Description
Piazza Unità d'Italia is Trieste's main square, at the foot of San Giusto Hill: a huge rectangle of over 12,000 square metres, closed on three sides by monumental buildings and open on the fourth straight onto the waters of the gulf.
At the far end, facing the sea, stands the Town Hall, designed by Giuseppe Bruni in 1875. At first the people of Trieste did not like it: they still call it palazzo Cheba, meaning “cage”, because it looks like an enormous birdcage.
On its tower two bronze Moors, Micheze and Jacheze, have been striking the quarter hours since 1876. The ones you see are faithful copies: the originals, worn by the years, are on display in San Giusto Castle.
The other buildings line up all around: the Palazzo del Governo, once the Austrian Lieutenancy, with mosaics on its façade; Palazzo Stratti, home of the historic Caffè degli Specchi; Palazzo Pitteri, from 1780, the oldest on the square; and the Lloyd Triestino building, now the seat of the Region.
In front of the Town Hall is the Fountain of the Four Continents, carved between 1751 and 1754: Europe, Asia, Africa and America around a winged Trieste, among bales of cotton and coils of rope. The Nile has a veiled face, because at the time its sources were unknown.
Next to it, on a column, the statue of Charles VI, the emperor who made Trieste a free port in 1719, points to the sea. It was ordered in a hurry for his visit in 1728, and the first version was in gilded wood; the stone one arrived in 1756.
A square thrown open to the sea is a 19th-century idea: after the old little harbour, the mandracchio, was filled in, the walls and buildings that closed it off were pulled down. The blue lights set in the paving on the sea side recall that vanished basin.
After the annexation to Italy, in the early 1920s, the double-headed eagle and the imperial family on the Lieutenancy's façade gave way to the Savoy coat of arms. But only there: on the building's two short sides the Austrian mosaics are still in place.
Great history has passed through here. In 1914 the bodies of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, killed in Sarajevo, left this square for Vienna amid a silent crowd. In 1938, from the Town Hall balcony, Mussolini announced the racial laws.
Don't miss
• The Town Hall and its Moors.
• The Fountain of the Four Continents.
• The mosaics of the Palazzo del Governo.
• The blue lights on the sea side.
Did you know?
• Before getting its current name, it was Piazza San Pietro, Piazza Grande and Piazza Francesco Giuseppe.
• Before the 2001-2005 works, a painting by Bruno Chersicla covering more than nine thousand square metres was painted on the square's asphalt, and it made it into the Guinness World Records.
At the far end, facing the sea, stands the Town Hall, designed by Giuseppe Bruni in 1875. At first the people of Trieste did not like it: they still call it palazzo Cheba, meaning “cage”, because it looks like an enormous birdcage.
On its tower two bronze Moors, Micheze and Jacheze, have been striking the quarter hours since 1876. The ones you see are faithful copies: the originals, worn by the years, are on display in San Giusto Castle.
The other buildings line up all around: the Palazzo del Governo, once the Austrian Lieutenancy, with mosaics on its façade; Palazzo Stratti, home of the historic Caffè degli Specchi; Palazzo Pitteri, from 1780, the oldest on the square; and the Lloyd Triestino building, now the seat of the Region.
In front of the Town Hall is the Fountain of the Four Continents, carved between 1751 and 1754: Europe, Asia, Africa and America around a winged Trieste, among bales of cotton and coils of rope. The Nile has a veiled face, because at the time its sources were unknown.
Next to it, on a column, the statue of Charles VI, the emperor who made Trieste a free port in 1719, points to the sea. It was ordered in a hurry for his visit in 1728, and the first version was in gilded wood; the stone one arrived in 1756.
A square thrown open to the sea is a 19th-century idea: after the old little harbour, the mandracchio, was filled in, the walls and buildings that closed it off were pulled down. The blue lights set in the paving on the sea side recall that vanished basin.
After the annexation to Italy, in the early 1920s, the double-headed eagle and the imperial family on the Lieutenancy's façade gave way to the Savoy coat of arms. But only there: on the building's two short sides the Austrian mosaics are still in place.
Great history has passed through here. In 1914 the bodies of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, killed in Sarajevo, left this square for Vienna amid a silent crowd. In 1938, from the Town Hall balcony, Mussolini announced the racial laws.
Don't miss
• The Town Hall and its Moors.
• The Fountain of the Four Continents.
• The mosaics of the Palazzo del Governo.
• The blue lights on the sea side.
Did you know?
• Before getting its current name, it was Piazza San Pietro, Piazza Grande and Piazza Francesco Giuseppe.
• Before the 2001-2005 works, a painting by Bruno Chersicla covering more than nine thousand square metres was painted on the square's asphalt, and it made it into the Guinness World Records.