PALAZZO STRATTI – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
The rich cloth merchant, the Greek Nicolò Stratti, an important figure in the city of Trieste in the early nineteenth century, in 1839, ordered the architect Antonio Buttazzoni to design a neoclassical style building to the north-east of the square and to remember the style of Palazzo Carciotti which for forty years dominated the banks.
The façade is crowned by a balustrade and completed by a sculptural group, which once stood on the postic façade, the work of the Venetian sculptor Luigi Zandomeneghi.
In the allegorical work, Trieste is represented by a woman surrounded by symbols that praise the cultural and economic growth of the city, such as technological development (George Stephenson’s locomotive given to Austria in 1837 to improve the Trieste-Vienna railway), urban planning (a capital), artistic (the zither, for music, the palette for painting and the bust for sculpture), work (an anvil, a hammer and an anchor) and, finally, the growth of reason but also the presence always of the mystery of darkness (an owl, an animal sacred to Minerva).
In 1846, due to financial difficulties of the Stratti, the building was purchased for 400,000 florins by Assicurazioni Generali. On the ground floor of the building there is the historic Caffè degli Specchi inaugurated in 1839 but completed only in 1846 when the ownership of the building passed to Assicurazioni Generali. The facade of the building was completely renovated in 1872 on a project by the architects Geiringer and Righetti.
PALAZZO DEL MUNICIPIO – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
At the entrance to Piazza Unità d’Italia, coming from Piazza della Borsa, where the Palazzo del Magistrato once stood,
in 1875 the Palazzo del Municipio was designed by the architect Giuseppe Bruni. The style of the facades is characterized by a mixture of Parisian style and Germanic mannerism. 
The Palazzo initially did not appeal to the people of Trieste who nicknamed it “Cheba” palace, or “Cage” palace, due to the shape that resembles a huge cage for birds, but also “Sipario” palace, since with its imposing size it was able to hide the ruins and the ugliness of the houses of the Old Town that were behind it. The ground floor is made up of round arches that reproduce the idea of a portico, while on the upper floors there are numerous windows divided into mullioned windows and three-mullioned windows.
Composed of two lateral bodies of four floors in height, and a central body higher than one floor and characterized by the clock tower, on top of which two bronze Moors, nicknamed Micheze and Jacheze from Trieste (Their names derive from the Slovenian “Mihec” and “Jakec” which means Michael and James), mark the time every quarter of an hour. The first twelve chimes of noon were heard on January 14, 1876.
The two statues recall the two Moors installed in 1517 on the Clock Tower, also called Torre del Porto, or Torre del Mandracchio which was the door to the square (then Piazza Grande or Piazza San Pietro) which overlooked the ancient port of the city .
Currently on the Town Hall tower are two copies of the original statues found at the entrance to the castle of San Giusto.
PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
Initially called San Pietro for the existence in the square of the church of San Pietro, demolished in the second half of the nineteenth century, but also known as Piazza Grande, to distinguish it from the Small Square located behind the Palazzo del Comune.
The square was much smaller than the current one and closed, on the side facing the sea, by the walls and the Torre del Porto, which overlooked the “Mandracchio”, the ancient port that extended up to half of the current square.
In the evening, a suggestive illumination with blue lights recalls the ancient coast. While on the opposite side the square was bounded by the old Town Hall, the seat of the city administration since the Middle Ages.
During the 1800s, works were made to open the square towards the sea, bury the Mandracchio and create a large garden surrounded by buildings built from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. After the First World War, with the annexation of Trieste to Italy, the square took the name Unit and from 1955 it became Piazza Unità d’Italia.
12.280 sqm. rectangular plan and on one side opens directly onto the sea. It is the largest square in Europe overlooking the sea.