In 1714 the Emperor Charles VI, on the occasion of the end of hostilities with the Turks, had a salt warehouse built at the end of the square from which the origin of the first name Piazza del Sale. The salt warehouse was demolished in 1821 and sold to the Municipality who wanted to use it for the fish market and on a project by Pietro Nobile he built a building that had arcades supported by columns on the ground floor where the trade would take place and the two upper floors intended for homes.

But the Municipality moved the fish market to another area and in 1829 also sold the portico of the building to the tobacconist Carlo Fontana who had already bought the two floors of the house intended for private homes. After the demolition of the warehouse, the square changed its name to Piazza Cavana perhaps because at that time there was an old quarry nearby

It is said that in 1313 an attempt of lordship by the patrician Marco Ranfo was thwarted. This ancient patrician family already had a representative among the Trieste consuls in 1150 and in 1202 they were among the three hundred and seventy-two citizens who had sworn allegiance to Doge Dandolo. Marco Ranfo became the protagonist of this tumultuous shock of local events, he had become procurator in 1285, that is a kind of notary of the public acts of the Municipality, and five years later, at the time of the conflicts with Venice, he appeared as consul. he was head of the Vassalli del Vescovo. In 1311 he was among the Consuls and his name appears in a public deed in 1313 next to that of the representative and the podestà, the vicar Sagramoro. So he was a very prominent character. It is assumed that he tried to take over the Municipality and impose his lordship. The following year his name disappears. In the pages of the statutes you can read his sentence: “Marco Ranfo, sentenced to death, be killed, and extend this sentence also to his sons Giovanni and Pietro. The daughters Clara, Ranfa and Agnese are treated in the same way as infamous women and are banished from the city, after being treated with a whip for the districts from one door to the other “. The Ranfi house in Piazza Cavana, Largo del Crocefisso, it was demolished and the clearing should have remained perpetually deserted as a centuries-old reminder of the evil committed by these people. His disappearance, however, remains a mystery. It is possible that he was killed while he was fidgeting to prepare for the riot. Perhaps he had managed to save himself by fleeing by the sea.

An eighteenth-century aedicule with Christ on the cross is located on the side facade of one of the houses in Piazza Cavana. It is said that under the armpit of Christ appears a bullet fired in 1944 by a drunk German non-commissioned officer.

Many historic streets overlook Piazza Cavana each with a peculiarity. In via delle Beccherie until 1750 meat was slaughtered, in via dei Fornelli there is an old trattoria famous for good fish, even Duke Amedeo d’Aosta when he came to Trieste went to eat at the Antica Ghiacceretta. Crossing via della Pescheria you arrive at the fish market which until 1810 was near the current via Diaz, Via del Pesce so called because the operations required by law were carried out to sell fish.

At the end of Piazza Cavana there is the district of Cavana which extends in the eighteenth century right inside the historic village. At the entrance to the district there is the Casa Pepeu, so called because the scholar Francesco Pepeu lived in one of the apartments, characterized by large stone amphorae protruding from the roof.

Antonio Vicco Palace built by the Portuguese merchant of the same name in the late 1700s over the demolition of the Hospital of the Annunziata and of the small church dedicated to the Beata Vergine dell’Annunziata. After the death of the merchant, the Palace became the seat of the bishop’s curia.