COLONNA DELL’IMPERATORE CARLO VI – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
In 1728, on the occasion of the visit of Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg, son of Emperor Leopold I of Austria, the statue in his honor was erected in the current Piazza Unità and was provisionally built in wood and gilded. In 1756 it was replaced by the current stone statue of the Venetian sculptor Lorenzo Fonoli.
The Emperor Charles VI had established the free port in Trieste in 1719, and the position of the statue’s index is facing the sea, while the gaze is towards Piazza della Borsa, the new center of the city’s economic activities.
LA FONTANA DEI QUATTRO CONTINENTI – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
The Fountain of the Four Continents, located in front of the Town Hall in Piazza Unità d’Italia, was created between 1751 and 1754 by the Bergamo sculptor Giovanni Battista Mazzoleni, also author of the Giovanin Fountain in Piazza Ponterosso and of the Neptune Fountain in Piazza of the Stock Exchange.
The intention was to present Trieste to the world as a city aided by Fortuna through the establishment of the Portofranco and the liberal policy of Charles VI and Maria Teresa.
The four statues at the corner of the basin represent the four continents with an animal and each represents one of the four continents then known: Europe with the horse, Asia with the camel, Africa with the lion and America with the crocodile. Oceania-Australia had not yet been discovered. Allegorical figures of Rivers pour water from their jars into the shells below; below the water gushes from the mouths of four dolphins, falling back into the large pools.
On the top, the Angel of Fame with spread wings overlooks the young figure of Trieste, lying on the rocks of the Carso, and surrounded by bundles, barrels, bales of cotton and ropes, in the act of addressing a merchant in oriental clothing. In 1938 the fountain was removed from the square to make way for the stage for the meeting of Benito Mussolini visiting the city. It returned to the square in the seventies after being restored.
IL PALAZZO DEL GOVERNO – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
Built between 1901 and 1905, inspired by the architecture of the Renaissance and the style of the Viennese Secession, designed by the Viennese architect Immanuel Artmann, it was the seat of the Austrian Lieutenancy.
It is a wonderful building embellished by a Florentine loggia with a decoration of Murano glass mosaics.
In the upper part of the external facade, facing the square, there are drawings, allegorical heads and medallions with the coat of arms of the House of Savoy made after the First World War, replacing the original mosaics, designed by Giuseppe Straka of Vienna, which featured elements of Austrian derivation . Today the building houses the offices of the Government Commissariat in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region as well as those of the Prefecture. High personalities of the State and of Foreign States, on an official visit to the city and the region, are welcomed by the large and majestic halls of national government representation.
PALAZZO DEL LLOYD TRIESTINO – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
The first stone of the building was laid on December 6, 1880, the day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of sailors, based on a project by the architect Heinrich von Ferstel, famous for the construction of many architectural works in Vienna. The building stands on the place where once there was the old squero di San Nicolò which was buried and then occupied for a period by a square used as a market. Reminiscent of the Renaissance style, symbol of the Trieste lordship on the sea.
On the façade, at the top, the inscription “Lloyd Triestino” is visible, placed in the 1930s to replace a large coat of arms of the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd. At the top two Winged Victories: the one on the left raises an oak branch symbol of strength and at its side a young man symbolizes work, the one on the right raises a laurel wreath symbol of glory flanked by a young man sitting on a boat that symbolizes the sea . On the parapet, from left to right, the statues of Aeolus (god of winds), Mercury (god of trade), Vulcan (prince of earthly fire) and Neptune (god of the seas) dominate.
PALAZZO VANOLI – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
Palazzo Vanoli which is currently the site of the Grand Hotel Duchi D’Aosta, already in ancient times from the fourteenth-century “Hospitium Magnum” to the Renaissance “Locanda del Porto”, gave hospitality to foreign merchants who came to Trieste to stock up on sailors and goods .
In 1700 it became the “Locanda Grande” owned by the Municipality and the main hotel in the city. The emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Admiral Orazio Nelson stayed there, among others.
The inn was restored around 1767 by the Udine architect Giovanni Fusconi and on June 8, 1768, the archaeologist and art historian J. Winckelmann, who was staying there, was assassinated by the chef Francesco Arcangeli. The “Locanda Grande” was demolished in 1867 and in its place, in 1873, the architects Eugenio Geiringer and Giovanni Righetti built the current building with the function of hotel and restaurant.
Originally it was called Hotel Garni, then Vanoli managed by the hotelier Pietro Vanoli, where in 1912 electricity was introduced. From 1972 it became the Gran Hotel Duchi d’Aosta and Harry’s Bar, owned by the Benvenuti family.
PALAZZO PITTERI- PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
The building originally housed the Piccardi houses and the Locanda Grande, accommodation for passing foreigners, then in 1780, by order of the shopkeeper Domenico Plenario, the architect Ulderico Moro designed a building in the Triestine neoclassical style with baroque influences and rococo. In 1801 the palace was bought by Giovanni Lovovitz. In 1834 the entire property passed to the scholar Riccardo Pitteri. In 1880 the Caffè Flora was opened on the ground floor at the behest of Giuseppe Mander. During the day the Café was the meeting place for the choristers of the Verdi theater, located adjacent to the Piazza, while at night it was frequented by the proletarian inhabitants of Cittavecchia. In 1982 the architects Celli and Tognon made a general renovation of the building. The building later became the property of the Lloyd Adriatico insurance company.
PALAZZO MODELLO – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
Next to Palazzo Stratti stands the Model Building designed, on behalf of the Municipality, in 1870 by the architect Giuseppe Bruni, the same architect as the Town Hall Building.
The name Model was chosen because it had to be an architectural model for the renovation of the Piazza Grande. It occupies the place where the two churches of San Rocco and San Pietro were located at the north-east entrance of the square. The civic chapel of San Pietro during the Middle Ages was also the seat of civil justice debates and was flanked at the end of the plague in 1602 by the chapel of San Rocco. The chapel of San Pietro was demolished in 1822 and the church of San Rocco in 1869.
The Model Building was rented as an inn by the Hotel Delorme, named after its manager the Frenchman Antonio Delorme, cook of Baron Pasquale Revoltella. A prestigious hotel with rooms and apartments also for large families, toilets on each floor, restaurant and views of the square and the sea, and fairly low prices. The hotel closed in 1912 and since 2008 has housed the offices and management of Acegas-Aps, the company that manages water, gas and electricity supply services.
Original are the statues, the Telamons, located on the top floor, sculpted in the act of touching the genitals in a superstitious gesture.