Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south, east and north of the city. Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste and throughout history it has been influenced by its location at the crossroads of Germanic, Latin, Austro-Hungarian and Slavic cultures. In 2009, it had a population of about 205,000 and it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trieste province.
Trieste was one of the oldest parts of the Habsburg Monarchy from 1382 until 1918. In the 19th century, it was the most important port of one of the Great Powers of Europe. As a prosperous seaport in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). In the fin-de-siecle period, it emerged as an important hub for literature and music. However, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Trieste's union to italy after World War I led to some decline of its "Mittel-European" cultural and commercial importance. Enjoying an economic revival during the 1930s and throughout the Cold War, Trieste was an important spot in the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs. Today, the city is in one of the richest regions of italy, and has been a great centre for shipping, through its port (Port of Trieste), Shipbuilding and financial services.

Main sights

• Miramar Castle
  The Schloß Miramar, on the waterfront 8 km from Trieste, was built between 1856 and 1860 from a project by Carl Junker working under Archduke Maximilian. The Castle gardens provide a setting of beauty with a variety of trees, chosen by and planted on the orders of Maximilian, that today make a remarkable collection[citation needed]. Features of particular attraction in the gardens include two ponds, one noted for its swans and the other for lotus flowers, the Castle annexe ("Castelletto"), a bronze statue of Maximilian, and a small chapel where is kept a cross made from the remains of the "Novara", the flagship on which Maximilian, brother of Emperor Franz Josef, set sail to become Emperor of Mexico. Much later, the castle was also the home of Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, the last commander of Italian forces in East Africa during the Second World War. During the period of the application of the Instrument for the Provisional Regime of the Free Territory of Trieste, as establish in the Treaty of Peace with italy (Paris 10/02/1947), the castle served as headquarters for the United States Army's TRUST force.
• Castle of San Giusto
  Designed on the remains of previous castles on the site, it took almost two centuries to build. The stages of the development of the Castle's defensive structures are marked by the central part built under Frederick III (1470-1), the round Venetian bastion (1508-9), the Hoyos-Lalio bastion and the Pomis, or "Bastione fiorito" dated 1630.
• The St. Justus Cathedral. Symbol of Italian Trieste during the Risorgimento.
• The Serbian Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity and St. Spyridon (1869). The building adopts the Greek-cross plan with five cupolas in the Byzantine tradition.[24]
• The Basilica of St. Silvester (11th century)
• The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (1682)
• The Church of San Nicolò dei Greci (1787). This church by the architect Matteo Pertsch (1818), with bell towers on both sides of the facade, follows the Austrian late baroque style.
• The Synagogue of Trieste (1912)
• The Temple of Monte Grisa (1960) Basilica Forense (2nd century) Palaeochristian basilica Roman Age Temples" : one dedicated to Athena, one to Zeus, both on the S.Giusto hill. The ruins of the temple dedicated to Zeus are next to the Forum, those of Athena's temple are under the basilica, visitors can see its basement. Roman theatre Trieste or Tergeste, which dates back to the protohistoric period, was enclosed by walls built in 33–32 BC on Emperor Octavian's orders. The city developed greatly during the 1st and 2nd centuries. The Roman theatre lies at the foot of the San Giusto hill, facing the sea. The construction partially exploits the gentle slope of the hill, and much of the theatre is made of stone. The topmost portion of the amphitheatre steps and the stage were supposedly made of wood. The statues that adorned the theatre, brought back to light in the 1930s, are now preserved at the Town Museum. Three inscriptions from the Trajan period mention a certain Q. Petronius Modestus, someone closely connected to the development of the theatre, which was erected during the second half of the 1st century.
• Caves
  In the whole Trieste province, there are 10 speleological groups out of 24 in the whole Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. The Trieste plateau (Altopiano Triestino), called Kras or the Carso and covering an area of about 200 km² within italy has approximately 1,500 caves of various sizes (like that of Basovizza, now a monument to the Foibe massacres). Among the most famous are the Grotta Gigante, the largest tourist cave in the world, with a single cavity large enough to contain St Peter's in rome, and the Cave of Trebiciano (350 m (1,148.29 ft) deep) at the bottom of which flows the Timavo River. This river dives underground at Škocjan Caves in Slovenia (they are on UNESCO list and only a few kilometres from Trieste) and flows about 30 km before emerging about 1 km from the sea in a series of springs near Duino, reputed by the Romans to be an entrance to Hades ("the world of the dead").