder of "the role Tito played during the struggle for liberation from fascist occupation."[27]
Cocusso is a popular destination for excursionists, hikers, sportsmen and
mountain bikers. It regularly hosts a number of competitive events, including the Kokoš Trail[30] and the Gorskega teka na Kokoš.[31] At the turn of 2011 and 2012, the 111-days of Kokoš was held, a non-competitive challenge that rewarded the most individual ascents in a 111-day time frame.[32]
^
abDecreto-legge 28 novembre 1947, n. 1430, in materia di "Esecuzione del Trattato di pace fra l'Italia e le Potenze Alleate ed Associate, firmato a Parigi il 10 febbraio 1947"
^Dante Cannarella (1994).
Il Monte Cocusso. Trieste: Edizioni Italo Svevo. p. 73. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
^Legge 14 marzo 1977, n. 73, in materia di "Ratifica ed esecuzione del trattato tra la Repubblica italiana e la Repubblica socialista federativa di Jugoslavia, con allegati, nonché dell'accordo tra le stesse Parti, con allegati, dell'atto finale e dello scambio di note, firmati ad Osimo (Ancona) il 10 novembre 1975."