JAMES JOYCE – TRIESTE
The statue of James Joyce was created by the Trieste sculptor Nino Spagnoli and placed in Ponterosso on the Grand Canal in 2004 to commemorate the centenary of the Irish writer’s arrival in Trieste.
Under the statue a plaque
recalls the writer’s deep bond with the city of Trieste. The 16th June of every year in Trieste since 2010 is Bloomsday the symbolic date in which James Joyce’s scholars and passionate readers all over the world celebrate the Irish writer. of the hero of the novel Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, through the streets of his Dublin.
James Joyce arrived in Trieste on October 20, 1904 with his partner Nora Barnacle to work as a teacher at the Berlitz School. Unfortunately the place was no longer available and was sent to Pula where there was a new school location. He returned to Trieste in 1905 at the birth of his first son Giorgio and in the meantime he was joined by his brother Stanislaus who began to work at the Berlitz School. In 1907, after a period in Rome where he worked as a clerk at Nast, Kolb & Schumacher Bank, he returned to Trieste. Here he lectured on behalf of the Popular University and published Chamber Music. He began to teach private students belonging to the Trieste high bourgeoisie, including Italo Svevo. Between the two began a deep relationship of friendship and mutual respect.
Italo Svevo had already published his first two books “Una Vita” and “Senilità”, but no one had dealt with them. Joyce read them and urged Svevo to keep writing. Meanwhile Joyce’s life was divided between private lessons, the chair at the Revoltella Higher School of Commerce, the conferences at the Popular University and his first publications Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Dubliners also arrived. He began to design the first parts of the Ulysses.
At the outbreak of the First World War he had to leave Trieste for Zurich to return in October 1919, remaining there until June 1920. During this period Joyce wrote Nausicaa and Oxen of the Sun, two episodes of Ulysses, and began the episode entitled Circe. He moved to Paris and never returned to Trieste. Ulysses was published in 1922.
CANAL GRANDE – TRIESTE
The Grand Canal was a shallow sea water course useful for the adjacent salt pans which were cut by three channels, the “Small Canal” also called “Canal del vino”, which reached up to Piazza Vecchia, the “Canal maestro”, which it became the current Grand Canal along until it touched the church of Sant’Antonio and a third, which reached via Ghega. At that time the salt flats were one of the main sources of income for the city.
In 1754-1756, to develop the urban area of the city outside the walls, Borgo Teresiano was designed, with a checkerboard layout, consisting of regular blocks alternating with channels for loading and unloading goods. Then the works of the Venetian Matteo Pirona were authorized whose project was to create a large canal through the burying of the salt flats and the further excavation of the main collector.But the Neapolitan captain Caracciolo completed the great project: he widened the watercourse and covered the new sides with natural stone, dug deeper and the earth removed was used to level the space in front of the current Church of S. Antonio Nuovo, giving rise to the Piazza del Ponte Rosso. A guardhouse was set up on the Canal to defend the warehouses from possible attacks by the Venetian Republic, which did not see the rise of a possible commercial competition on the same sea of exclusive dominion.Subsequently, the dilapidated buildings overlooking the canal were demolished and replaced from two-storey houses with the possibility of raising other floors over time. The ground floor was dedicated to department stores and emporiums for all kinds of goods and the upper floors to private residences.
The Grand Canal, 370 meters long and 28 meters wide, was completed in 1756 and the cost was around 90,000 florins. In 1756, in the middle of the canal to join the two opposite banks, “Ponte Rosso” was built, first in wood, painted red, from which the bridge and the adjacent square takes its name, and, later, in 1832, replaced with a in iron with the opening in the center in order to make it movable and openable. In 1827 to connect the Riva Carciotti (today III November) with the other side of the Canal, the Green Bridge was built, so called for the color it assumed and was opened every day to allow ships to enter the heart of the city.
In 1904, to facilitate greater freedom of movement of the railway line connecting the Central Station with that of S.Andrea, later called Campo Marzio, a third bridge was built, which the citizens baptized with the name of “Ponte Bianco” and while on this spilled over the railway line, the electric tram rails passed over the nearby Ponte Verde. After the Second World War the two bridges disappeared to make way for a single large stone passage that connected the Riva with the Corso Cavour. In 1934 to connect via San Spiridione with Via Filzi instead of building a new bridge, the entire last part of the canal was buried with the rubble resulting from the demolition of the old city, thus obtaining the current Piazza Sant’Antonio …
It is said that in 1917 two small torpedo boats, belonging to the Austrian Navy, were moored in the Ponterosso Canal. For many years it was the object of play for many children of the time who climbed on it and had nicknamed it “el sotomarìn”. Between the years 1930-1932 the first part of the canal was buried and the torpedo boat was buried with building material deriving from some demolitions of old houses in the old town ….
Today the Grand Canal is one of the most loved places by Trieste and tourists. Restaurants and cafes line the banks of the canal offering the city’s food and wine specialties
PILONI PORTABANDIERA – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
The flagpoles of Piazza Unità d’Italia are made up of 6 meter high piles that support the 25 meter antennas on which the two halberds, the city’s coat of arms, of duralumin are placed.
The sculptural part, commissioned to the Trieste sculptor Attilio Selva, is 4.25 meters high and represents the drivers, who fought in the First World War, while they stand guard over the banners of Trieste and Italy. They were inaugurated on 24 May 1933 in the presence of the Duke of Aosta Amedeo di Savoia.