Trieste in the 1911 Encyclopædia Brittanica
[Source: The Encyclopædia
Britannica: a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General
Information, Eleventh Edition, Volume 27 (New York, 1911), pg.
269-270.]
TRIESTE (Ger. Triest;
Slav. Trst; the Roman
Tergeste, q.v.), the principal seaport of Austria, 367 m. S.W.
of Vienna by rail. Pop. (1900), 132,879, of which three-fourths are
Italians, the remainder being composed of Germans, Jews, Greeks,
English and French. Trieste is situated at the northeast angle of
the Adriatic Sea, on the Gulf of Trieste, and is picturesquely built
on terraces at the foot of the Karst hills. The aspect of the town
is Italian rather than German.
It is divided into the old and the
new town, which are connected by the broad and handsome Via del
Corso, the busiest street in the town. The old town, nestling round
the Schlossberg, the hill on which the castle stands, consists of
narrow, steep and irregular streets.
The castle, built in 1680, is
believed to occupy the site of the Roman capitol. The new town,
which lies on the flat expanse adjoining the crescent-shaped bay,
partly on ground that has been reclaimed from the sea, has large and
regularly built streets, and several large squares adorned with
artistic monuments. The cathedral of San Giusto was formed as it now
stands by the union in the 14th century of three adjacent early
Christian buildings of the 6th century; the tower incorporates
portions of a Roman temple. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore,
built in 1627-1682, is a characteristic specimen of Jesuit
architecture; the church of Sant' Antonio Nuovo, built in 1827-1849,
is in the Greek style, as also the Greek Orthodox church, built in
1782, which is one of the handsomest Byzantine structures in the
whole of Austria. Among the most prominent secular buildings are:
- the Tergesteo, a huge edifice
containing a cruciform arcade roofed with glass, where the
exchange is established, besides numerous shops and offices;
- the town-hall, rebuilt in 1874,
with the handsome hall of the local Diet;
- the imposing old exchange, now
the seat of the chamber of commerce;
- the palatial offices of the
Austrian Lloyd, the principal shipping company;
- the commercial and nautical
academy, with its natural history museum, containing the
complete fauna of the Adriatic Sea;
- and finally the municipal
museum, Revoltella,
are
all worth mentioning. The Museo Lapidario contains a collection of
Roman antiquities found in or near the town. It is an open-air
museum, installed in a disused burial-ground, and is situated near
the castle. The Arco di Riccardo, which derives its name from a
popular delusion that it was connected with Richard Coeur-de-Lion,
is believed by some to be a Roman triumphal arch, but is probably an
arch of a Roman aqueduct.
At the head of the industrial
establishments of Trieste stand the two ship-building yards of the
Austrian Lloyd and of the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, which are
the largest of their kind in Austria. The Stabilimento Tecnico is
also fitted up for the construction of war-ships. They are equipped
with all the latest technical innovations, and employ over 5000
workmen. Petroleum refineries, iron-foundries, chemicals,
soap-boiling,
silk-spinning and the production of ships' fittings, as marine
steam boilers, anchors, chains, cables, are the other principal
branches of industry. Several
marble quarries are worked in the
neighbourhood, and there are some large cement factories. Good
wine,
fruit and
olive oil are
the most important natural products of the country round Trieste.
The great importance of Trieste lies
in its trade. It is the first port of Austria, and the principal
outlet for the over-sea trade of the monarchy. It may be said nearly
to monopolize the trade of the Adriatic, and has long eclipsed its
ancient rival Venice. It owes its development to its geographical
situation in the north-east angle of the Adriatic Sea at the end of
the deeply indented gulf, and to its harbour, which was more
accessible to large vessels than that of Venice. Besides, it was
declared a free imperial port in 1719, and was therefore released
from the obstructions to trade contained in the hampering
legislation of the period. It was deprived of this privilege in
1891, when only the harbour was declared a "porto franco", outside the customs
limit.
But during the last thirty years of the
19th century the
increase in its trade was the lowest in comparison with the increase
in the other great European ports. This was due in the first place
to the lack of adequate railway communication with the interior of
Austria, to the loss of part of the Levant trade through the
development of the Oriental railway system, to the diversion of
traffic towards the Italian and German ports, and finally to the
growing rivalry of the neighbouring port of
Fiume, whose interests were
vigorously promoted by the Hungarian government. But in the 19th
century a more active policy was inaugurated. New and direct
services were started to East Africa, Central America and Mexico;
the service to India and the Far East, as well as that to the
Mediterranean ports, was much improved; and lastly, Trieste was made
the centre of the large emigration from Austria to America by the
inauguration (June 1904) of a direct emigrant service to New York.
But the most important measure, designed to give a great impetus to
the trade of Trieste, and to the over-sea trade of Austria
generally, was the construction of the so-called second railway
connexion with Trieste, begun in 1901. This measure provided for the
construction of a
railway over the Tauern Mountains between
Schwarzach in Salzburg and Möllbrücken in Carinthia; and of a
railway over the Karawanken between Trieste and Klagenfurt, with a
branch to Villach. The total length of both lines is 100 m. The
Karawanken
railway, a direct connexion with Bohemia and the northern
industrial provinces of Austria, is calculated to counteract the
gravitation of traffic towards the German ports; while the Tauern
railway constitutes the shortest route to the interior of Austria
and to the south of Germany. By the new line the distance between
Salzburg, for instance, and Trieste, is lessened by 160 m.
In order to accommodate the increase
in traffic resulting from the above improvements, important works
for the extension and development of the harbour were undertaken,
and part of them were completed in 1910. The capacious harbour,
consisting of two parts, the old and the new, is protected by
extensive moles and breakwaters. The new harbour was constructed in
1867-1883, at a cost of £1,500,000. The new additions to the
harbour, which are situated at the south end, were designed to give
more than double the receiving capacity of the port, and were
estimated to cost £3,625,000. The bulk of the over-sea trade of
Trieste is done with the Levant, Egypt, India and the Far East,
Italy, Great Britain and North and South America. Its most important
trade by land, besides Austria, is done with Germany, Trieste being
the entrepot for Germany's commerce with India and the Mediterranean
countries. The principal articles imported are cotton and cotton
goods, coffee, coal, cereals, hides, fruit and tobacco; the
principal articles exported are wool and woollen goods,. sugar,
paper, timber, machinery and various manufactured goods.
About 4 m. north-west of Trieste on
the very edge of the sea is the famous castle of
Miramar, built
in1854-1856 in the Norman style, for the archduke Maximilian, the
ill-fated emperor of Mexico. It belongs now to the emperor of
Austria, and its. beautiful gardens are open to the public. About 4
m. northeast of Trieste is the village of Opcina, which possesses an
obelisk 1146 ft. high, from which a beautiful view is obtained.
The town of Trieste, with its
adjoining territory of a total area of 36 sq. m., forms a separate
Austrian crown land. It had in 1900 a population of 178,672, of
which 77% were Italians, 18% Slovenes and 5% Germans. The municipal
council of Trieste constitutes at the same time the local Diet of
the crown land, and is composed of S4 members. To the Reichsrat
Trieste sends five deputies. Trieste is the seat of a Roman Catholic
bishop, and the seat of the administration for the Kiistenland or
littoral, composed of the crown lands of Trieste, Görz and Gradisca,
and Istria.
History
At the time of the foundation of
Aquileia by the Romans, the
district which now includes Trieste was occupied by Celtic and
Illyrian tribes; and the Roman colony of Tergeste (q.v.) does not
seem to have been established till the reign of
Vespasian.
After the break-up of the Roman dominion Trieste shared the general
fortunes of Istria and passed through various hands. From the
emperor Lothair it received an independent existence under its
count-bishops, and it maintained this position down to its capture
by Venice in 1203. For the next 180 years its history consists
chiefly of a series of conflicts with this city, which were finally
put an end to by Trieste placing itself in 1382 under the protection
of Leopold III. of Austria. The overlordship thus established
insensibly developed into actual possession; and except in the
Napoleonic period (1797-1805 and 1809-1813) Trieste has since
remained an integral part of the Austrian dominions. It was an
imperial free port from 1719 until 1891. The harbour was blockaded
by an Italian fleet from May until August 1848. During the Italian
and Hungarian revolutions Trieste remained faithful to Austria, and
received the title of Città Fedelissima. In 1867 Trieste and
the adjoining territory was constituted into a separate crown land.
In 1888 a monument was erected in commemoration of the 500th
anniversary of the connexion of the town with Austria.
Bibliography:
-
Giulio Caprin, Trieste
(Bergamo, 1906);
-
Mainati's Croniche ossia
memorie stor.- sacro-profane di Trieste (7 vols., Venice,
1817-1818);
-
Lowenthal, Gesch. der
Stadt Triest (Trieste, 1857);
-
Della Croce,
Storia di Trieste (ibid., 1879);
-
Scussa, Storia
cronografica di Trieste (ibid., new ed., 1885-1886);
-
Neumann-Spallart,
Osterreichs maritime Entwicklung and die Hebung von Triest
(Stuttgart, 1882);
-
Die
osterreich-ungarische Monarchie: Das Küstenland (Vienna,
1891);
-
Montanelli, Il Movimento
storico della popolazione di Trieste (1905);
-
Hartleben, Führer durch
Triest and Umgebung (5th ed., Vienna, 1905).
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