Friuli Venezia Giulia

Main tourist destinations

Trieste

Trieste was part of the Habsburg Monarchy during the period from 1382 until 1918. In the nineteenth century was the most important port of one of the great powers of Europe, thus became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest and Prague). However, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the annexation of Trieste to Italy after the First World War led to a economic and cultural decline.

Today, Trieste is a border town. The population is an ethnic mix of the neighboring regions. Triestino is the dominant dialect, spoken in the city center, while in many of the immediate environs the main language spoken is Slovenian. These two ethnic groups must be added a small number of Serbs, Croats, Germans and Hungarians.

Miramare Castle was built between 1856 and 1860 from a project by Carl Junker, under the Archduke Maximilian. Castle Gardens are a rare setting of beauty with a variety of trees, planted on the orders of Maximilian. Features of particular attraction in the gardens are two pools, a well-known for its swans and the other for the lotus flowers, the Castle annexe ( "Castelletto"), a bronze statue of Maximilian, and a small chapel where he kept a cross made from the remains of the "Novara", the ship on which Maximilian, brother of Emperor Franz Josef, sailed to become emperor of Mexico.

Castle of San Giusto is located on the remains of previous castles, and took more than two centuries to be built. The central part is deeds of Frederick III (1470-1), the round bastion was made during the rule of Venice (1508-9), while the Hoyos-Lalio and the Pomis bastion, or "Bastion flowers" are datatable in 1630.

The Roman theater is located at the foot of the hill of San Giusto, facing the sea. The construction uses part of the slope of the hill, so that many parts of the theater are made of stone. The statues that adorned the theater, brought to light in 1930, are now preserved at the Museo Civico.