TRIESTE, the Tergeste of the Romans, a sea port town of Austria, and capital of a district in Illyria, is situated at the N.W. extremity of the Gulf of Venice. The old town stands on the side of a hill crowned with a castle which commands the whole of the city and the new town called Theresienstadt from its founder Maria Theresa, is situated on level ground intersected with a canal. There are several good streets in the town, and the houses are generally commodious. The principal public buildings are the cathedral, an ancient edi fice, the former church of the Jesuits, the church of St. Anthony, the palace, the poor's and found ling's hospital, two Lazarettos, and a neat modern theatre. There is also here a gymnasium, a public library, a society of arts and sciences, and two in surance societies. The harbour is both secure and commodious, having three canals extending from it a good way into the town, so as to afford room for very large vessels. A magnificent mole, one of the finest objects in the town, was built by Ma ria Theresa when Austria was ambitious of making Trieste a place of importance. It extends about 1500 feet into the sea, and forms an excellent road stead. There is room upon the mole for fifty pieces of cannon, though only thirty are mounted, some 18 and some 24 pounders. The mole includes the old Lazaretto, which is now employed solely as barracks. Opposite to the mole on the other side of the roadstead is the new Lazaretto, with a distinct harbour, which is likewise enclosed by a mole. The castle, situated on a height considera strangers, was 43,693 inhabitants. In 1826, it was as follows: bly above the town, must have been once strong, but it now serves only as a jail. It is surmounted by the imperial flag, and there are placed upon it a few pieces of cannon for firing salutes.
Shipbuilding is carried on to a considerable ex tent. The chief manufactures are soap made of oil, pottery, white lead, leather, paper, majolica, vitriol, silk, rossoli, (of which 600,000 bottles are annually exported,) wax-bleaching, sugar-refining; and the manufacture of anchors, cordage, and sail cloth are also carried on.
The exports from Trieste comprehend the pro duce of the mines of Idria and even Hungary, to bacco, lime, Austrian woollens, and Swiss cottons. The imports are cotton wool, silks, hides, raisins, rice, oil from the Levant, wheat from Odessa, and colonial produce from the Brazils and the West In dies. The wine called Reinfall, from the vineyards of Prosek, is much esteemed. There are exten sive salt works at Zaule and Servola. Coal is ob
tained a few miles from the town. The annual fair begins on the 1st and ends on the 24th of Au gust. The territory belonging to the town occu pies 170 square miles, and contains a country pop ulation of nearly 9000.
About two leagues from the town is the interest ing grotto of Corquale, so called from a village of that name. The road to it is over the summit of the mountain Paliso. The following account of it is given by Buttner. " This grotto surpasses any that I ever beheld. The figures of the stalactites exhibit an uncommon variety of forms, and like wise a grander style and larger proportions than any I had ever yet met with. It is particularly distinguished for the columns on which the vaulted roof reposes, like that of a Gothic church. Many of these columns are 20, 30, or more feet in length, and of proportionable thickness. The flame of a torch, or of burning straw, produces a grand and picturesque effect. Many of the stalactites sus pended from the roof are 12 or 15 feet in length, and at the top where they are united to it, are not less than 15 or 18 feet in circumference.
" The grotto has the peculiarity that the en trance is not horizontal into a hill or eminence, but in a plain from which you are obliged to descend nearly in a perpendicular direction. You continue descending steep declivities, arriving now and then at nearly perpendicular shafts, in which a kind of stone steps have been cut; but they have been formed with so little care, and are partly rendered so slippery with water that is constantly dropping upon them, that you every moment run great risk of falling. We proceeded about a quarter of an hour when the steps ceased, and the perpendicular descent prevented our advancing any farther. I am informed that the length of this grotto has never been ascertained, but that, from various rea sons, it is supposed to have a second opening at the distance of two German, upwards of nine Eng lish miles." At the end of 1824, the population of Trieste and its territory, comprising the garrisons and That part of Trieste along and adjacent to the harbour is liable to very destructive inundations from the wind tides, the only tides indeed that oc cur to any serious amount in the Gulf of Venice. The casual swell is, however, great, sudden, and ruinous. Such a catastrophe occurred on the 8th of October 1829, when the waves reached the under stories of all the lower part of the city, and pro duced destructive consequences in cellars, store houses, warehouses and magazines. The loss was immense.