Fortress, bastions, residences.
Remote and recent historical events have influenced in varying degrees the castles of the Riviera of Trieste, giving shape to a unique monumental complex. From the fortress of Duino to the princely residence of Miramare, from the fortress of San Giusto in Trieste up to the castle of Muggia, along the route of the roman "Gelmina road" that linked Aquileia and Tergeste, and even further, along the "Flavia road" that followed the historian coasts up to Pula, the coast of Trieste is studded with villages and castles of rare beauty, perfectly inserted in the environment.
Miramare
In 1856 Maximilian of Hapsburg, younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, chose the bay of Grignano, not far from Duino, to build the house of his dreams. Unfortunately, he failed to see it finished: he tragically died in Mexico in 1867, three years before the castle of Miramare was completed. The princely residence, with its beautiful garden, full of essences collected worldwide, it remains significant as en example of eclectic and historicist architectural taste of the nineteenth century.
The castle of Duino
The place where today rises Duino appeared remote times as an ideal site for monitoring the coast; the Romans built some control towers around which developed the village. The first fortified centre was small, and today is left nothing but ruins. The old castle is linked to the striking legend of Dama Bianca: below the ruins of the old castle stands out in the sea a white rock that recalls a woman wrapped in a cloak.
According to legend, in the castle lived a noble lady; one night, the cruel lord of the castle cast her off/from the cliff; the scream that the hapless lady launched while falling headlong touched the Sky, which transformed her in stone before she reached the sea. Since then, every night around midnight, the lady comes alive and wanders the ruins of the castle in search of her baby, until, at dawn, disconsolate, leaves and turns again stone.
The new castle, built at the end of the fourteenth century, stands on a high promontory overlooking the sea. In 1912 stayed the poet Rainer Maria Rilke who, inspired by the beauty of the place, composed here the Elegies of Duino "Elegie duinesi". Rebuilt after the severe damage suffered in the First World War, now houses the United World College of the Adriatic.
www.castellodiduino.it
www.castellodiduino.it