Trieste

Trieste (ancient Tergeste; Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Trst), city and port in north-eastern Italy, capital of Trieste Province and of Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, on the Gulf of Trieste, at the north-eastern extremity of the Adriatic Sea. Population 211,184 (2001).

Trieste has an excellent harbour and extensive freight-handling facilities. Industries include shipbuilding, oil refining, and the manufacture of iron and steel products, textiles, machinery and foodstuffs.

The city’s architecture reflects its complex past and is an amalgamation of Italian and Austro-Hungarian styles. The old section of the city is on the lower slopes of San Giusto hill, and the modern section fronts on to the harbour. Among the city landmarks are an amphitheatre dating from Roman times and the Basilica di San Giusto (5th century). The University of Trieste (1938) is in the city, as is an institute for advanced study in physics (1979) and the Giuseppe Tartinni Conservatory. Other places of interest include: the historical Museum of Miramare Castle; the History and Art Museum; the Sea Museum; Roman monuments; and the neoclassical Teatro Verdi.

Trieste was built as a Roman port by the emperor Augustus in the 1st century bc. After the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century ad, it fell to Attila, king of the Huns; in the 6th century it passed to the Byzantine Empire. During the 8th century, Trieste was ruled briefly by the Lombards of northern Italy and then passed to the Carolingian, or second, dynasty of Frankish kings. Later, it became a free commune. In 1382, Trieste placed itself under the protection of Austria, maintaining that status except for two periods (1797-1805 and 1809-1813), during which it was incorporated into French-dominated Italy, until after World War I. In 1719, the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI made Trieste a free port. With surrounding territory, it was constituted a separate Crown land in 1867. The Austrian government revoked the free-port privileges of the city in 1891, authorizing a free trade zone instead. As the only Austrian seaport and a natural outlet for countries of central Europe, Trieste prospered throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Italian troops captured the city, long an Italian irredentist centre, in 1918, during World War I. In 1919, by the terms of the Allied Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria, the city, in which the Italian language and culture had long flourished, was assigned to Italy. Although the free trade zone was maintained, Trieste declined as a shipping centre under Italian rule, because it was politically cut off from central Europe; industrial growth, however, continued.

Yugoslav troops captured the city in May 1945, during World War II. By the terms of the peace signed (1947) by Italy after the war, Trieste and the surrounding area became part of the Free Territory of Trieste, which was placed under the protection of the United Nations. The territory was divided into Zone A, which included the city of Trieste and which was under Allied control, and Zone B, under Yugoslav control. Most of Zone A, including the city, was returned to Italian control under the provisions of an agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia, signed in 1954 and ratified by treaty in 1975, that allowed it to remain a free port. The rest of the territory was incorporated into Yugoslavia and became part of Slovenia when the republic declared its independence in 1991.