TRIESTE, formerly Austrian, but ceded to Italy under the Treaty of S. Germain in 1918, a seaport in the district of Venezia Giulia, Italy, capital of the province of Trieste and an episcopal see, situated at the north-east angle of the Adriatic sea, on the Gulf of Trieste, is picturesquely built on terraces at the foot of the Carso. Pop. (1931) 239,149 (town), (commune). It is divided into the old and the new town, which are connected by the broad and handsome Via del Corso, the busiest street in the town. The old town, nestling round the hill on which the castle stands, consists of narrow, steep and irregular streets. The new town, which lies on the flat expanse adjoining the crescent-shaped bay, partly on ground that has been reclaimed from the sea, has large and regularly-built streets.
The Austrian-Lloyd Steam Navigation company, which for many years has had its headquarters at Trieste, is now the Lloyd Triestino company, and controls several shipbuilding establish ments; it has recently united with the Cosulich company. There is also a large yard at MUggia (3 m. to the S.) with about i,00c workmen; the other industries include petroleum refineries, iron foundries, chemicals, soap-boiling, silk and cotton spinning, jute works, the production of canned fish, soap, beer and preserves, distilleries, etc.; there are steel works at Servola (three smelt ers). Several marble quarries are worked in the neighbourhood, and there are some large cement factories. Good wine, fruit and olive oil are the most important natural products of the country round Trieste. Under Austria, Trieste owed its development to its geographical situation in the north-east angle of the Adriatic sea at the end of the deeply indented gulf, and to its harbour, which was more accessible to large vessels than that of Venice. Besides, it was declared a free imperial port in 1719, and was therefore released from the obstruction to trade contained in the hampering legislation of the period. It was deprived of this privilege in 1891, when only the harbour was declared to be outside the customs limit. With the 2oth century an active policy was inaugurated. New and direct services were started to East Africa, Central America and Mexico; the service to India and the Far East, as well as that to the Mediterranean ports, was much improved, and Trieste was made the centre of the large emigration from Austria to America by the inauguration of a direct emigrant service to New York. Railway communica
tions were also improved, and Trieste, besides being the principal port of Austria, was the centre port for much of Germany's trade with the Mediterranean and the East. In 1924 Trieste recovered 95% of her pre-war trade, but this abnormal "boom" was not maintained, and the competition of Hamburg is being felt.
In 1926, 27,438 ships entered and cleared the port (total ton nage 8,817,124), dealing with 1,700,099 passengers; and in 1927, 1,656,935 tons of goods were imported, and 813,500 were exported. In 1925, 201 ships with a tonnage of 621,015 were registered in the district (compartimento) of Trieste.
Trieste is connected by rail with Monfalcone (branch for Gorizia and Udine, Treviso and Venice (another line to Gorizia runs across the Carso), with Postumia Grotte, the frontier station on the line to Lubiana, with Parenzo and with Pola, and by elec tric railway with Villa Opicina.
About 4 m. N.W. of Trieste on the very edge of the sea is the famous castle of Miramare, built in 1854-56 for the archduke Maximilian, the ill-fated emperor of Mexico.
History.—After the break-up of the Roman dominion Trieste shared the general fortunes of Istria. From the emperor Lothair II. (in 948) it received an independent existence under its count bishops, and it maintained this position down to its capture by Venice in 1202. For the next 180 years its history consists chiefly of a series of conflicts with this city, which were finally put an end to by Trieste placing itself in 1382 under the protec tion of Leopold III. of Austria. The overlordship thus established insensibly developed into actual possession ; and except in the Napoleonic period (1797-1805 and 1809-13) Trieste remained an integral part of the Austrian dominions until 1918, though always a centre of Italian irredentist feeling. It was an imperial free port from 1719 until 1891.