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.