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The top of the pediment bears sculptures representing the Genius of Trieste, Neptune, Minerva and the Danube. The bas-reliefs symbolizing Trade, Shipping, Industry and Plenty are by A. Bosa, who was also responsible, with his son, for the historical scenes decorating the grand central salon. Seen from the front of the Old Stock Exchange, to the right is Palazzo Dreher (The New Stock Exchange), whose sumptuously curving facade gives it a striking presence in the square. In contrast with its richly decorated exterior is a soberly functional interior (1929), designed by the architect Geiringer after the style of G. Pulitzer Finali who, with the Stuard studio, formed the modern Trieste style of the time, especially in naval architecture. Palazzo Dreher stands at the beginning of Via Cassa di Risparmio, at No. 10 of which is the seat of the bank of the same name, designed in 16th century style by E. Nordio. Opposite Palzzo Dreher is the Renaissance-style Casa Rusconi, designed by G. Scalmanini. The third floor of the building houses the fashion and style of Anita Pittoni, an innovator in textile designs since the end of the 1920s. In the opposite corner, at the junction of Corso Italia and Via Roma, is the Palazzina Romano, a sober specimen of 18th-century architecture restored by G. Polli in 1919 and 1920. Opposite the Old Stock Exchange the green building of the Casa Bartoli (1905, designed by M. Fabiani) informs us of a direct contact with the Wagnerschule, to which Fabiani belonged. Housing shops and flats, the Casa is distinguished by broad glass surfaces and a graffiti decoration bearing witness to the local variation of Art Nouveau. On the right of Corso Italia from Piazza della Borsa begins the Piacentini complex (1935-1939), which stands as the most striking architectural manifestation of the urban planning associated with the large-scale demolition of the old city in the 1930s. Cutting an imposing figure in the area's architectural fabric, this building has a long central arcade decorated, as are its entrances, with frescoes by Carlo Sbisà, an artist who combined echoes of the Renaissance with the contemporary spirit through a personal reinvention. The triangle marked out by the buildings described here contains a column surmounted by a bronze statue of Habsburg Emperor Leopold I, erected to commemorate his visit to Trieste. This area is at the center of the district known as the Borgo Teresiano, named after Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, the driving force behind its construction. Built over the first half of the 19th century on land previously given over to salt works, it displays a rigid grid-iron pattern characterized by right-angled crossroads. As a global model of urban planning, its design phase contained detailed definitions of all the rules and architectural features of the buildings which would compose it, the objective being a “new town” meeting all the requirements of a modern commercial center. The buildings had to have three storeis: storehouses on the ground floor, living quarters on the first and offices on the second. Each building was to have an inner courtyard, used as a garden or for the cultivation of vegetables. The many canals in the Borgo were designed for the transportation of goods right to the heart of the city. The only one of these left today is the Canale Grande, partially filled in, which still provides a striking center-piece for a large rectangular area running from the neo-Classical facade of the Church of Sant'Antonio Nuovo to the waterfront. Between the two is the Serb Orthodox church of San Spiridione, bearing witness to the long-standing peaceful coexistence of a range of faiths in Trieste. Piazza del Ponterosso is also distinguished by the Mazzoleni fountain (1753), which supplied water from a specially-built aqueduct to the new urban development. Several buildings are worthy of mention. Palazzo Gopcevich (1850, designed by G. Berlam) stands out for its neo-Renaissance style. The building designed by Buttazzoni (1837), occupying numbers 1 and 2 of that square, houses the Fondazione Giovanni Scaramangà di Altomonte, where historic local documents are conserved. Among the few surviving historic cafès (Caffè degli Specchi, Caffè San Marco, Caffè Tommaseo), in Piazza Sant'Antonio stands the old Caffè Stella Polare. On Via Ponchielli is the Baroque Casa Czeike (1770, designed by Bubolini), where the simple lines of the building stand in contrast to the imposing arched entrance supporting a large balcony. From Piazza del Ponterosso Via Santa Caterina leads into Piazza della Repubblica, where two buildings stand opposite each other. These are local head office of the Banca Commerciale Italiana (1909, E. Nordio), and the head office of the RAS insurance company (Riunione Adriatica di Sicurità, E. and A. Berlam, 1913). The latter has a sumptuous entrance hall featuring a mosaic floor and a polychrome marble copy (sculpted by G. Marin) of the Roman “fountain of the lions” discovered when the building's foundations were being dug. The square is also distinguished by Casa Smolars (R. Depaoli, 1906-07) with its vibrant Art Nouveau lines. Further up Via Mazzini from the square is the junction with Via Imbriani, along which is the Morpurgo Museum. Along Via Carducci, between Piazza Goldoni and Piazza Garibaldi is the covered market (C. jona, 1935), one of the finest examples of the modernist architecture in which Trieste abounds, since it was an important architectural workshop in the interwar years. Worthy of note are the curved lines and spiral form of the many-windowed central tower. Just off the right of Via Carducci in the direction of the station is the beginning of Viale XX Settembre (formerly Viale dell'Axquedotto). It was given to the city (1807-8) by Domenico Rossetti, who wished to endow its inhabitants with a tree-lined avenue where they could stroll. This pedestrian thoroughfare is flanked by buildings of discreet elegance housing flats, offices and shops. It also boasts many bars, cinemas and a theatre, and offers a pleasant environment for walkers to linger on a summer evening at the tables placed outside between the long rows of trees (over a kilometers), which also provide plentiful shade. Parallel to the Viale is Via Battisti and the Caffè San Marco. This cafè is on the same block as the Synagogue, which faces Piazza Giotti. From there, Via Zanetti leads to Via Coroneo, alongside which is the severe and imposing Palace of Justice (E. and U. Nordio, 1913-1934). Its facade is designed on two levels. The second features an Ionic colonnade which is in turn surmounted by an attic with statues of jurists sculpted by Asco and Mascherini. The facade faces Foro Ulpiano, which leads down to Piazza Oberdan, an area that underwent radical transformation in the 1930s. Extensive demolition made way for a number of buildings designed to house prestigious bodies and institutions, making Piazza Oberdan the modern heart of the city. An imposing architectural figure is cut by the Casa del Combattente, featuring a slender bell tower based on arches and horizontal volumes which appear to echo the metaphysical world of De Chirico, and by the old RAS building, also endowed with an attic but echoing above all the influence of Piacentini. Its refined atrium is the result of collaboration between the architect Umberto Nordio, Felicita Frai, Achille Funi and Ugo Carà to produce an admirable synthesis of design, mosaic, fresco, and sculpture. Piazza Oberdan is also the city terminus of the “Tram de Opcina”, a funicular tramway which since 1902 has connected the city center with Opicina on the Carso uplands, winding its course a steep panoramic route. Just off the square in Via Filzi is the former Hotel Regina (1902-4, designed by Max Fabiani), an elegant building of brick and stone now home to the Faculty of Modern Languages for Interpreters and Translators, and close by at No. 12 in Via Ghega is the Palazzo Rittmeyer, housing the Conservatorio Statale G. Tartini.
Inside the bell tower are other Roman remains which have been indentified as belonging to a colonnaded construction (80 A.D.) with two forebuildings and a central stairway which possibly led into the main temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad. In the 5th century an early Christian basilica was built on the ruins of this temple, and then replaced in the 9th and 12th centuries by two parallel churches, which in the 14th century were joined to form what we know as the Cathedral of San Giusto, patron saint of the city. To the right of the Cathedral is the small 13th-century church of San Michele al Carnale, alongside which is the entrance to the Civic Museum of History and Art and the Stone Monument Garden.
Religious Buildings and Worship
The waterfront The prominent buildings in Piazza della Libertà are the neo-Greek Palazzo Economo (designed by Scalmanini), housing the Superintendency of Fine Arts with the Gallery of Ancient Art on the second floor, and the neo-Renaissance Trieste Central railway station (Flattich, 1878), distinguished by the broad and well-proportioned dimensions of its entrance hall. On the seaward side of the square is the entrance to the Old Port, a kind of city within the city, which is now being redesigned for a thoroughgoing conversion. Leaving the square along Corso Cavour, No.13 on the left is the building of the Banca d'Italia. Adjacent to that is the Head Office of Assicurazioni Generali (1886, designed by Geiringer Zabeo) which, together with RAS, is one of the city's big international insurance companies. A few steps further on is the brick building known as the Red Skyscraper, (1926-1928) designed by A. Berlam. American influences predominate over European themes in this building; it stands as a sort of unfinished skyscraper with the fascination of work in progress. Opposite, on the seaward side, is the old seaplane dock (designed by R. Pollack, 1931), bearing witness to the desire of the time to reinvent Trieste as a modern city by means of a link between maritime and air transport. Like many constructions of its time, it combines rationalist criteria with Classically-based decorations (exemplified by the telamon and caryatid surmounting the portal), achieving a striking affect. Proceeding away from the station, on the left is the area occupied by the Canale Grande, which used to reach inland as far as the Church of Sant'Antonio Taumaturgo (Sant'Antonio Nuovo) and allowed the docking of ships full of cargo from the Orient. It is no coincidence that by the entrance to the canal stands the refined shape of Palazzo Carciotti (designed by M. Pertsch, 1802), which was at home, offices and warehouse of the Greek merchant after which it is named. The beauty of this building lies not only in its proportions but above all, like many examples of local architecture, in its facade, whose ashlared socle supports six grooved lonic columns surmounted by a balcony the same number of statues. At the summit of the building is a copper dome with an eagle. The entrance hall is embellished with statues by Antonio Bosa and the hall on the piano noble displays works by G.B. Bison. Further along on the left is the old Hotel de la Ville (designed by G. Degasperi, 1839), for decades the city's most important hotel, the Greek Orthodox Church of San Nicolò (1787, facade by M. Pertsch, 1821) and the Caffè Tommaseo. These three buildings are redolent of a cosmopolitan 19th-century Trieste in which trade was rapidly into wealth which allowed the satisfaction of a number of appetites, from the modern to the strictly cultural. This mixture was symbolized by Trieste's coffee houses, of which there was a great many. They were venues for meeting, reading and talking. In a way, they were an indoor equivalent both to the city squares, a place where the community could express itself on everyday issues, and what would now be termed a “virtual square” - they were the forerunners of the Internet and on-line communication. A few steps further along on the landward side of the waterfront is the building housing the Giuseppe Verdi Opera Theatre, opened on April 21st 1801. Its sober neo-Classical facade, designed by Pertsch, recalls Milan's La Scala, designed by Pertsch's teacher Piermarini. The interior is the work of Gianantonio Selva, who also designed the Fenice theatre in Venice. Excellent acoustics have always been a distinctive feature of the theatre for which Verdi wrote Stiffelio. An inscription on the former Hotel de la Ville records that Verdi stayed in Trieste for that express purpose. The Verdi theatre has recently been given a thoroughgoing restructuring by the architect Dino Tamburini. Between 1999 and 2001 Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia was transformed by French architect Bernard Huet with a sensitivity rooted in his love for Enlightenment-inspired neo-Classical culture. This feeling gave him a particular insight into the culture which as early as 1870 saw the Piazza radically redesigned by architect Giuseppe Bruni. Linking the Borgo Giuseppino with the Borgo Teresiano, Piazza Unità is distinguished by its great size, the fact that it opens into the sea and the eclectic series of buildings on its three sides. Facing the sea is the City Hall (G. Bruni, 1875), displaying Renaissance, mannerist and Baroque themes. On the left (to somebody facing inland) is Government House (E. Hartmann, 1905) with its gilded mosaic wall decorations, the severely monumental Palazzo Stratti (A. Buttazzoni, 1839) and Palazzo Modello, another work by Bruni. On the right is the imposing building formerly the head office of Lloyd Triestino and now the seat of the Regional government of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Its Austrian architect, Heinrich von Ferstel (1883) decided on a Renaissance design. Worthy of note are the fountains decorated with statues by Giuseppe Pokorny and Ugo Hardtl – at night the square is bathed in their reflected flood lighting. On the same side is the tasteful and eclectic former Palazzo Vanoli (1873), now Gran Hotel Duchi d'Aosta, and Classically influenced Palazzo Pitteri (U. Moro, 1780), the only building still to have survived the 1870 reworking. Stretching into the sea shortly before Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia is the Molo Audace. A walk to the end of this pier provides a fine view of many of the buildings lining the waterfront. Beyond Piazza Unità is the massive Savoia Excelsior Hotel (L. Fiedler, 1912), taking the form of a majestic jewel casket redolent of the extravagant days of the “white ship” hotels. Opposite, on the seaward side, is the Stazione Marittima, designed (1928) by Giacomo Zammatio and Umberto Nordio; the latter was a local architect known for his combination of functionalism with the modernist idiom. The seaward side beyond the Stazione Marittima narrows down at the level of the old Fish Market (1913, designed by Polli), shortly to be reopened as a multi-functional exhibition center. The building combines functional requirements with an imaginative Art Nouveau design dominated by steel and concrete. Opposite this one the landward side is a row of tidy neo-Classical-style buildings used mostly for residential accomodation. They include houses by Valentino Valle, Buttazzoni's Palazzo Vucetich and the Sartorio houses by Degasperi and Pertsch (see the view of the central waterfront). Among the many streets running at right angles to the waterfront between Piazza dell'unità d'Italia and the charming Piazza Venezia is the shady retreat of Piazza Hortis. One building on this square is home to three institutes: the Attilio Hortis Civic Library, containing no fewer than 400.000 documents, used daily as a workplace by Italo Svevo, the Svevo Museum and the Civic Museum of Natural History. On the waterfront at Riva Grumula No.4 is the Casa Stabile, designed by Max Fabiani in quintessential Viennese Jugendstil; an outstanding feature is the curved windowed balcony on the corner. Opposite is one of Italy's oldest sailing clubs, the Yacht Club Adriatico, adjacent to two other clubs, the Società Triestina della Vela and the Marina San Giusto. To the left is the Lazzaretto San Carlo (also known as the Lazzaretto Vecchio – Old Lazar House), now housing the Museum of the Sea, and at the junction with Riva Traiana stands the Campo Marzio railway station (R. Seelig, 1907), an elegant Art Nouveau construction with an oriental air. Opposite are the crowded moorings of the Sacchetta Marina. Nearby are the Ausonia and Lanterna bathing
establishments. The former is an example of the facilities built in the
1920s and 30s to popularize the practice of sport, and the latter is
distinguished by rules imposing a rigid separation between male and female
patrons.
With his young wife Charlotte of Belgium, Maximilian took up residence in the Castle in 1860. Four years later the couple set sail for Mexico, whose throne had been offered to Maximilian in an attempt to end the civil war that was raging in the country. The enterprise met a tragic end, however, when he was captured and shot at Quèretaro in 1867. Charlotte, who had returned to Miramare a few months earlier, was so devastated by the news that the balance of her mind was disturbed. She withdrew to the Castelletto in the Castle gardens and then moved back to Belgium, where she eventually died in 1927. The couple lived in the Castle for just four years. The ground floor is given over to the imperial couple's apartments. The interior, completed in 1860, reflects the fashion of the time as expressed by designers Franz and Julius Hofmann in the execution of their patron's wishes. The tour begins with Maximilian's bedroom, known as the cabin, and the Novara study, which reproduce the design of shipboard cabins in the Austrian Navy. The last room in his apartment is the library, some of whose 7.000 volumes are on display to the public – the rest are in storage. This is followed by the apartment used by Charlotte, who is depicted in a portrait by Jean Portaels (1857) hanging in the turret room. Also on display there is the piano on which she would play. After the bedroom and dressing room there is a room exhibiting pairs of water-colors illustrating the building of the Castle and photographs taken from Maximilian's album. The Chapel and the Wind Rose Room conclude the tour of the ground floor, which was the only one lived in by the couple. The staircase of honor, whose view of the Gulf of Trieste encompasses part of Trieste and Duino, leads to the first floor with a number of rooms restructured in the 1930s accommodate Duke Amedeo d'Aosta and his family. Furnished in rationalist style, the rooms have been preserved with their original contents. Given over to guests staying at the Castle, the first
floor was completed in about 1870 and designed in the neo-Renaissance and
neo-Baroque styles fashionable at the time of the Second Empire. From the
landing begins a series of reception rooms, including the Sovereigns'Room,
the Audience Room, the Oriental Salons, the Historic Room and the Throne
Room. Various improvement schemes have turned the site into a garden rich in rare and exotic plants and trees. It also has a number of buildings with a variety of functions. At the main entrance are the Stables, now used for exhibitions; near the Grignano exit is the Castelletto, lived in by Charlotte after 1866 and now the Visitor's center of the Miramare Marine Nature Reserve. Courtesy of AIAT Trieste
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