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.
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.
On the ground floor, on Piazza Unità, the building has two fountains dedicated to Thetis and Venus, mythological representatives, respectively, of fresh and salt water. For many years fresh water flowed from the Teti fountain and salt water in that of Venus, driven by a mechanical pump. In 1945, the Palace was seriously damaged by artillery shells fired by the Germans and was later restored in 1967. Today it is the seat of the Presidency of the Regional Council.