Description
Piazza della Borsa is Trieste's "second drawing room", next to Piazza Unità d'Italia: a pedestrian square that narrows towards Corso Italia. Throughout the 19th century it was the city's business heart, and its palazzi still tell the story.
The leading role goes to the Stock Exchange palace, built in 1806 by Antonio Mollari from Macerata: one of the city's most important neoclassical monuments. Today it houses the Chamber of Commerce, and the people of Trieste call it the Borsa vecchia, the old Exchange.
Old because the Exchange moved twice: in 1844 to the Tergesteo, and in 1928 to the building next door, the former Palazzo Dreher, which became the Borsa nuova for everyone. So the square has an old Exchange and a new Exchange, side by side.
On the opposite side opens the Tergesteo arcade, a covered gallery inaugurated in 1842. It runs through the building to the square of the Teatro Verdi and is home to some of Trieste's historic cafés.
In front of the Exchange a stone column holds up Emperor Leopold I: his son Charles VI made Trieste a free port. Leopold's Column was erected in 1660 in another square and moved here in 1808.
The other monument is the Fountain of Neptune, from 1755. In 1920 it was removed and ended up in Piazza Venezia; it returned to its place in 2011, when the square was restored and closed to cars.
Among the buildings, Art Nouveau lovers should stop at Casa Bartoli, designed by Max Fabiani in 1905. The other palazzi today mostly house banks and shops.
The square grew up just outside the city walls. Where it leads towards Piazza Unità stood the Vienna Gate, and the houses on the hill side still follow the line of the old walls. It was originally called Piazza della Dogana, the Customs square, after the building that stood where the Tergesteo is today.
Next to the Exchange ran the Canal Piccolo, which reached as far as the old town; it was filled in in 1816 and today only a street name remains.
The leading role goes to the Stock Exchange palace, built in 1806 by Antonio Mollari from Macerata: one of the city's most important neoclassical monuments. Today it houses the Chamber of Commerce, and the people of Trieste call it the Borsa vecchia, the old Exchange.
Old because the Exchange moved twice: in 1844 to the Tergesteo, and in 1928 to the building next door, the former Palazzo Dreher, which became the Borsa nuova for everyone. So the square has an old Exchange and a new Exchange, side by side.
On the opposite side opens the Tergesteo arcade, a covered gallery inaugurated in 1842. It runs through the building to the square of the Teatro Verdi and is home to some of Trieste's historic cafés.
In front of the Exchange a stone column holds up Emperor Leopold I: his son Charles VI made Trieste a free port. Leopold's Column was erected in 1660 in another square and moved here in 1808.
The other monument is the Fountain of Neptune, from 1755. In 1920 it was removed and ended up in Piazza Venezia; it returned to its place in 2011, when the square was restored and closed to cars.
Among the buildings, Art Nouveau lovers should stop at Casa Bartoli, designed by Max Fabiani in 1905. The other palazzi today mostly house banks and shops.
The square grew up just outside the city walls. Where it leads towards Piazza Unità stood the Vienna Gate, and the houses on the hill side still follow the line of the old walls. It was originally called Piazza della Dogana, the Customs square, after the building that stood where the Tergesteo is today.
Next to the Exchange ran the Canal Piccolo, which reached as far as the old town; it was filled in in 1816 and today only a street name remains.