User:InflatableSupertrooper/History of Trieste

The history of Trieste began with the formation of a town of modest size in pre-Roman times, which acquired proper urban connotations only after the conquest (second century BC) and colonisation by Rome. After the imperial era the city declined following barbarian invasions, becoming only marginally important in the next millennium. It changed lordships several times and then became a free city, who joined the house of Habsburg in 1382. Between the 18th and 19th centuries Trieste experienced a new period of prosperity thanks to the free port and the development of a thriving shipping business that made it one of the most important city 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 culture center, was incorporated to the Kingdom of Italy in 1918 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 1954 London Memorandum Trieste was annexed by Italy. Since 1963 it is the capital of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Pre-Roman and Roman
The territory where now stands the city of Trieste and its karst hinterland became permanent establishment of man during the Neolithic. From the age of the Late Bronze Age began to develop in the region the Culture of forts by pre-Indo peoples. After the tenth century BC It has documented the presence of the Karst of the first groups of Indo-Europeans, the Histri, which, however, in all probability, were not the first inhabitants of the future Trieste, despite the presence in the area of ​​some forts that they themselves had built. The foundation of the first nucleus of the Roman Tergeste would seem to be attributed to the people of the Venetians or Paleoveneti, as evidenced by the Venetic roots of the name (Terg and Este) and other important findings [1]. Strabo, however, dates the foundation of Tergeste to the Celtic people of meat [2].

Following the Roman conquest (second century BC) the town became a municipality of Latin law with the name of Tergeste, developing and acquiring a clear urban physiognomy already in the Augustan period.

It reached its peak during the rule of Trajan, with a population that, according to Pietro Kandler, was to be about 12,000 to 12,500 inhabitants [3] (only in the sixties of the eighteenth century the city again reached the demographic consistency of the Roman period).

In the lower part of the San Giusto hill to the sea it is still possible to see the remains of the Roman city, despite the many modern buildings that cover, in part, the view.

Two buildings offer us a clear testimony of the importance of Trieste in Roman times: the theater, the end of the first century BC (But expanded under Trajan), with a capacity of about 6,000 spectators, and the early Christian basilica, built between the fourth and fifth centuries, contains some superb mosaics, a tangible sign of the richness of the local church and the city of Tergeste into old age imperial.

The San Giusto hill are still visible remains of the temples of Jupiter and Athena. The latter have been preserved some architectural structures in the foundations of the cathedral, identifiable from the outside through the openings in the walls of the bell tower and underground (via access by the Municipal Museum of History and Art of Trieste).

Another Roman monument remained more in fair condition to this day is the Arco di Riccardo, an ancient city gate built in the second half of the first century BC A Barcola Grignano and other towns along the coast have been found remains of villas belonging to the local nobility and mostly erected in the first and second centuries.

Important was the connection made by the Emperor Vespasian between Trieste and Pola. It is still the right track called "Via Flavia."

Trieste had a port (in the Campus Martius area) and a series of small-scale ports along the coast: under the promontory of San Vito; Grignano, near some patrician villas; Santa Croce, etc.). The water needs of the city at the time was met by two aqueducts: to Bagnoli and San Giovanni di Guardiella.

From barbarian invasions to free municipality
After the anarchy which paralyzed the entire region to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Trieste was first part of the Kingdom of Odoacer, then of Theodoric the Great. During the Gothic War it was occupied by Justinian I, who made a Byzantine military colony. A few years later the city was destroyed by the Lombards (in 568, at the time of their invasion, or, more likely, in 585 [5] [6]). Rebuilt in the following decades, but now greatly reduced under the demographic profile, he passed to the Franks (788), whose sovereignty was recognized by the Byzantine emperors in 812. During the eighth century, the missionary work of priests in the bishopric of Salzburg and the Patriarchate of Aquileia led to the Christianization of the Slavic community, to which the Franks since the beginning of the ninth century allowed to expand their settlements to the depopulated areas of Istria up near the northern territory of Trieste as is documented in Placito of Risano.

In 948 Lothair II of Italy gave the bishop John III and his successors the city government which passed from that moment to enjoy considerable autonomy, while preserving feudal ties with the Kingdom of Italy.

Throughout the bishop's age the city was forced to defend itself against the expansionist ambitions of the powerful Patriarchs of Aquileia, Venice and later the counts of Gorizia. The bishop's government was in crisis around the middle of the thirteenth century: the incessant wars and quarrels, especially with Venice, in fact, had emptied the city arks, forcing the bishops to get rid of some important prerogatives related to rights which were sold to citizenship. Among the latter, the right of jurisdiction, a tithing and coin issuance. It 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 the bishop Tittel de Toppo formally renounced its last prerogatives and gave the government of Trieste to the local community, established, even officially, free municipality.