Introduction |  |
Somewhat forgotten about since the Habsburgs were in fashion, Trieste is now being done up in suitably grand style from top to tail. Tourism has revived it with the renovation of the harbour to accommodate larger cruise ships (though many budget air passengers use Trieste as a transit point for forays into nearby Slovenia and Croatia). Even the coffeehouse culture of Franz Josef’s day – when this cosmopolitan, polyglot port was a literary hub – is coming back. James Joyce was one long-term resident, and the city, whose recent economic bedrock has been the Illy coffee giant, now promotes literary tours.
Trieste gave Habsburg Vienna access to the Adriatic, which laps the harbour in the city centre. After the Habsburgs fell at the end of World War I, Trieste was claimed by Italy. The main square, which opens out on to the harbour, was renamed piazza dell’Unità d’Italia and tricolore were flown from the grandiose official buildings lining it. So this most Slavic of Italian cities, with a significant Slovene minority and set only a hilly walk from the contentious border with Yugoslavia, was forced into the green, white and red. Still, life in Italian colours has not proved too uncomfortable for Trieste.
Today cruiseloads of tourists regularly spill out on to piazza d’Italia (as it is commonly abbreviated) and head up San Giusto hill to the cathedral of the same name. Also on the hill is the Castello, the remains of a medieval Venetian castle, reopening after renovation in the summer of 2006. The commanding view is more attractive than the castle’s rather dull museum (piazza della Cattedrale 3, 040 313 636, closed Mon), which is filled with carpets, furniture and armour. The cathedral was originally formed by a marriage of adjoining churches, a chaotic hotch potch of Venetian, Byzantine and Gothic styles. The road leading back down to town, via della Cattedrale, is where pre-Habsburg Trieste first developed. Nowadays its main point of interest is the art and history museum, the Museo Civico di Storia ed Arte (No.15, 040 310 500, closed Mon).
Near the port stands the palatial Museo Revoltella (via Armando Diaz 27, 040 675 4350, www.museorevoltella.it, closed Tue), the residence of Trieste’s single most important merchant back in its grand trading days, and now full of modern art; opposite, the Museo Sartorio (largo Papa Giovanni XXIII 1, 040 301 479), with its icons, ceramics and Venetian paintings, will soon reopen after renovation. Miramare Castle, built by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian four miles from the city centre, is an ornate pleasure palace. It was constructed after the monarch’s marriage to Charlotte of Belgium. She went slowly mad after the archduke’s doomed mission to Mexico, which ended in his execution. Along with a decadent interior and pretty park, Miramare has a marine reserve. A great view can be had of the seafront castle (040 224 143) from the old tram that runs from piazza Oberdan.
• Tourist information: piazza Unità d’Italia 4B (040 347 8312, www.triestetourism.it).
|
|
