The history of Trieste began with the formation of a town of modest size in pre-Roman times, which became an actual city only after Roman conquest in the second century BC and subsequent colonisation. After the imperial era, the city declined following barbarian invasions, becoming only marginally important for the next millennium. It changed lordships several times and then became a free city, which joined the House of Habsburg in 1382. Between the 18th and 19th centuries Trieste experienced a new period of prosperity thanks to its free port status and the development of a thriving shipping industry that made it one of the most important cities of the Austrian Empire (since 1867 Austria-Hungary).
The cosmopolitan city, which in the Habsburg period remained Italian-speaking and rose to become a leading Italian and European cultural centre, was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in 1922 following the First World War. After the Second World War it was the capital of the Free Territory of Trieste, staying for nine years under Allied Military administration. Following the , Trieste was annexed by Italy. Since 1963 it has been the capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Prehistory to Middle Ages Pre-history The earliest evidence for human presence was found in the archaeological site where remains of Homo heidelbergensis individuals that lived between and years ago were found.
The territory currently occupied by Trieste and its hinterland first became a stable home to humans during the Neolithic. Starting from the late Bronze Age the Castellieri culture began to be developed by pre-indo-European peoples.
Pre-Roman and Roman
According to historical record, the first groups of Indo-Europeans appeared in the 10th century BC, the Histri people. The foundation of the first nucleus of what would become the Roman town of has been attributed to the Adriatic Veneti, as evidenced by the Venetic language roots of the name ("Terg" and "Este") and other important findings. Greek historian Strabo, however, attributed the foundation of Tergeste to the Gaulish tribe of Carni, who settled the Eastern Alps in classical antiquity.
Following the Roman conquest of Istria in 177 BC the town became a Roman municipality called Tergeste, developing and acquiring a clear urban physiognomy by the Augustan Age at the beginning of the 1st millennium. Roman Tergeste reached its peak during the rule of Trajan in the early 2nd century AD. According to Triestine historian Pietro Kandler, the town's population at the time was around 12,000 to 12,500, a number the city reached again only in the 1760s.
In the lower part of the hill in the city's historic centre it is still possible to see the remains of the ancient Roman settlement, despite the many modern buildings that partially cover the view today. Two buildings stand as a clear testimony of the importance of Tergeste in Roman times: the theatre, dating from the end of the 1st century BC (and later expanded under Trajan), with a capacity for about 6,000 spectators; and the early Christian basilica, built between the 4th and 5th centuries, which contains some superb mosaics, a clear sign of the prosperity enjoyed by the local church and the city of Tergeste well into the late imperial period of Roman history.
The remains of Roman temples dedicated Jupiter and Athena, also built on the San Giusto hill, are also still visible. The latter has been preserved in the form of architecture structures built into the foundations of the Trieste Cathedral, identified from the outside through openings in the walls of the cathedral's bell tower, and also under ground (accessible through the building of the Municipal Museum of History and Art). Another ancient Roman monument which has survived in fairly good condition to this day is the Roman Arch (), an ancient city gate built in the second half of the 1st century BC. Remains of Roman villas owned by local nobility have also been found in Barcola, , and other settlements along the coast, mostly built in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.
Of crucial importance for the development of Tergeste in Roman times was Via Flavia, the road connecting it with Pola (present-day Pula, Croatia) along the coast of Istria, which was built during the reign of Emperor Vespasian, in 78–79 AD. Tergeste also had a seaport and a series of small-scale harbours along the coast: at the San Vito promontory; at Grignano, near several patrician villas; and at Santa Croce, etc. The water needs of the city at the time were met by two aqueducts, one to nearby Bagnoli and the other to San Giovanni di Guardiella.
From barbarian invasions to free municipality After the anarchy which paralysed the entire region after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Trieste was first part of the Kingdom of Italy ruled by Odoacer, and then by his successor Theodoric the Great. During the Gothic War (535–554) it was occupied by Justinian I, who turned the town into a military colony of the Byzantine Empire. A few years later the city was destroyed by the Lombards (in 568, at the time of their invasion, or, more likely, in 585). Rebuilt in the following decades, but now greatly reduced in size, the town then passed on to the Franks in 788, whose sovereignty was recognized by Byzantine emperors in 812.
During the 8th century, the missionary work of priests of the Bishopric of Salzburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia led to the Christianisation of the local Slavic communities, who were allowed by the Franks since the early 9th century to settle into the depopulated areas of the Istrian peninsula, up to the northern areas in the vicinity of Trieste, as documented in the Placitum of Riziano. Liceo F. Petrarca – Trieste – a.s. 2001/2002: Il Carso tra natura e Cultura
In 948 Lothair II of Italy gave the government of the city to Bishop Joannes III and his successors, which from that moment on began to enjoy considerable autonomy, while still preserving feudal ties with the Kingdom of Italy. Throughout the bishops' rule the city was forced to defend itself against expansionist ambitions of the powerful patriarchs of Aquileia, Venice and later the Counts of Gorizia. The bishops' rule was in crisis around the middle of the 13th century: the incessant wars and quarrels, especially with Venice, had emptied the city coffers, forcing the bishops to get rid of some important prerogatives related to rights which were sold to citizenship. Among the latter, judicial rights, the collecting of tithe and the right to mint coins. The city therefore developed a civil administration, dominated by the elders of the city, which gradually took the place of the church. This process culminated in 1295, when bishop Brisa de Topo formally renounced his last prerogatives and fully relinquished the government of Trieste to the local community, officially establishing Trieste as a free municipality.
Trieste and the Habsburgs: from the free city to international port
Austrian orbit of influence
After becoming a free city, Trieste had to face new and increasingly powerful pressures, of both military and economic nature, from the Republic of Venice, which sought to impose its hegemony in the Adriatic Sea. The disproportion in terms of demographics, financial and military means between the two cities portended Trieste's rapid fall under Venetian influence and the loss of its independence as had already happened previously in many Istrian and Dalmatian urban centres. In 1368, yet another dispute with Venice resulted in a Venetian which lasted 11 months, and the occupation of Trieste by the Venetians from November 1369 to June 1380. The constant struggle to resist Venetian influence eventually led the city to place itself under the protection of the Duchy of Austria who was committed to respecting and protecting the integrity and civic freedom of Trieste (the latter were largely downsized from the second half of the 18th century).
Creation of the free port and city development
In 1719 Charles VI of Habsburg created in Trieste a free port whose privileges were extended during the reign of his successor, before the District Chamber (1747), then to the entire city (1769). After the emperor's death (in 1740) the young Maria Theresa of Austria acceded the throne, and thanks to a careful economic policy enabled the city to become one of the main European ports and the biggest in the Empire. The Theresian government invested considerable capital in expanding and upgrading the city port. Between 1758 and 1769 preparation for defense buildings were made, and a fort was created. In the immediate vicinity of the port rose the Stock Exchange (inside the Municipal Palace, around 1755), the Palace of the Lieutenancy (1764), as well as a department store and the first shipyard in Trieste, known as the shipyard of Saint Nicholas. In those years began to be built new , which still bears the name of the Empress, to accommodate the increasing population of the city that would reach about 30,000 inhabitants by the end of the century, six times greater than that in the hundred years before.
The significant population growth of the city was due, for the most part, the arrival of numerous immigrants coming mainly from the Adriatic Basin (Venetian Istria, Dalmatia, Friuli, Slovenia) and, to a lesser extent, from continental Europe (Austria, Hungary) and the Balkans (Serbia, Greece, etc.). Serbs settled in Trieste largely during the 18th and 19th centuries, mostly from Herzegovina and Bay of Kotor. Though initially small in number, they soon formed an influential and rich community within the city. A number of Serb traders owned important business and had built palaces across Trieste, many of which still stand.
Trieste was occupied three times by the troops of Napoleon, in 1797, in 1805 and 1809, in these short periods the city lost the ancient autonomy with the consequent suspension of the free port status. The first French occupation was very brief, beginning in March 1797 and lasting only two months. A large part of the population had abandoned in the city owing to the imminent arrival of Napoleon's troops, however the Napoleonic government proved to be less revolutionary than the citizens expected, with many returning to the city over the following days. Napoleon himself visited Trieste on 29 April and his troops left the city in may following the Peace of Leoben. The second French occupation lasted from December 1805 until March 1806. Despite the short duration of the first two occupations the democratic ideas brought by the French troops began spreading in Trieste which began developing an Italian identity.
The third occupation began on 17 May 1809 and starting from 15 October Trieste was annexed to the Illyrian Provinces. This occupation ended on 8 November 1813 when Trieste was captured by the Habsburgs at the end of the Siege of Trieste.
Under the Habsburgs Trieste continued to grow, thanks to the opening of the Austrian Southern Railway in 1857. In the 1860s it was elevated to the rank of the state capital of the Austrian Littoral region (Oesterreichisches Küstenland). In the last decades of the 19th century the city became the fourth biggest urban area in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest and Prague).
Commercial and industrial development of the city in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first 15 years of the next century (30,000 employees in the secondary sector in 1910) led to the birth and development of some pockets of social exclusion. Trieste at the time had a high infant mortality, higher than that of the Italian cities and one of the highest tuberculosis rates in Europe. Those factors further deepened the already increasing gap between the countryside, populated mostly by ethnic Slovenes, and the city proper, with its Italian language and traditions.
Ethnic and linguistic groups in the Habsburg age