Understand
Trieste is the capital of the autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and has 200,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the crossroads of several commercial and cultural flows: German middle Europe to the north, Slavic masses and the Balkans to the east, Italy and then Latin countries to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
Its artistic and cultural heritage is linked to its singular "border town" location. You can find some old Roman architecture (a small theater near the sea, a nice arch into old city and an interesting Roman museum), Austrian empire architecture across the city centre (similar to stuff you can find in Vienna) and a nice atmosphere of metissage of Mediterranean styles, as Trieste was a very important port during the 18th century.
History
Get in
By Air
National flights via Milan, Rome and Genoa. International flights via Milan and Rome (Alitalia ); direct flights from Munich (Air Dolomiti - Lufthansa ); direct flights from London (Ryanair ); direct flights from Belgrade (Jat ).
The International Airport of Ronchi dei Legionari is linked with its teminal in the city centre (33 km) not far from the railway station by a shuttle service .
By Bus
Three (or so) buses a day to Pula/Pola, to Rijeka/Fiume in Croatia, and to Sezana in Slovenia. Local routes include Udine, Venice, Padova, Grado, San Candido/Innichen
By Car
A4 Venice-Trieste, toll-gate Monfalcone-Lisert, exit point "Sistiana" (SS 14 "Costiera" ). The town is 24 km from the motorway.
SS 202 Triestina: Motorway A4, toll-gate Lisert, Carso Plateau, Opicina, Padriciano, Trieste
SS 15 Via Flavia: Koper (Slovenia) - Rabuiese border
SS 58, Carnaiola highway: Ljubljana (Slovenia) - Fernetti border - Opicina, where the highway joins to SS 202, Trieste
By Train
Lots of trains from Venice and Udine, Eurostar from Milan and Rome at the Central Railway Station.
Trains from Ljubljana, Maribor,Budapest and also Zagreb (Euronight) at the Villa Opicina Station.
If you arrive by train, the last 10 minutes of travel you have a beautiful sight, because the railway goes along the sea and if the weather is good it should be very striking.
Get around
Coach tour of Trieste 040 308536, (040 311529, ), . Saturday 2-4:30pm. Sightseeing tour starts outside the railway station (Piazza Libertà 8). Booking and ticket purchase (5,20 Euro) at the Eurostar office of Trieste Centrale Railway Station.
Walking Like most of Europe, a stroll through the town to admire it's acient architechture is a very popular activity. You get to travel at your own pace and even get some coffee along the way. Trieste is not particlarly big and for if you do not have luggage with you there is no need to take bus.
Bus Trieste has a network of buses runing on a strict schedule. This can often be checked on the web. However runs are not very frequent and may vary between 10-30 minutes. This can be troublesome if a run is cancelled
See
Archaeological, historical and art collections. Prehistoric and protohuman findings of local origin; Roman and medieval sculptures and epigraphs. Egyptian, Greek, Roman and pre-Roman antiques. Numismatic collection. Photograph and book libraries.
San Giusto - Cathedral and Castle
A walk on the Castle ramparts and bastions gives a complete panorama of the city of Trieste, its hills and the sea.
The Miramare Castle
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Do
Take the tram from Piazza Oberdan to Opicina. Alight at the Obelisco, and take a walk along the Via Vicentina to Prosecco. The views are superb.
Buy
Eat
The plentiful "souls" of Trieste influence the every-day life with the habits of the numerous populations which inhabited it during the centuries and which are still alive: the dishes proposed in the city "buffets", the typical restaurants of Middle-European origins, is an experienced and flavored mixture of the local Austrian and Slavic tradition.
Drink
Some local specialties include:
Coffee
Coffee has been an important part of Trieste since the 1700s. Some of the most famous caffè, know as much for their famous patrons as their food and drink, include:
Sleep
The helpful tourist information in Piazza Unita can provide you with a list of accommodation and will even make bookings for you. They also have free maps.
Budget
Get out
Across the countryside you can find small beautiful farms where you will find beautiful different kinds of home-made salami, cheese and ham, and a characteristic red wine. And maybe along the Riviera ( Muggia, Sistiana,Duino)you can find some nice places to sleep, too.
The pretty island of Grado just to the west makes a good half day boat trip (ticket retour 6 €).
Venice and Ljubljana are also major nearby destinations.
Grotta Gigante - The Giant cave claims to be the biggest tourist cave in the world. 15 km by bus or the tram of Opicina. The enormous hall is 107 metres high, 280 metres long and 65 metres large. The multi-lingual guided tour takes about 45 minutes. You can also visit the Museum of Speleology is near the cave and besides the various speleological, geological and paleontological finds it also includes some valuable archeological pieces and a poster collection of the cave. Two wide parking lots are available on the outside.
Trieste (Italian: Trieste; Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian: Trst; German and Friulian: Triest) is a city and port in northeastern Italy right on the border with Slovenia. Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. With a population of 207,069 (2001) it is capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trieste province.
Trieste flourished as part of Austro-Hungarian Empire during the period 1867 – 1918 when it was Central Europe's prosperous Mediterranean seaport and a capital of literature and music. However, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Trieste's annexation to Italy after World War I led to a decline in its economic and cultural importance.
Today, Trieste is a border town. The population is an ethnic mix of the neighboring regions; The dominant local Venetian dialect of Trieste is called Triestine ("Triestin" - pronounced , in Italian "Triestino"). This dialect and the official Italian language are spoken in the city center whilst Slovenian is spoken in several of the immediate suburbs. The Venetian and the Slovenian languages are considered autochthonous to the area. There is also a large number of German-speakers.
The economy depends on the port and on trade with its neighboring regions. Throughout the Cold War Trieste was peripheral, but is rebuilding some of its former influence.
Places of touristic interest in Trieste include numerous examples of Art Nouveau and neoclassical architecture from its Austrian past, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, International School for Advanced Studies and the Trieste University.
History
Ancient era and the Middle Ages
The area of what is now Trieste was settled by the Carni, an Indo-European tribe (whence the name Carso) since the 3rd millennium BC. Subsequently the area was populated by the Histri, an Illyrian people, who remained the main civilization until the 2000 BC, when the Palaeo-Veneti came.
By 177 BC, the city was under the governance of the Roman republic. Trieste was granted the status of a colony under Julius Caesar, who recorded its name as Tergeste in his Commentarii de bello Gallico (51 BC).
After the end of the Western Roman Empire (in 476), Trieste remained a Byzantine military centre. In 788 it became part of the Frank kingdom, under the authority of their count-bishop. From the year 1081 the city came loosely under Aquileia's patriarchy, developing into a free commune at the end of the 12th century. After two centuries of war against the nearby major power, the Republic of Venice (who occupied it briefly from 1369 to 1372), the Triestins donated the city to Leopold III von Habsburg, duke of Austria. (The agreement of cessation was signed in October 1382, at the St. Bartholomew's church "apud Sisciam", the village of Šiška, today one of the city quarters of Ljubljana.) The citizens, however, maintained a certain degree of autonomy well until the 17th century.
Modern age
Trieste had grown into an important port and trade hub. It was constituted a free port by Emperor Charles VI and remained a free port from 1719 until July 1 1891. The reign of his successor, Maria Theresa of Austria, marked for Trieste in particular the beginning of a flourishing era.
The city was occupied by French troops three times during the Napoleonic Wars, in 1797, 1805 and 1809. In the latter occasion it was annexed to the Illyrian Provinces by Napoleon. In this period Trieste lost in a definitive way its autonomy (even when it was returned to the Austrian Empire in 1813), and status of free port was interrupted.
Following the Napoleonic Wars, Trieste continued to prosper as the Imperial Free City of Trieste (Reichsunmittelbare Stadt Triest) and it became capital of the Austrian Littoral region, the so-called Küstenland. Its role as the principal Austrian commercial port and shipbuilding center was later emphasized by the Foundation of the Austrian Lloyd in 1836 and the construction of the Vienna-Trieste Austrian Southern Railway, completed in 1857.
Annexation to Italy
In the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste was a buzzing cosmopolitan city frequented by artists such as James Joyce , Italo Svevo and Umberto Saba. The city was part of the so-called Austrian Riviera and a very real part of Mitteleuropa. The particular Friulian dialect, called Tergestino, spoken until the beginning of the 19th century, had been gradually supplanted by Triestine (i.e. a Venetian dialect) and other tongues, including Italian, German and Slovenian. While Triestine was the language of the major part of the population, German was the language of the Austrian bureaucracy and Slovenian was the language of the surrounding villages. Viennese architecture and coffeehouses still mark the streets of Trieste today.
Together with Trento, Trieste was the main seat of the irredendist movement, which aimed to the annexion to Italy of all the lands historically inhabited by culturally Italian people. After World War I ended and Austria-Hungary disintegregated, Trieste was transferred to Italy (1920) along with the whole Julian March (Venezia Giulia). The annexation, however, brought a loss of importance for the city, with the new border depriving it of a true hinterland. The Slovenian ethnic group (forming about the 25% of the population) was also suppressed by the Fascist Regime. This led to a period of inner strain which culminated on April 13 1920, when a group of Italian nationalists burnt the Narodni dom (National House), the cultural centre of Trieste's Slovenians.
Second World War
After the constitution of the Italian Social Republic, on September 23 1943, Trieste was nominally absorbed into this entity. The Germans, however, annexed it to an Adriatic Littoral Operation Zone, which included also Gorizia and Ljubljana and was led by Austrian Friedrich Rainer. Under the Nazi occupation, the sole extermination camp on Italian soil was constructed near Trieste, at the Risiera di San Sabba(Rižarna), on April 4, 1944. The city also suffered from the partisan activity and from Allied bombardments.
Yugoslav and New Zealand involvement
On April 30, 1945 the Italian anti-fascist Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN) of don Marzari and Fonda Savio, with 3500 volunteers, incited a revolt against the Nazis. In May, 1 Yugoslav partisans of Tito's army arrived and occupied most of Trieste. The 2nd New Zealand Division continued its advance along Route 14 around the north coast of the Adriatic to Trieste and arrived at the city on the next day. The German forces eventually capitulated in the evening of May 2.
Intent on annexation, the Yugoslavs quickly began forming their own (Communist) military administration. They began to arrest members of the population, including the Italian democratic resistance force, the CLN (see Foibe massacres). On May 5, 1945 the Yugoslavs opened fire on a pro-Italian demonstration, killing at least five people. The Yugoslav troops were finally forced to withdraw from the city on June 12 under diplomatic pressure from the Western Allies.
Italian city
In 1947, Trieste became an independent state as the Free Territory of Trieste and was governed for several years by the Allied Military Government, comprising American and (mainly) British forces headed by Sir Terence Airey. This state was de facto dissolved in 1954: the city of Trieste, dubbed Zone A, went to Italy, while the southern part of the territory (Zone B), comprising Istria and some parts of the Karst went to Yugoslavia. The annexation to Italy was officially proclaimed on October 26 of that year.
The border questions with Yugoslavia and the status of the ethnic minorities were settled definitively in 1975 with the Treaty of Osimo.
Transport
Maritime transport
Trieste's location on the coast, and its long term former status as part of the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian empires, meant that the Port of Trieste became the major commercial port for large portions of landlocked central Europe. In the 19th century a whole new port district known as the Porto Vecchio was built to the north east of the city centre.
In modern times Trieste's importance as a port has declined, both because of the annexation by Italy, with its greater choice of better located ports, and because of competition from the nearby new port of Koper in Slovenia. However there is significant commercial shipping to the container terminal, steel works and oil terminal, all of which are located to the south of the city centre.
Rail transport
The fact that Trieste was a major port for central Europe, and the consequent need to transport people and goods long distances meant that railways came early. The first line to reach the city was the Sudbahn in 1857. This line stretched 1400 km to Lviv (in the Ukraine) via Ljubljana (in Slovenia), Sopron (in Hungary), Vienna (in Austria), and Kraków (in Poland), crossing the backbone of the Alps by the Semmering Pass near Graz. This line approaches Trieste through the village of Villa Opicina, only a few kilometres from the city centre but over 300 metres higher. In order to lose this height, the line undertakes a 32 km detour to the north before terminating at Trieste Centrale station.
A second transalpine railway was opened to Trieste in 1906, with the opening of the Transalpina railway from Vienna via Jesenice and Nova Gorica. This line also approached Trieste via Villa Opicina, but then took a rather shorter loop to the south to arrive at Trieste's other main railway terminus, Trieste Campo Marzio station, some distance to the south of Centrale station. This southern loop no longer carries a regular passenger service, and Campo Marzio station is now a railway museum.
In order to facilitate freight traffic between the two stations, and the adjoining port areas, a temporary line known as the Rivabahn was built along the waterfront in 1887. This temporary line survived until 1981, when it was replaced by the Galleria di Circonvallazione, a 5.7 km rail tunnel route under and to the east of the city. Freight service from the port area includes container services to northern Italy and to Budapest, together with truck carrying services to Salzburg and Frankfurt.
Passenger rail service to Trieste now largely consists largely of trains to Venice, which make connection with services to Rome and Milan at Mestre, with a few through trains to Rome and Milan. These trains reach Centrale station via a line around the head of the Gulf of Trieste which connects with the Sudbahn's northerly loop. International through services between Italy and Slovenia (and places beyond) now bypass Trieste itself, calling instead at Villa Opicina.
Air transport
Trieste is served by the nearby Friuli Venezia Giulia Airport, located near Monfalcone at the head of the Gulf of Trieste.
Local transport
Local public transport in Trieste is operated by Trieste Trasporti, which operates a network of some 60 bus routes and two boat services. They also operate the Opicina Tramway, a unique hybrid tramway and funicular railway that provides a more direct connection between the city centre and Villa Opicina.
Main sights
Castles
Castle of Miramare
The Castle was built from 1856 to 1860 to a design by Carl Junker on the orders of Archduke Maximilian.
The Castle gardens provide a setting of outstanding beauty with a variety of trees, chosen by and planted on the orders of Maximilian, that today make a remarkable collection.
Features of particular attraction in the gardens include two ponds, one noted for its swans and the other for lotus flowers, the Castle annexe ("Castelletto"), a nearby a bronze statue of Maximilian, and a small chapel in which is kept a cross made from the remains of the "Novara", the flagship on which Maximilian, brother of Emperor Franz Josef, set sail to become Emperor of Mexico.
Castle of San Giusto
Designed on the remains of previous castles on the site, it took almost two centuries to build. The stages of the development of the Castle's defensive structures are marked by the central part built under Frederick III (1470-1), the round Venetian bastion (1508-9), the Hoyos-Lalio bastion and the Pomis, or "Bastione fiorito" dated 1630.
The Castle - in which several rooms, including the Sala Caprin, are open to the public - houses a Museum displaying historical weapons and is regularly used for the staging of exhibitions, events and, in the summer, open-air shows. A walk on the Castle ramparts and bastions gives a complete panorama of the city of Trieste, its hills and the sea.
Churches
Archaeological remains
Roman theatre
Trieste or Tergeste, which probably dates back to the protohistoric period, was enclosed by walls built in 33-32 BC on Emperor Octavius’s orders. The city developed greatly during the 1st and 2nd centuries.
The Roman theatre lies at the foot of the San Giusto hill, and faces the sea. The construction partially exploits the gentle slope of the hill, and most of the construction work is in stone. The topmost portion of the amphitheatre steps and the stage were presumably made of wood.
The statues that adorned the theatre (which was brought to light in the '30s) are now preserved at the Town Museum. Three inscriptions from the Trajan period mention a certain Q. Petronius Modestus, a person who was closely connected with the development of the theatre, which was erected during the second half of the 1st century.
Caves
In the whole Trieste province there are 10 speleological groups (24 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia). The Trieste plateau (Altopiano Triestino), called the Carso and covering an area of roughly 200 km² within Italy has approximately 1500 caves of various sizes (67 are more than 99 m deep). Among the most famous are the Grotta Gigante, the largest tourist cave in the world, with a single cavity large enough to contain St Peter's in Rome, and the Cave of Trebiciano (350 m deep) at the bottom of which flows the Timavo River. This river dives underground at Skocjan in Slovenia and flows about 30 km before emerging about 1 km from the sea in a series of springs near Duino reputed by the Romans to be an entrance to Hades.
Others
Literature
Many famous writers lived and created their major works in Trieste.
Italian writers
German writers
Slovenian writers
Other writers
Other famous people
Other Trivia
See also
External links
