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 VANOLI – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
Palazzo Vanoli which is currently the site of the Grand Hotel Duchi D’Aosta, already in ancient times from the fourteenth-century “Hospitium Magnum” to the Renaissance “Locanda del Porto”, gave hospitality to foreign merchants who came to Trieste to stock up on sailors and goods .
In 1700 it became the “Locanda Grande” owned by the Municipality and the main hotel in the city. The emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Admiral Orazio Nelson stayed there, among others.
The inn was restored around 1767 by the Udine architect Giovanni Fusconi and on June 8, 1768, the archaeologist and art historian J. Winckelmann, who was staying there, was assassinated by the chef Francesco Arcangeli. The “Locanda Grande” was demolished in 1867 and in its place, in 1873, the architects Eugenio Geiringer and Giovanni Righetti built the current building with the function of hotel and restaurant.
Originally it was called Hotel Garni, then Vanoli managed by the hotelier Pietro Vanoli, where in 1912 electricity was introduced. From 1972 it became the Gran Hotel Duchi d’Aosta and Harry’s Bar, owned by the Benvenuti family.
PALAZZO PITTERI- PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
The building originally housed the Piccardi houses and the Locanda Grande, accommodation for passing foreigners, then in 1780, by order of the shopkeeper Domenico Plenario, the architect Ulderico Moro designed a building in the Triestine neoclassical style with baroque influences and rococo. In 1801 the palace was bought by Giovanni Lovovitz. In 1834 the entire property passed to the scholar Riccardo Pitteri. In 1880 the Caffè Flora was opened on the ground floor at the behest of Giuseppe Mander. During the day the Café was the meeting place for the choristers of the Verdi theater, located adjacent to the Piazza, while at night it was frequented by the proletarian inhabitants of Cittavecchia. In 1982 the architects Celli and Tognon made a general renovation of the building. The building later became the property of the Lloyd Adriatico insurance company.
PALAZZO MODELLO – PIAZZA UNITA’ D’ITALIA – TRIESTE
Next to Palazzo Stratti stands the Model Building designed, on behalf of the Municipality, in 1870 by the architect Giuseppe Bruni, the same architect as the Town Hall Building.
The name Model was chosen because it had to be an architectural model for the renovation of the Piazza Grande. It occupies the place where the two churches of San Rocco and San Pietro were located at the north-east entrance of the square. The civic chapel of San Pietro during the Middle Ages was also the seat of civil justice debates and was flanked at the end of the plague in 1602 by the chapel of San Rocco. The chapel of San Pietro was demolished in 1822 and the church of San Rocco in 1869.
The Model Building was rented as an inn by the Hotel Delorme, named after its manager the Frenchman Antonio Delorme, cook of Baron Pasquale Revoltella. A prestigious hotel with rooms and apartments also for large families, toilets on each floor, restaurant and views of the square and the sea, and fairly low prices. The hotel closed in 1912 and since 2008 has housed the offices and management of Acegas-Aps, the company that manages water, gas and electricity supply services.
Original are the statues, the Telamons, located on the top floor, sculpted in the act of touching the genitals in a superstitious gesture.
CHIESA DI SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE – TRIESTE
In the historic center of Trieste and a few steps from the Roman Amphitheater, on a large staircase built in 1956, stands the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, a unique example in Baroque style among the churches of the city. The church is popularly known as the Jesuit church to remember that its construction was commissioned by the Society of Jesus, which arrived in Trieste in 1619. After the construction of the Jesuit College, in 1627, which later became an Austrian criminal prison and an Italian women’s prison, it was the first stone for the construction of a large church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The works went on for a long time and continued even after the consecration of the Church in 1682 and the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773. The Church after the canonical extinction of the parish of S. Giusto Martire in 1774 and due to its size and architectural beauty became one of the most important religious buildings in Trieste.
The interior of the Church is attributed to the Modenese Jesuit, perhaps a designer, Giacomo Briani, while the eighteenth-century facade to the Trentino Jesuit, painter and architect, Andrea Pozzo. Above the central door of the majestic and monumental facade, in Baroque style, a sun-shaped frieze with the letters MRA (Mary Queen of the Angels) stands out and a small Jesuit hammer is visible in the wrought iron grate below.
The interior has a Latin cross plan and is divided by two rows of pillars into three naves. The hemispherical octagonal dome was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1817 by Giovanni Righetti. In particular: in the left aisle there is the chapel of the baptismal font in white marble, on which stands the statue of John the Baptist and the vault of the ceiling is frescoed with scenes from the New Testament;
in the right aisle stands the altar dedicated to the Madonna delle Grazie erected in 1853 by Baron Pasquale Revoltella in memory of his mother Domenica; the large canvases of the Via Crucis appear on the side walls of the aisles, a work of great value by the Trieste artist Carlo Wostry; the statue of the risen Christ rests on the dome of the tabernacle of the main altar; in the apse a large tempera fresco depicts the Apotheosis of the Immaculate Conception. To the left of the main altar there is the Chapel of the Crucifix and the altar “of the Good Death”, a gift from Bishop Giovanni Francesco Mueller in 1713 and, on the left side, among the works you can see the canvas of Christ in the tomb, by Carlo Wostry of 1894.
The chapel to the right of the main altar is dedicated to the Madonna della Salute and inside is the painting of the Virgin, donated in 1841 by Domenico Rossetti. Triestines are particularly devoted to the Madonna della Salute. Since 1849, the year in which the cholera epidemic broke out in the city, every year, on November 21st, the people of Trieste gather in the Church to renew their devotion to the Madonna. Bishop Antonio Santin in 1957 wanted to place the chapel with the miraculous statue of the Madonna dei Fiori in via del Teatro Romano at the origin of the feast of 21 November. The sixteenth-century marble bust depicting the Madonna and Child was found, around 1830, by an innkeeper whose nickname was Fior and on 15 October 1849 to implore the cessation of cholera it was carried in procession and on 21 November of the same year brought back in procession by grace received.
Under the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore there are the Jesuit Undergrounds which have always attracted the attention of art scholars and mystery lovers. Authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries such as Pietro Kandler, Ettore Generini, Giovanni Machorsich and the collector Diego de Henriquez, took care of the basement of the college. They retraced and described them. Today the fascinating rooms of the underground can be visited in complete safety thanks to the interest of the Parish of Santa Maria Maggiore and the volunteers of the Urban Speleology Section of the Adriatic Speleology Society.
GHETTO EBRAICO 1 – TRIESTE
In 1810 the religious and civil equality of all citizens was proclaimed. Any form of discrimination against Jews still in force is eliminated.The return of Austria and the period of the Restoration, characterized in all the territories of the Habsburgs by a strong centralism and a capillary police control, restore some prohibitions against the Jews ( including that of the public service, the prohibition of owning properties or the need for a permit to get married). , grains and oriental aromatic herbs. The nineteenth century saw the economic life of the Trieste emporium develop in an impetuous way and marked the moment of greatest civil and cultural flowering of the Jews of Trieste. The first insurance and shipping companies were born in the port of the Habsburgs, while maritime traffic experienced an unprecedented impulse.
The Jewish component continues to play a leading role, which is still witnessed today by the sumptuous palaces that characterize the city: Hierschel palace along the Grand Canal; Palazzo Carciotti, the first and most original example of neoclassical in Trieste, designed by the architect Matteo Pertsch, the first headquarters of Assicurazioni Generali;
Between the 19th and 20th centuries, the city experienced a steady stream of Jews fleeing the pogroms of Eastern Europe and Russia and headed for Palestine or the Americas. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, Trieste was the main port of embarkation for Israel, so much so that it earned the title of “Shaar Zion”, “Gate of Zion”. A clear sign of the importance reached by the Trieste community in the first half of the twentieth century is the construction of the monumental synagogue in Piazza Giotti, still today one of the symbols of multi-religious Trieste. The Great Synagogue
In September 1938, in a speech delivered precisely in Trieste, in Piazza Unità, Benito Mussolini announced the promulgation of the racial laws. Thus the complete expulsion of Jewish citizens from civil society is sanctioned. Their right of ownership is limited and, with retroactive effect, Italian citizenship is revoked from those who obtained it after 1919, thus creating about 500 stateless persons without any protection, also unable to emigrate because they lack a passport. 1939, the Jewish community which until then had represented a fundamental element of reference and cohesion was dissolved. Since 1941, also in the wake of the war, the persecution becomes increasingly bitter. Accidents and ill-treatment followed one another until the devastation, on July 18, 1942, of the majestic Synagogue. Intimidations and aggressions also marked 1943, the year that represented a dramatic turning point for the Community of Trieste, on 8 September the plan was triggered. of German occupation and Trieste, capital of the Adriatic coast, was placed under direct German control. Anti-Semitic politics now turns to the final solution.
Between November and December 1943, the Risiera di San Sabba, a complex of industrial buildings from the early twentieth century, once used for rice husking and then as barracks, was transformed into the only extermination camp built in Italy. To manage it are called military and officers already experienced in the atrocities of the final solution in Poland. At the Risiera, between 4 and 5 thousand people die, mostly political opponents, Italian, Slovenian and Croatian partisans. There are fewer than a hundred Jewish victims. For Jews, the San Sabba camp is in fact only a temporary accommodation pending deportation, usually towards Auschwitz.The Trieste community is deeply affected. At least 700 people, 10 percent of Italian Jews were deported and only 19 will return from the extermination camps, mostly women, who will witness the horror they suffered. After the war, a thousand survivors hiding in Italy or Switzerland return to the city. Many of them will emigrate to Palestine or the Americas. About 1,500 Jews remain in Trieste and in the mid-1960s a net imbalance between deaths and births will reduce their number by about 500. Today the Jewish Community of Trieste has almost 600 members and is considered an average reality at national level.
JEWISH GHETTO – TRIESTE
Umberto Saba, Autobiography
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It was established by Leopoldo I of Habsburg in 1696 in the then peripheral area of court Trauner and on November 28, 1696 by imperial decree, it was transferred to Riborgo, the commercial heart of Trieste, welcoming the protests of the Jewish community that wanted to be closer to the places where the economic life of the city took place.
The Jewish population is assigned 13 houses around the square, known as the Jewish Schools, and along two parallel districts that divide the neighborhood in a north-south direction. In 1697, after other houses were requisitioned, about a hundred Jews entered the ghetto.
The ghetto is accessed from the Portizza and is surrounded by a high wall with three entrance doors: in piazza del Rosario, at the end of via Beccherie and in Riborgo, at the time guarded night and day by Christian guards.
The proclamation of the free port of Trieste in 1719, by Charles VI of Habsburg, brings with it privileges and freedoms for all and also for the increasingly numerous Jewish community and which assumes, with the flourishing of traffic and commerce, a central role in the city. In 1748 the first synagogue was built, the Shola n.1, of the German rite, destroyed by a fire in 1822. It was rebuilt three years later and remained active until 1935 as an oratory. In 1771 Maria Theresa finally granted the Jews of Trieste two sovereign licenses, real regulations which provide, among other things, the exemption from the obligation to wear the distinctive yellow sign and the abolition of the special tax on the person (Leibsteuer) , which had to be paid by every Jew to enter another city. In 1784 the Emperor Joseph II instituted the Licenses of Tolerance. Jews are thus admitted to the office of deputies on the Stock Exchange, to exercise professional activities hitherto prohibited and at the university and, the following year, segregation was abolished. Other synagogues were built which were destroyed along with a large part of the ancient ghetto during the rehabilitation carried out by fascism from 1928 to 1937.
From the demolition of the synagogues, objects of worship have been preserved in the Museum of Carlo and Vera Wagner in via del Monte 7. Between 1797 and 1813 Trieste undergoes the occupation of Napoleonic troops three times, which marks the conquest of the Jews. rights.
Androna del Pane named after the Servolane bread vendors who arrived in the city with their baskets of warm bread.Androna del Pane was also named Androna della Rizza which was the name of a prostitute who lived in Androna and was well known in the ‘environment. In these streets of Cittavecchia there were about 40 brothels and more than 350 prostitutes who practiced the trade, all regularly registered and with medical assistance. The tiny brothel called “The cubic meter” is perhaps foreshadowed in a letter from Joyce to Svevo in which the Irish writer recalls “the brothels of public insecurity” in the area.
Via Beccherie is one of the oldest streets in the city. In 1754, a new municipal slaughterhouse was built nearby and this road was destined for meat sellers.
The last stretch of via Beccherie, towards the current Largo Riborgo, was destroyed in 1934 and the Casa del Fascio, the current Police Headquarters, was built in its place in 1938.
Via del Ponte runs from via Beccherie to Piazza Vecchia and until 1749 there was a wooden bridge that crossed the Canale della Portizza, known as the “Piccolo” or “del Vino” canal, where cargo boats used to forward.
Piazza Vecchia si contraddistingueva da Piazza Nuova, la piazza situata dietro il palazzo del Comune che in futuro diventerà prima Piazza Grande e poi Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia.
Piazza Vecchia un tempo era nota come Piazzetta del Rosario per la presenza di una confraternita di cittadini devoti che,nel 1613 chiesero la costruzione di una cappella detta del Rosario che per le leggi di Giuseppe II, fu chiusa nel 1784 e venduta alla Comunità evangelica di Cofessione Augustana, la quale ne mutò il titolo dedicandola alla SS. Trinità. Il fregio con dentro il triangolo e l’occhio, emblema del mistero della Santissima trinità. è ancora presente sulla facciata e sull’arco del presbiterio. nel 1869 il Comune demolita la chiesa di San Pietro, cappella comunale, la riacquistò destinandola a nuova cappella civica, facendo costruire in cambio la chiesa di Largo Panfili.
The name of Via delle Ombrelle, from Via Beccherie to Piazza Vecchia, derives from the presence of the residence of a Brescian dedicated to repairing umbrellas: Giacomo Malgarini.
In via Malcanton fino al 1753 c’erano le mura dell’antica Trieste che in questa strada formavano un angolo detto in dialetto “canton” e poichè era frequentata da malviventi da qui il nome di Malcanton.
Le vie del quartiere sono tuttora sede di negozi e di professioni tipiche dell’antiquariato, della vendita e del restauro di mobili, suppellettili e libri nonchè ristoranti e pub caratteristici.
SALONE DEGLI INCANTI TRIESTE
The architect Giorgio Polli built the ex-Pescheria Centrale in 1913, in Riva Nazario Sauro in front of Piazza Venezia. Due to the structure that resembles a church, it is called by the people of Trieste “Santa Maria del Guato”, a typical local fish.
The construction of brick walls interspersed with large windows integrates with the neoclassical style of the buildings overlooking the banks.
The sea water tank was contained by the bell tower. Bas-relief sculptures of the prow of fishing bragozzi and crustaceans adorn the facade and recall the function of the building.
Inside, the large liberty style hall, surrounded by large perimeter walls which, with huge iron windows, open at intervals on the sea and the shores, housed a noisy market.
The fish auctions were held on the pronaos, while the retail market took place inside, where the fish was displayed on large Karst marble counters.
The catch was mainly brought from the prow of the bragozzi from Gradesi and Chioggiotti moored at the adjacent pier. The façade covered in bricks with prominences in white stone and adorned with bas-relief sculptures of a marine character gives the structure a “veiling” of the Venetian style that well combines the location of the building between the quays of the dock and the front of the neoclassical buildings of the Rive .
Currently the building houses the Salone degli Incanti, a multipurpose exhibition center that hosts events, exhibitions and cultural events. The name derives from the auction sale of the fish that took place on the pronaos of the former fish market.
In 1974 Francis Ford Coppola chooses the former fish shop in Trieste to shoot the scene of the arrival of Vito Andolini from Corleone, in the film “The Godfather”, at Ellis Island in New York.