Castello di San Giusto

Trieste, from above, appears gathered, compact. Almost intimate. The Castello di San Giusto has dominated the hill for centuries. First it was a Roman fortification, then a Venetian and Habsburg fortress. Overlapping layers, like the history of the city. When you climb up here, a change of perspective is inevitable: the streets become narrower, no elegantly bourgeois façades. The wind returns as protagonist and you understand that this has always been the essence of the city. From the walls the gaze takes in the port, the Karst, the open sea. You sense the strategic position of Trieste, its being a bridge between worlds. Inside the castle the rooms tell of different eras. Arms, inscriptions, Roman traces. But it is outside, on the terraces, that you truly understand. Trieste is never only what it shows at street level. It needs height. And depth.