• user
  • en
    • it
    • fr
    • de
    • es
Search for the town, the city, the area where you want to go and consult the contents of VisitItaly
Search for the town, the city, the area where you want to go and consult the contents of VisitItaly
VISITITALY WHAT TO SEE FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA TRIESTE E CARSO TRIESTE

Things to do in Trieste Italy – what to see attractions and activities

Welcome to Trieste Italy. If you’are planning to visit Trieste for your next trip and you are looking for the best places to visit, here you’ll find tips and suggestions of most popular point of interest and activities not to be missed in Trieste and surrounding. Travelers will appreciate this italian town with his rich historical and artistic heritage, local culture and environment. Discover the monuments, buildings, natural treasures and all the details that characterize Trieste and its territory.  Share and suggest a place you've visited.

Trieste and its beautiful atmosphere

Mediterranean scents with Slavic and Germanic hints, Trieste offers its visitors the beautiful face of a border town, with a particular history enriched during centuries by different influences that continue to enchant all the artists of the world.

The city overlooks the Gulf of Italian extreme northeast, near the border with Slovenia. Trieste lies in fact at the feet of an imposing cliff which drops sharply from the rugged karst into the sea. One might say that the sea in Trieste welcome home, when you can admire the Piazza Unità d’Italia, one of the world's most beautiful and spacious overlooking the water squares.

The city has always enchanted artists and writers from around the world, so as to have inspired great writers like James Joyce, Italo Svevo and the poet Umberto Saba. You can find the intellectual environment that characterized the early twentieth century in the famous cafès going to San Marco, the local town, where used to meet many famous European thinkers. It will be an excellent opportunity to taste the real passion of Trieste: the coffee!

The beautiful surroundings of Trieste offers visitors numerous hiking opportunities, particularly along the coastline such as the Grotta Gigante, the largest tourist cave in the world. Do not miss the castle of Miramare and the castle of Duino, which overlook the sea, or the picturesque Istrian-Venetian town of Muggia, rich in historical treasures and culinary traditions.
written by Dave Mitchell - Last update: 27/05/2020

Castles, palaces and mansions

Palazzo del Municipio

The Palace of the Town Hall of Trieste was created in 1875 under the project of the architect Giuseppe Bruni. The architect has carried out the entire work by crossing different architectural forms without polluting harmony with the other buildings around. The building is dominated by the bell tower on which we find two moors called by the Trieste Jacheze and Micheze who from 1876 beat every quarter of an hour. The palace was also labeled as Palazzo Cheba (from the shape that resembles the bird cage) or even as Palazzo Sipario.

Castles, palaces and mansions

Castello di Miramare

This castle overlooks a wonderful panorama, surrounded by a large park of 22 hectares and close to the sea, for this reason its name is Miramar, in the Italianized form, deriving from the Spanish “mirar el mar” because the castle was built by the Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico, Maximilian of Habburg-Lorraine. In the park there is also the castle, a smaller building where the archduke lived before the construction of the castle. Inside, the castle consists of numerous rooms.

Museums

Museo della Comunità Ebraica "Carlo e Vera Wagner"

The Museum of the Jewish Community “Carlo and Vera Wagner” in Trieste is located in the former building of the Jewish Agency. The building was very important for Jewish immigration that descended from northeast Europe to the Israeli state. The Museum was precisely created to protect this Jewish passage. Inside the building, you can also see very important documents from Jewish history, you can admire the section dedicated to the Triestinians who fell during the Shoah and further documents that made the story.

Museums

Civico Museo Sartorio

The Civic Museum Sartorio is located in Trieste, a short distance from the museum of natural history. It houses antique furnishings and objects, ceramics, library, collections of paintings, drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo and a gypsoteca - gliptoteca. The Sartorio Civic Museum was founded by the homonymous family and the official partial opening dates back in 1949. The museum, together with its furnishings, was donated to the City Council by the last heir of the family.

Museums

Civico Museo "Morpurgo"

The museum intended to preserve documents, memorabilia, paintings, prints on history and city folklore, was reopened in December 2000, thanks to the magnificent intervention of the Costantinides family, with the creation of the fabric room and the renovation of the artistic collection of the Greek Socrates Stavropulos (Trieste 1882-Zurich 1960), donated to the Civic Museums of History and Art in 1952, arranged by himself originally in the halls of the museum and integrated on several occasions until death.

Museums

Museo Storico del Castello di Miramare

Historical Museum of Trieste built in 1955 the Miramare Castle, offers the combination of different styles from Gothic to Medieval to Renaissance. The most important rooms of the museum are: the Sala Novara, which was the office of Massimiliano d'Habsburg, the Library with more than 7,000 nineteenth-century volumes of history, art, literature, geography and botany, the Hall Historical frescoed with episodes from the history of Grignano and the Music Room. The Museum is open to the public through a pre-established path.

Museums

Civico Museo del Mare

The Museum of the Sea of Trieste was founded in 1904, tells the historical development of the Trieste marineria and the evolution of navigation instruments. Inside the first floor, you can admire models of ancient ships and nautical instruments of the Teresian nautical school, mainly from the 19th century. On the second floor, the history of steam marine. In the other rooms you can see photos and prints of the marine subjects, models of the port of Trieste and nautical charts. You can visit the fishing rooms that display boats and gear in use in the Adriatic.

Churches and places of worship

Sinagoga Ebraica

The synagogue was first documented in the 13th century and was the work of Ruggero and Arduino Berlam. Over the years, it was part of many events of the Jews from Trieste, becoming in the 20th century one of the largest synagogues in Europe. Inside we can find the oratory and the majestic synagogue, which are used in case of big holidays. Today it is managed by the Jewish community of Trieste, and is home to different structures of this community.

Castles, palaces and mansions

Palazzo Carciotti

The building was built for the Greek merchant Demetrio Carciotti between 1797 and the beginning of the 19th century on a project by the architect Matteo Pertsch. Palazzo Carciotti is located in a prominent position at the beginning of the Grand Canal, clearly visible from the sea. It is characterized by a high dome covered in copper and adorned, on top, by a Napoleonic eagle. The Palace, in 1831, hosted the Assicurazioni Generali, subsequently the Port Authority and, currently, belongs to the Municipality of Trieste.

Theaters

Teatro Verdi

The Teatro Verdi, born under the name of Teatro Nuovo, is one of the oldest opera houses in activity in the city of Trieste. It was built between 1798 and 1801 by the architects Gian Antonio Selva (the same as the Venice Phoenix) and Matteo Pertsch. The structure of the building resumes that of the “Teatro della Scala”. The inauguration took place on 21 April 1801. Today, the “Giuseppe Verdi” Opera Theatre Foundation has a stable orchestra, a stable choir, a dance body and excellent workshops. The Foundation carries out an intense operatic activity.

Fountains

Fontana dei Quattro Continenti

The Fountain was built in the middle of the 18th century by Mazzoleni. It took its name from its structure consisting of 4 statues, depicting the continents obviously known already at the time. The same was demolished and removed over the years, and gave rise to discussions for its restoration, until the decision to put it back in the center of the square, being restored and repositioned. From that moment it became a very visited point of interest and loved by locals and tourists.

Churches and places of worship

Cattedrale di San Giusto

It was created by the union of the two churches of Santa Maria and the one dedicated to the martyr San Giusto. The Basilica Cathedral of San Giusto is the most important religious building in the city. The exterior of the church is enriched with a rose window in karst stone. The bell tower and also the façade are composed of artifacts from the Roman period. The interior of the church was shot down in the early 20th century. The fresco of the Coronation of the Virgin was replaced by a mosaic that had the same theme.

Castles, palaces and mansions

Casa Steiner

The building was designed in 1824 by the Austrian architect Matteo Pertsch very active in Trieste in the early decades of the nineteenth century. The current appearance of the building almost faithfully reflects the original idea of the author; compared to the design signed by Pertsch, the pilasters have been modified, originally smooth, the themes represented in the relief and the sculptural group crowning the façade that has not been performed in the realization. The name of the palace comes from the costume shop of Ignazio Steiner who was in the same place at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Tips for sleeping in Trieste

Bed and breakfast

Campings

Hotels

Residence

Destinations nearby

OUR GUIDES

Guida ufficiale di Visit Italy

Visit Italy Official Guide

Guide officiel de Visit Italy

Guía oficial de Visit Italy

Offizieller Reiseführer von Visit Italy

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Contacts

Terms of use

Covid-19 updates: information for tourists from italia.it

NEWSLETTER