Trieste Town guide. The monuments on San Giusto hill date back to the remote Roman and Medieval times, bearing witness to Trieste as an ancient town; the beginning of the modern town, however, could be said to date back to 1740, when Maria Teresa rose to the throne of Austria: her reforms and initiatives affected all aspects of Austrian, and therefore Triestine, life. The town stands out against the blue sea and sky at the very tip of the Italian Adriatic Sea and appears like a sort of final Mediterranean mirage to anyone travelling along this northern stretch of coast. You can see that Trieste is different and original in the way its streets and splendid squares are lined up and overlooked by its impressive palazzos of outstanding architecture. There are stately buildings throughout the historic centre, often with neoclassical style flanking eclectic style, Art Nouveau and neo-Gothic. 3 Castello di San Giusto Built between 1470 and 1630, the castle rises up from the hill in the heart of the ancient town, offering a striking panorama. Its construction began in the late 15th century and was extended in later periods. This can be seen from the irregular floor plan of the castle; the central part was commissioned by Federico II (1471), the round rampart dates back to the Venetian period (1509), the Hoyos-Lalio rampart to 1561 Monuments and the Pomis, or “flowered” flamen, who was born in Trieste. rampart, to 1630. The castle The theatre seated about six never had a defensive role. thousand spectators and its fixed and places The castle museum, the armoury proscenium overlooked the sea. and the lapidario tergestino are of interest all open to visitors. TRIESTE - A CITY OF Cattedrale di San Giusto WORSHIP AND RELIGION This was formed in the 14th century by joining two basilicas Being a melting pot of peoples erected between the 9th and 11th and races, the town inevitably centuries on a Roman area has a wealth of different places of worship. Its exterior is of worship and religion: embellished with a Gothic the Greek Orthodox Chiesa rose window in white stone. di San Nicolò dei Greci Inside, it is a five-aisle It has a neoclassical façade and inside retains its beautifully basilica with a wealth of th Piazza Unità d’Italia The square is also home to two art. The mosaics in the decorated 18 century structure th with rich religious furnishings. This is one of the largest and other 18 century monuments: apse and on the The Serbian Orthodox Chiesa most beautiful squares directly the baroque fountain of the walls are di San Spiridione overlooking the sea. It was built Four continents (Mazzoleni, particularly 1751) and Emperor Charles VI’s It was opened to worshippers in 1870 by architect G. Bruni stunning. and renovated in 1999 column (Fusconi, 1728). in 1868. Built in a neobyzantine style, with magnificent interiors by architect B. Huet. The Arco di lavished in gold. impressive palazzos bordering Riccardo it are, from left to right: Palazzo This Roman del Governo (E. Hartmann, 1905) gate dates back the headquarters of the prefect, to the first century BC, and was Palazzo Stratti (A. Buttazzoni, part of the Augustan walls built 1839), Palazzo Modello around the city. (G. Bruni, 1873), the Town Hall (G. Bruni, 1875), Palazzo Pitteri Teatro Romano (U. Moro, 1790), the only This dates back to between the palazzo dating back to the first and second century AD but 18th century, the former was only unearthed last century. Palazzo Vanoli (E. Geiringer It was built thanks to the and G. Righetto, 1873) munificence of Quintus and the Lloyd Triestino Palazzo Petronius Modestus, emperor (H. Von Ferstel, 1883). Traianus’s procurator and 4 5 Tempio israelitico wife Charlotte for a short but Eclectic style Built to a design by Arduino happy period. The rooms are Palazzo Gopcevic - Via Rossini and Ruggero Berlam in 1912, sumptuously furnished in 4 (G. Berlam, 1850), Central this is one of the largest varying styles and it was here Railway station - Piazza della synagogues in Europe. that the young couple lived Libertà (1878), Palazzo della Chiesa di Sant’Antonio their happiest moments before Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà - Taumaturgo o Nuovo their love was torn apart Piazza della Repubblica (1912), An impressive, sober suddenly by Maximilian’s tragic Palazzo della Posta (1894) and neoclassical building designed death in Mexico in 1897. The Palazzo delle Ferrovie (1840) - by Pietro Nobile, a leading splendid park in front of the Via Vittorio Veneto. architect in Triestine castle with its many exotic neoclassicism. species was designed by Art Nouveau Style Maximilian himself, a botany Casa Batoli - Piazza della Borsa enthusiast. National Museum. 7 (M. Fabiani, 1905), other OTHER PLACES buildings in Art Nouveau style OF INTEREST can be seen at Via Commerciale style of the Venetian coffee DIFFERENT STYLES 21, 23 and 25, at Viale XX shops, but they soon took on Settembre 35, at via Tigor 12, their unmistakeable Viennese Faro della Vittoria IN TRIESTE and in various other places feel, both in their furnishings The lighthouse was built in across town. and in the services they offered. 1927 by Berlam and Mayer in Neoclassical style Their fame is linked to the Istrian stone. It is surmounted Palazzo Carciotti - Riva III memory of literary, political and by a lantern and scaled dome, Novembre 13 (M. Pertsch, 1802), HISTORIC COFFEE HOUSES even conspiratorial gatherings. from which a bronze winged Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi - Some have kept their style and Victory soars upwards. Besides Piazza Verdi 1 (M. Pertsch, Tradition, culture and art make furnishing, such as Caffé San lighting the Port of Trieste, it is 1801), Palazzo della Borsa - the Trieste historic coffee Marco, Caffé Tommaseo, a commemorative monument to the sailors who died in the First World War. Tram di Opicina This rack tram has linked the town centre to the uplands since 1902. The steep journey up offers a marvellous view of the town and the Gulf of Trieste. The tram stop at the Obelisk is at the beginning of a panoramic path leading to Prosecco village. Castello and Parco di Miramare Built in white Istrian stone, this was the home of archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg and his houses ideal places for Caffé Torinese and the pastry Piazza della Borsa 14 socializing, settings where time shops La Bomboniera and Pirona, (Mollari, 1806), Chiesa seems to have stopped in the whereas others, like Caffé degli di Sant’Antonio Taumaturgo Belle Époque. Their origins date Specchi, Caffé Stella Polare, Caffé o Nuovo - Piazza S. Antonio back to the 18th century with the Tergesteo and Caffé Ex Urbanis Nuovo (P. Nobile, 1842). first botteghe da caffé, in the have undergone renovation. 6 7 Einaudi 1, his first place of work; Saba bookstore the poet ran from of The Arabian Nights, published Caffé Garibaldi in piazza Unità 1919 in via S. Nicolò. in sixteen volumes from 1885 to d’Italia; the Biblioteca Civica 1888 with his title of The Book (town library) at Piazza Hortis 4, Another noteworthy writer, Scipio of a Thousand nights and a where he read the great Slataper, was born in Trieste on night. European writers discussed in his articles; Villa Veneziani and factory at Via Italo Svevo 22/24; Villa Tika at Via Nazionale 18 and Villa Letizia at Via Basovizza 8 in Opicina. James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882 and died in Zurich in 1941. He is one of the most important European writers of the twentieth century. He lived in Trieste twice, from 1904 to 1915 and from 1919 to 1920, where LITERARY ITINERARIES he finished writing the Dubliners IN TRIESTE and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. He composed the short prose-poem Giacomo Joyce The lives of many famous men and a play called Exiles here and who were either born in Trieste he also began writing his famous or who lived there for a while, work of Ulysses, writing some of were spent on the seafront and in the rugged karst hinterland. its most significant chapters in Walking in their footsteps can this town. The Irish writer moved prove both intriguing and several times during his stays in interesting. Trieste and all his homes can be found across the town, as can the th myriad places he often visited. July 14 1888 and died on Ettore Schmitz, whose pen name December 3rd 1915, at Podgora, was Italo Svevo, was born in fighting with the Italians. Trieste in 1861 and was a friend Trieste can also be enjoyed In Il mio Carso, he deals with the of James Joyce. He is one of the through the eyes of another relationship between Trieste and greatest writers of contemporary famous poet, Umberto its Slovenian hinterland and their Italian literature. The places in his Saba, the son of Ugo ensuing peculiarities. life and those mentioned in his Abramo Poli and Rachele novels (A life, Emilio’s carnival Coen; his pen name was Fulvio Tomizza, who was born and Zeno’s Conscience) can still taken from his beloved in Materada, Istria in 1935 and exert some fascination: the house nanny’s name. He died in Trieste in 1999, was where he was born at viale XX entitled his first consciously sympathetic to the heartache of those who lived in Settembre 16; the Schmitz family collection of poetry these lands (Materada, The Girl residence at Via Carducci 12; the “With my eyes” (1912); from Petrovia, The Acacia Wood). l’Istituto Commerciale Revoltella in this poetry he sees And last but not least, the famous (a business school) at Via Battisti himself through his British consul, explorer, translator 12, which he attended after his hometown.