Duino Castle stands on a limestone cliff above the Gulf of Trieste, built from 1389 on the ruins of an 11th-century stronghold that still crumbles nearby. The Thurn und Taxis family has owned it since the 19th century, and in 1912 they hosted a guest who changed how the castle is remembered: Rainer Maria Rilke, who began his Duino Elegies here after hearing, so the story goes, a voice in the wind off the sea.
More than eighteen rooms are open to visitors, hung with portraits, arms and the family's own history, and a cliffside path, the Sentiero Rilke, follows the poet's own walk along the rock face toward Sistiana. The gardens look straight across the water to Trieste.
