The Castle of San Giusto - Virtual Tour 360°

The Castle of San Giusto, like that of Miramare (visit its profile), is one of the most characteristic monuments, and therefore worth visiting, of the city of Trieste. It is located on the hill of the same name, and can be reached from the city center through a series of itineraries that wind through the city streets.

Perhaps the most suggestive itinerary to reach it on foot, starts from the Rive, passing through Cavana. To get there, you walk through a maze of narrow streets that climb from Borgo Teresiano to the Castle. The fastest but equally characteristic itinerary is instead the one that starts from the very central Piazza Goldoni through the impervious Scala dei Giganti.

Once on the hill of San Giusto, the view is nothing short of very suggestive. The visitor's gaze can get lost between the center of Trieste, its gulf and the Karst.

This Castle was commissioned by the emperors of Austria and was built by Frederick III between 1470 and 1471. It was subsequently enlarged and renovated between the 16th and 17th centuries.

This is a very special castle. His building, in fact, was never used for war-like functions. But only a barracks of the Austrian captains remained. Even if, in the Trieste culture, there are some “metropolitan” legends that tell of probable underground connections, which left the castle in the direction of the major defensive areas of the city.

After its transfer to the Municipality of Trieste, the fortress was subjected, in 1930, to new restoration works, which gave it its current feudal appearance, making it one of the symbols of the city thanks to its patrol walkways that embrace a magnificent panorama of Trieste.

Historically, the construction of the fortress began with the Captain's House. That is, a fortified house flanked by a tower which in later times was enclosed in a triangular fortress formed at the three vertices by as many bastions of different shapes that were called: the Round or Veneto Bastion (from 1508-1509), the Bastione Lalio or Hoyos (from the polygonal shape, from 1553-1557) and the Bastione Fiorito or Pomis (from the triangular shape, from 1636).

Currently, two important sections of the Civic Museums of History and Art are housed inside the Castle: the Civic Museum of the Castle of San Giusto-Armeria and the Tergestino Lapidarium at Bastione Lalio, in which 130 inscriptions, bas-reliefs and sculptures are exhibited. allow you to retrace the history and appearance of the Roman Tergeste.

The interior spaces of the fortress are accessed via a wooden drawbridge that dominates the cathedral and the remains of the Roman civil basilica. Already at the entrance, you “get to know” the two original statues of "Mikeze and Jakeze": two city automatons that, even today, "mark" the time of the city directly from the bell tower of the Town Hall.

In this space and in the adjacent atrium of the Castle there are numerous "Trieste" tombstones dating back to between the 16th and 19th centuries. Among these must certainly be included the one depicting the "Melon", that is a stone artefact from the Roman period that has become, over the years, one of the best known symbols of the city.

The walls of the fortress, from the top of which run the walkways of the Castle, surround the vast Courtyard of the Militia, which leads to the Tergestino Lapidary, the Sala dei Cannoni and the Bottega del Vino.

The Museum of the Castle of San Giusto-Armeria is still housed within the fourteenth-sixteenth century rooms of the Captain's House. The average time to visit it is about two hours. Inside, it is possible to admire the chapel of San Giorgio and the sumptuous Sala Veneta by Giuseppe Caprin.

The late Gothic chapel of San Giorgio is located on the first floor of the fortress and is characterized in the apse area by a cross vault with ribs resting on head-shaped corbels. Here the coat of arms of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg is also clearly visible, where the acronym A.E.I.O.U stands out, ie the synthesis of the phrase "Alles Erdreich ist Oesterreich unterthan".

When you reach the top of the twentieth-century staircase you arrive at the first floor of the museum from where you can visit the room set up in memory of Giuseppe Caprin (Trieste 1843-1904): an illustrious journalist, historian, publisher and patriot from Trieste who had made his home ( built in 1878), located in the Trieste district of San Giacomo, a renowned cultural salon in perfect Renaissance style.

Among the furnishings in this room stand out the wedding chests, the sculptures but also the numerous paintings of Venetian origin (dated between the 16th and 18th centuries). On the ceiling, on the other hand, the most famous work of the collection stands out, that is a large 17th century canvas, the work of Andrea Celesti, depicting "The Triumph of Venice".

On the second floor, in the patrol walkways, there is also the Armory. Up here, a long path unfolds, in which the many weapons are visible in a pleasant itinerary that traces the evolution of European armament from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century.

Here, fans of this war object, will be able to admire pole arms (halberds, partisans, falcions), long and short sidearms (swords, daggers and bayonets), jet weapons (crossbows), long and short firearms ( mortars, rifles and pistols) and accessories (powder flasks and cartridge cases).

 

Routes and places to visit a stone's throw from the castle

The history of the San Giusto hill is as long as that of Trieste itself. Proof of this is that this is a city area that offers a lot for tourists who are "thirsty" for history, museums and monuments.

A stone's throw from the castle, in fact, you can also visit the Parco della Rimembranza, the Cathedral of San Giusto (see the description), the church of San Michele, the Lapidary Garden (click) as well as the adjacent Civic Museum of History and Art .

An interesting itinerary adjacent to the Castle, full of information and details, can also be consulted online on the Triestemusei website in a dedicated section.

Map: The Castle of San Giusto - Virtual Tour 360°