Trieste opens its grandest square straight onto the Adriatic, a rare arrangement for an Italian piazza and the reason locals call it Europe’s largest square facing the sea. The Palazzo del Governo, the town hall and the Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta ring three sides in Austro-Hungarian style, evidence of the decades when Trieste was the Habsburg empire’s main port.
At the base of the town hall, two bronze figures nicknamed Mikeze and Jakeze have struck the hour since 1875. The Fountain of the Four Continents, carved between 1751 and 1754, anchors the center, its allegorical figures a reminder of the trade routes that made Trieste rich. At blue hour, when the lamps come up and the sea turns the same color as the sky, the square becomes the Mitteleuropean stage set it has always been.
