Everything about Trieste totally explained
Trieste (;
Slovene and
Croatian:
Trst) is a city and port in northeastern
Italy very near to the
Slovenian border, to the North, East and South. Trieste is located at the head of the
Gulf of Trieste on the
Adriatic Sea. With a population of 208,614 (2007) it's the capital of the autonomous region
Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trieste province.
Trieste flourished as part of
Austria, from 1382 (the
Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867) until 1918 when it was one of the few seaports in what was one of the
Great Powers of Europe. It was among the most prosperous
Mediterranean seaports as well as 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 of its economic and cultural importance.
Today, Trieste is a border town. The population is an ethnic mix of the neighbouring regions; The dominant local Venetian
dialect of Trieste is called
Triestine ("Triestin" -, in Italian "Triestino"). This dialect and the official Italian language are spoken in the city centre, while Slovene is spoken in several of the immediate
suburbs. The Venetian and the Slovene languages are considered
autochthonous of the area. There are also small numbers of
German and
Hungarian speakers.
The economy depends on the port and on trade with its neighbouring regions. Throughout the
Cold War Trieste was a peripheral city, but it's 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, the
International School for Advanced Studies and
Trieste University.
History
Ancient era
The area of what is now Trieste was settled by the
Carni, an
Indo-European tribe (hence 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 arrived.
By 177 BC, the city was under the rule of the
Roman republic. Trieste was granted the status of 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 1081 the city came loosely under
Aquileia's patriarchy, developing into a free
commune by the end of the 12th century.
Austria
After two centuries of war against the nearby major power, the
Republic of Venice (which occupied it briefly from 1369 to 1372), the burghers of Trieste petitioned
Leopold III von
Habsburg, Duke of
Austria to become part of his domains. (The agreement of
cessation was signed in October 1382, in
St. Bartholomew's church in the
village of
Šiška (
apud Sisciam), today one of the city quarters of
Ljubljana.) The citizens, however, maintained a certain degree of autonomy up until the 17th century.
Trieste grew into an important port and trade hub. It was made a
free port within the Austrian domains 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 the beginning of a flourishing era for the city.
Trieste was occupied by
French troops three times during the
Napoleonic Wars, in 1797, 1805 and 1809. In the latter it was annexed to the
Illyrian Provinces by
Napoleon, during which period Trieste lost its autonomy (even when it was returned to the
Austrian Empire in 1813), and the 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.
The city's role as main Austrian trading port and shipbuilding centre was later emphasized with the foundation of the merchant shipping line
Austrian Lloyd in 1836, whose headquarters stood at the corner of the Piazza Grande and Sanita. By 1913 Austrian Lloyd had a fleet of 62 ships comprising a total of 236,000 tons.
The modern
Austro-Hungarian Navy also used Trieste's shipbuilding facilities and as a base. The construction of the first major trunk railway in the Empire, the Vienna-Trieste
Austrian Southern Railway, was completed in 1857, a valuable asset for trade and the supply of coal.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste was a buzzing cosmopolitan city frequented by artists such as
James Joyce,
Italo Svevo,
Ivan Cankar,
Dragotin Kette 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, was gradually overcome by the Triestine (for example, a
Venetian dialect) and other languages, including Italian, German and Slovene. While Triestine was spoken by the biggest part of the population, German was the language of the Austrian bureaucracy and Slovenian was used in the surrounding villages. Viennese architecture and coffeehouses still dominate the streets of Trieste to this day.
Annexation to Italy
Together with
Trento, Trieste was the main site of the
irredendist movement, which aimed for the annexation to Italy of all the lands they claimed were historically inhabited by culturally Italian people. After the end of
World War I, Austria-Hungary was dismantled and Trieste became part of Italy in 1920, along with the whole
Julian March (Venezia Giulia). The annexation, however, brought a loss of importance for the city, with the new state border depriving it of its former hinterland. The Slovene ethnic group (at the time about the 25% of the population) suffered prosecution by the rising
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 Slovenes.
World War II
After the constitution of the
Italian Social Republic, on
23 September 1943, Trieste was nominally absorbed into this entity. The Germans, however, annexed it to the
Operation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, which also included the former Italian provinces of
Gorizia,
Ljubljana and
Udine, led by
Friedrich Rainer. Under the Nazi occupation, the only
concentration camp on Italian soil was built in a suburb of Trieste, at the
Risiera di San Sabba (Rižarna), on
4 April 1944. The city also saw a high Italian
partisan activity and suffered from
Allied bombings.
Yugoslav and New Zealand involvement
On
April 30 1945, the Italian anti-fascists
Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN) of don Marzari and Savio Fonda, constituted of 3500 volunteers, incited a riot against the Nazis. On May 1, Yugoslav partisans of
Tito's army arrived and freed most of the city from the Nazis, except for the courts and the castle of San Giusto, the garrisons here refusing to surrender to any force other than the New Zealanders. The 2nd New Zealand Division continued to advance towards Trieste along Route 14 around the northern coast of the Adriatic sea and arrived in the city the next day. The German forces eventually capitulated on the evening of May 2 following their arrival. The Yugoslav troops of Tito held full control of the city until June 12, a period known as the 'forty days of Trieste'. During this period, many fascists, nationalists and many other people not favourable to the communist regime disappeared. Many were tossed alive in the potholes ('foibe' of the Carso) in a tit-for-tat policy of brutality initiated by the Italian fascists in the 1930s. Eventually, the New Zealanders forced the Yugoslav army to leave. Trieste and its surrounding regions remained under Allied control until 1954.
The Italian city
In 1947, Trieste was declared an independent state as the
Free Territory of Trieste split into two zones, A and B. Zone A was governed for several years by the Allied Military Government, comprising American and (mainly) British forces led by
Sir Terence Airey; the southern part of the territory, Zone B comprised what wasn't yet annexed to Yugoslavia of
Istria, roughly the coastline from
Muggia to
Capodistria/
Koper. 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) went to Yugoslavia with some of the surronding villages formerly included in Zone A. The annexation to Italy was officially proclaimed on October 26.
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 maritime location and its former long term status as part of the
Austrian and
Austro-Hungarian empires made its
dock the major commercial port for much of the landlocked areas of central Europe. In the 19th century, a whole new port district known as the
Porto Nuovo was built northeast to the city centre.
In modern times, Trieste's importance as a port has declined, both due to the annexation to Italy, for Italy's wider choice of better located ports, and the competition with the nearby new port of
Koper in
Slovenia. However, there's significant commercial shipping to the container terminal, steel works and oil terminal, all of which are located to the south of the city centre. After many years of stagnation, a change in the leadership placed the port on a steady growth path, recording a 40% increase in shipping traffic as of 2007.
Rail transport
Railways came early to Trieste, due the port and the need to trasport people and goods for long distances. The first line to reach the city was the Sudbahn in 1857. This line stretched for 1400 km to
Lviv (in present day's
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, a few kilometres far from the city but over 300 metres higher. Due to this, the line undertakes a 32 km detour to the north before terminating at
Trieste Centrale station.
A second transalpine railway was inaugurated 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 took a rather shorter loop southwards towards Trieste's other main railway terminal,
Trieste Campo Marzio station, south to the central station. The line is no longer operating, and Campo Marzio station is now a railway museum.
In order to facilitate the freight traffic between the two stations, and the nearby dock areas, a temporary line known as the
Rivabahn was built along the waterfront in 1887. This line survived until 1981, when it was replaced by the
Galleria di Circonvallazione, a 5.7 km rail tunnel route, east of the city. Freight service from the dock 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 of trains to
Venice, connecting to services to
Rome and
Milan at
Mestre. These trains reach the central station bypassing the
Gulf of Trieste which connects with the Sudbahn's northern loop. International transports between Italy and Slovenia now pass through Villa Opicina, bypassing Trieste.
Air transport
Trieste is served by the nearby
Friuli Venezia Giulia Airport, located at Ronchi 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 around 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 link between the city centre and Villa Opicina.
Main sights
Castles
The Castle was built between 1856 and 1860 from a project by
Carl Junker working under
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 where 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
- The Cathedral of San Giusto.
- The Serb-Orthodox Temple of Holy Trinity and St. Spiridio (1869). The building adopts the Greek-Cross plan with five cupolas in the Byzantine tradition.
- Basilica of San Silvestro (11th century)
- Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (1682)
- Church of San Nicolò dei Greci (1787). This church by the architect Matteo Pertsch (1818), with bell-towers on both sides of the facade, follows the Austrian late baroque style.
- Israelite Temple of Trieste (1912)
Archaeological remains
Arch of Riccardo (33 BC). It is an Augustan gate built in the Roman walls in 33. It stands in Piazzetta Barbacan, in the narrow streets of the old town. It's called Arco di Riccardo ("Richard's Arch") because is believed to have been crossed by King Richard of England on the way back from the Crusades.
Basilica Forense (2nd century)
Palaeochristian basilica
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, facing the sea. The construction partially exploits the gentle slope of the hill, and much of the theatre is made of stone. The topmost portion of the amphitheatre steps and the stage were supposedly made of wood.
The statues that adorned the theatre, brought back to light in the 1930s, are now preserved at the Town Museum. Three inscriptions from the Trajan period mention a certain Q. Petronius Modestus, someone closely connected to the development of the theatre, which was erected during the second half of the 1st century.
Caves
In the whole Trieste province, an amount of 10 speleological groups (24 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia) exist. The Trieste plateau (Altopiano Triestino), called Kras or the Carso and covering an area of about 200 km² within Italy has approximately 1500 caves of various sizes. Among the most famous ones 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 Škocjan Caves in Slovenia (they are on UNESCO list) 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
The Risiera di San Sabba (Risiera di San Sabba Museum)', a national monument. It is a testimonial of the only Nazi extermination camp in Italy.
The Foibe (Fojbe), also sort of national monuments (foiba of "Basovizza" is a national monument). Those are a testimonial of the extermination of Italians by Yugoslav troops after World War II. Yugoslav army took revenge on the Italian fascists, because of the violence, which lasted from 1920 until 1945, on the Slovene minority of the Trieste region.
The Trieste Joyce Museum
Civico Museo di Storia Naturale di Trieste (natural history museum) containing fossils of early man.
Civico Orto Botanico di Trieste, a municipal botanical garden
Orto Botanico dell'Università di Trieste, the University of Trieste's botanical garden
Val Rosandra, a national park on the border between Trieste and Slovenia
Literature
Many famous writers lived and created their major works in Trieste.
Italian writers
Carolus L. Cergoly
Italo Svevo
Umberto Saba
Scipio Slataper
Pier Antonio Quarantotti Gambini, born in Istria (now in Croatia)
Enzo Bettiza, born in Split
Fulvio Tomizza, born in Istria (now in Croatia)
Claudio Magris
Pino Roveredo
Giani Stuparich
Susanna Tamaro
Austrian and German writers
Robert Hamerling
Rainer Maria Rilke (lived in Duino near Trieste)
Veit Heinichen
Theodor Däubler
Slovenian writers
Igo Gruden (born in a village near Trieste)
Vladimir Bartol
Marica Gregorič Stepančič
Boris Pahor
Alojz Rebula
Julius Kugy (born in Gorizia)
Jovan Vesel Koseski (born in Carniola, but lived in Trieste)
Other writers
Richard Francis Burton
James Joyce
Jan Morris
Other famous people
Lidia Bastianich, acclaimed Italian-American chef and TV cooking show host whose family lived in a Triestian refugee camp after their escape from Istria in 1957
Bobi Bazlen, critic and translator
Mathilde Bonaparte, Napoleon's niece, daughter of his brother Jerome Bonaparte was born here in 1820 and died in the early 20th century
Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist
Demetrio Carciotti, (Dimitrios Karitsiotis), Greek merchant and important patron of Greece
Avgust Černigoj, Slovenian painter
Biaggio Chianese, Italian boxer
George Dolenz, actor and father of Micky Dolenz of the Monkees
Boris Furlan, Slovenian jurist, translator and politician
Almerigo Grilz, journalist, freelance war reporter and politician
Margherita Hack, Italian astronomer
Julius Kugy, Austrian alpinist and musician
Doro Levi, archaeologist
Franko Luin, Swedish-Slovenian graphic designer
Cesare Maldini, former AC Milan captain, Italian manager and father of Paolo Maldini
Mauro Maur, Italian trumpet player and composer
Alberto Randegger, composer
Ivan Rendić, Croatian sculptor
Mitja Ribičič, Slovenian Communist leader, President of the Yugoslav Government (1969-1971)
Tanja Romano, world champion of skating
Edvard Rusjan, Slovenian aircraft constructor and pilot
Abdus Salam, Pakistani theoretical physicist
Denis Sciama, British physicist
Igor Škamperle, sociologist, novelist and mountaineer
Alex Staropoli, keyboardist for the band Rhapsody of Fire
Elisa Toffoli, Nationally renowned singer/songwriter, pianist, and guitarist
Viktor Sulčič, Argentine-Slovenian architect (born in the suburb of Santa Croce/Križ)
Max Tonetto, an Italian winger playing for AS Roma
Luca Turilli, guitarist for the band Rhapsody of Fire
Tone Tomšič, partisan hero
Primož Trubar, Slovenian protestant reformer
Vittorio Vidali (aka Enea Sormenti, Jacobo Hurwitz Zender, Carlos Contreras), Communist agent
Ivan Vidav, Slovenian mathematician
Boris Ziherl, Slovenian Communist leader and Marxist philosopher
Sigismund Zois, Slovenian mecenate and natural scientist
Other Trivia
The first men to reach the very deepest point in the oceans (the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench), used a special bathyscaphe named Trieste in 1960.
The city was honored with a reference to a starship named the Trieste in the first season episode "11001001". The ship was stationed sixty-six hours away from Starbase 74 during the Bynar supernova incident. The starship name was related to the special minisub (bathyscaphe Trieste) of Jacques Piccard that touched in 1960 the bottom of the Pacific ocean, "boldly reaching" new frontiers for mankind.
Listed as a location for filming of the popular Francis Ford Coppola movie, The Godfather: Part II (released December 1974).Further Information
Get more info on 'Trieste'.
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