Città Vecchia

An Augustan gate built in the Roman walls in 33 AD, in the narrow streets of the old town.

Half of the city was built under Austrian-Hungarian dominion, so there are a lot of palaces that resemble Vienna. An iconic place of this quarter is the majestic Piazza Unità (Unity Square), which is Europe's largest sea-front square. The most present architecture styles are Neoclassical, Art Nouveau, Eclectic, and Baroque.

Contains Roman and Medieval relics, and a cenotaph to the archaeologist Johann Winckelmann, father of neoclassicism, who died in Trieste in 1769.

Tergeste, which probably dates back to the prehistoric period, was enclosed by walls built in 33-32 BC on Emperor Octavius’s orders. The city developed greatly during the 1st and 2nd century AD. The Roman Theatre faces the sea. The construction partially exploits the gentle slope of the hill, and most of the construction work is in stone. The topmost portion of the amphitheatre steps and the stage were presumably made of wood. The statues that adorned the theatre (which was brought to light in the 1930s) are now preserved at the Town Museum. Three inscriptions from the Trajan period mention a certain Q. Petronius Modestus, a person who was closely connected with the development of the theatre, which was erected during the second half of the 1st century.

This museum was donated to the city in 1869 by Baron Pasquale Revoltella, a great patron of the arts who liked to surround himself with precious and avant-garde works. In a building restored and extended by architect Carlo Scarpa, the museum today houses one of Italy’s finest collections of 19th-century, modern and contemporary art..

Art collections donated to the city by the Sartorio family. Paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries; sculptures; sketches by Giambattista Tiepolo.