LA CASA DELLE BISSE -TRIESTE

Behind Piazza Sant’Antonio, in Via San Lazzaro 15 is Casa Allodi, known as the “Casa delle bisse” (House of snakes). It was built on a project by the architect Bubolini in 1771 in a neoclassical style with elements of French Rococo and over the years it has undergone numerous interventions that have transformed the original appearance conceived with only two floors while today it is presented with an additional floor and with the attic. Trieste says that the inscription: “Aedes anno MDCCLXXI ob aque inopiam aceto absoluta” which appears inside the house was placed to remind us that during the construction, in 1771, the city lacked water and the wells were dry, and the builder to avoid delaying the delivery, he bought a large quantity of vinegar to prepare the mortars.
“Hoc me ornament Galli affecerunt MDCCCIX” this is the writing that appears at the entrance. Trieste tells that the house was hit by a cannonball fired by the French during the battle with the Austrians who wanted to drive them out of the Trieste Castle and is still preserved in the entrance. In 1813, to commemorate the event, the owner of the house since 1793, the reverend Don Marco Sadnech, had an allegorical sculptural group placed on the main entrance portal.

The group depicts a snake, allegory of Napoleon I, attacked by three eagles, representing Austria, Russia and Prussia. From the architrave hangs a golden sphere, placed in memory of the cannonball.