Live in Piazza Unità

Goldoni

Goldoni Square heavily manipulated.

Post it

(Piazza Cavana)

Lessons in Triestine dialect (2)

In Piaza Granda xe un monumento
de Carlo Sesto, del Mile e Seizento
che sufi vento, che sufi bora
tuti i colombi ghe svola sora.

Nella Piazza Grande (oggi Piazza Unità) c'è un monumento
di Carlo Sesto, del Milleseicento
Che ci sia vento che ci sia bora
tutti i piccioni gli volano sopra.

In Piazza Grande (today Piazza Unità) there's a monument
of Carl the sixth, from the seventeenth century.
Be it gusty, be there the bora wind,
all the pigeons fly all over him.

These are the official lines of an old Triestine song. The verb "svola" ("vola", "fly") was usually replaced by a much more colourful verb.

Casting a shadow on the government building

Cage

It's a well known fact that architects are often misunderstood by their contemporaries.

In 1875, architect Giuseppe Bruni won the tender to design the new town hall.

The new building is made up of a large single body with a tower rising up from the centre (already seen in a previous post).

The Triestines weren't overly keen on the palazzo to begin with, and they came up with some wonderfully original names for it. The most famous, still used today, is Palazzo Cheba (The Cage Palace), as it looks like an enormous bird cage.

Locked out

Allegoria del progresso

We are in Piazza Unità again, looking up at a detail of Palazzo Stratti by Antonio Buttazzoni (1839), which hosts the Caffé degli Specchi ("Café of the mirrors") on the ground floor.

At the top of this palace lies a sculptural group by Luigi Zandomeneghi representing an allegory of Trieste's progress.

Thanks to the zoom lens, this is the first time that I have been able to spot the objects that lie near the female figure: a locomotive, a cog, pliers, an anvil, and on the far left, an owl.

I was puzzled by the presence of the owl, but a quick search on wikipedia cleared up any doubts I had about the link between the bird of prey and progress: "In Greek mythology, the owl, and specifically the Little Owl, was often associated with the goddess Athena, a bird goddess who became associated with wisdom, the arts, and skills, and as a result, owls also became associated with wisdom."

Fountain of the four continents

Piazza Unità d'Italia is Trieste's main square, which opens up onto the Gulf of Trieste and is surrounded by palazzi and public offices. This rectangular-shaped square is the largest waterfront square in Europe (there are few others directly overlooking the sea, another very famous one is Trade Square in Lisbon.) It hosts numerous events, performances and concerts, and is a favourite meetingplace for Triestines.

At the centre of the Piazza is the Fontana dei Quattro Continenti (1751). The fountain was built to represent Trieste as a city of prosperity, thanks to its establishment as a Free Port by Charles VI and Maria Theresa of Austria's policy for developing the city.

The world is represented by four allegorical statues which recall the features of the people populating the four continents known at that time (Europe, Asia, Africa and America). In recent years, the fountain has been a victim of acts of vandalism which have damaged three of its four statues. Only Europe has been spared. The latest episode dates back to May 2008, when the statue representing Africa was decapitated and its head left lying on its body.

Long shadows

The flagpoles and respective flags cast a shadow over the Prefecture's headquarters in Piazza Unità, the town's main square.

Living statues

In front of Piazza Unità.
The Tuareg I posted yesterday looked real but was made of cardboard, these men are real (trust me even if you can't see them close enough) but to me they look like living statues.
Well, there is one statue actually: the one holding the flag.

Tuareg

It's not every day that you come across a Tuareg in full costume wandering across Piazza Sant'Antonio... and indeed, if you look closely enough, you'll understand why...

Where are we?!

We are not in Trafalgar Square but in Piazza Unità. The main big square surrounded by beautiful buildings, and overlooking the sea. You don't sea much of it from this picture but we will discover it's treasures one by one in the near future, hopefully.