Trieste has a surly grace. If it's liked, it's like a tomboy harsh and voracious, with blue eyes and hands too big to gift a flower, like a love, with jealousy.

The castle of San Giusto

The Castle of San Giusto is a fortress-museum situated on the hill of the same name, in Trieste.

Dating back to the 1300's, it was progressively built up over several centuries and is now a museum. It was restored in the year 2000. On the Bastione Lalio, the Lapidario Tergestino was inaugurated on 4 April, 2001, displaying inscriptions, sculptures, bass-reliefs and fragments of ancient Roman architecture.

You can only visit parts of the castle, apart from the lapidario you can visit the chapel, the Sala Caprin, the large internal courtyard - where events are held in summer - and the battlements from which you can enjoy a vast panorama over the city.

The Castle of Miramare

The Castle of Miramare was constructed at the command of Massimiliano d'Asburgo, archduke of Austria and later Emperor of Mexico, to make a home for him and his beloved wife Carlotta of Belgium.

It was designed by the Viennese architect Carl Junker and built on the Gulf of Trieste, a few kilometers north of the city, between 1856 and 1860. It is surrounded by a grand park of 22 hectares characterised by a large variety of plants, many of which were chosen by the archduke himself, during his trips around the world made as an admiral of the Austrian Navy.

In the park you will also find the Castelletto (little castle), a building of smaller dimensions in which the young couple lived during the construction of the castle itself. Carlotta was later confined there when she went insane after the execution of her husband in Mexico.

The ground floor of the castle was designated the residence of the Imperial couple, while the floor above was, later on, residence of the Duke Amedeo d'Aosta, who lived there for about seven years and redecorated some of the rooms.

The Basilica Cathedral of San Giusto

It is the principal Catholic building of Trieste and is situated close by the Castle of San Giusto, on the top of the hill which dominates the city.

It was formed by the joining of two earlier basilicas of the fourteenth century: Santa Maria and San Giusto, united by the Bishop Roberto Pedrazzani da Robecco to provide the city with an imposing cathedral.

The first record regarding the cathedral is from 1337 when the bell tower of the ex-church of Santa Maria was strengthened by the addition of a thicker wall to support the new building. Works on the bell tower ended in 1343, but in the church continued up to the end of the century. Originally, the bell tower was higher but in 1422 it was struck by lightning and reduced to its current size.

After a the city annexed itself to Austria in 1382, the emperor Leopoldo III nominated the first German bishop of Trieste, Enrico de Wildenstein, who on 27 November 1385, consecrated the major altar of the cathedral.

Piazza Unita d'Italia

This is the principal plaza of Trieste, at the foot of the hill of San Giusto, between Borgo Teresiano and Borgo Giuseppino.

The plaza opens on one side to the Gulf of Trieste and is surrounded by numerous palaces and public buildings. Of rectangular form, it is the largest plaza in Europe that faces the sea (very few plazas face the sea directly, another famous plaza is the Plaza of Commerce in Lisbon).

The piazza today is home to the Municipal Council of Trieste, the Palace of Giunta Regionale del Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Prefecture of the city.

The Lighthouse of the Victory

The Faro della Vittoria was built between 15 January 1923 and 24 May 1927, work of the Triestino architect Arduino Berlam.

Other than functioning as a lighthouse for navigation, it is also a commemorative monument in honour of those fallen at sea during the First World War, as witnessed by the inscription on its base:

«SHINE AND REMIND OF THE FALLEN AT SEA (MCMXV - MCMXVIII)»

 

The Caffè San Marco

The Caffè San Marco is an historical locale in Trieste, in via Battisti 18.

Founded in 1914, the locale is famous for being and having been one of the principal meeting places of the intellectuals of the city.

Among the intellectuals and artists that frequented the Caffè San Marco, were Italo Svevo, Umberto Saba, James Joyce.

Tram de Ópcina

The tramway of Opicina (better known as the Tram de Ópcina in Triestin dialect, Openski tramvaj in sloveno), one of the tourist attractions of the city, is a panoramic, interurban tramway.

Characteristic is one section with steep incline over which the vehicle is pushed when climbing and held while descending by funicular devices.