Trieste and Museums

Major Museums in Trieste

Civico Museo di Storia ed Arte and the Orto Lapidario

Piazza della Cattedrale, 15
Tel. 040 308686
The Museum of History and Art is dedicated to local archaeology (prehistoric, protohistoric and Roman period) and is enriched with Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Mayan collections. It includes ancient local findings. The Orto Lapidario comprises Roman tombstones and monuments, and the cenotaph of the famous archaeologist J. J. Winckelmann, who died in Trieste in 1768.

Civico Museo di Storia Naturale

Via dei Tominz, 4
Tel +39 040 6754603

Museo Sveviano

via Madonna del Mare, 13

Biblioteca Civica ‘Attilio Hortis’ (town library) and the Joyce Museum

Piazza A Hortis, 4
Tel. 040 6758200
Four institutions in one building. The Civico Museo di Storia Naturale displays samples of zoology, mineralogy, botany, geology and palaeontology (display of a complete androsaurus skeleton), African fauna, collections of corals and madrepores, ornithological collections and collections of amphibians, reptiles and mammals, plus a large collection of insects.
The Museo Sveviano, a documentation centre, preserves the works of the Triestine writer Italo Svevo, as well as a private library, recently bequeathed by his daughter.
The Biblioteca Civica, the main public library, preserves the town’s historical memory with its collection of 420,000 volumes, newspapers, magazines and manuscripts.
The Joyce Museum is one of the most complete study centres in Italy devoted to the Irish writer, James Joyce. It promotes knowledge of the writer through works, shows, conferences and Multimedia educational materials.

Civico Museo Sartorio

Largo Papa Giovanni XXIII, 1
Tel. 040 301479
An museum housed in a renovated 18th Century villa, with all the original furnishings chosen by the Sartorio family. It holds 18th and 19th Century paintings, Flemish tapestries, Biedermeier furniture, 18th Century Italian majolica, paintings and sculptures ranging from ancient art to the 20th Century and a collection of Tiepolo drawings.

Civico Museo del Risorgimento e Sacrario Oberdan

Via XXIV Maggio, 5 (Piazza Oberdan)
Tel. 040 361675
Documents, photographs, uniforms, relics and paintings relating to the facts and people involved in the local Risorgimento and irredentist events. There is also a memorial chapel to Guglielmo Oberdan, who was executed for making an attempt on the life of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in 1882.

Civico Museo del Mare

Via Campo Marzio, 5
Tel. 040 304987
A science museum narrating the story of marine life in Trieste and the shipbuilding industry from its origins up to the 19th Century. One section is dedicated to fishing, another to J. F. Ressel who invented the propeller.

Museo Ferroviario

Via Giulio Cesare, 1
Tel. 040 3794185
With its display of fifteen or so electric and steam-powered locomotives, the museum bears witness to the history of the railways in Trieste with models, relics, photographs and documents.

Civico Museo Revoltella Galleria d’arte Moderna

Via Diaz, 27
Tel. 040 6754350
Baron Pasquale Revoltella donated his splendidly furnished 19th Century house to the Trieste city council, for it to become a modern art gallery. 19th Century Italian painting (O. Borrani, F. Nittis and A. Mancini) and sculpture (L. Bistolfi, D. Barcaglia, P. Canonica and D. Trentacoste) are both well represented here, as is foreign painting from between the 19th and 20th Centuries (F. von Stuck, L. Zorn, I. Zuloaga and G. Bilbao y Martinez) and art from the twenties and thirties (V. Bolaffio, A. Nathan, P. Marussig, E. Sambo, C. Sbisà, D. Stultus, M. Mascherini and R. Rovan).
At the bottom of the staircase is a graceful statuesque group (P. Magni) portraying the cutting of the Isthmus of Suez.

Civico Aquario Marino

Molo Pescheria, 2
Tel. 040 306201
A science museum, housed in the Art Nouveau building of the former fishmarket, the Pescheria Centrale (G. Polli, 1913). It has 25 tanks filled with seawater, which is pumped up to a height of 10 metres in the bell-tower and then dropped into the tanks. It houses a wide range of tropical and marine fauna as well as two penguins, which are the real attraction for young and old alike.

Civico Museo d’Arte Orientale

Via San Sebastiano, 1
Tel. 040 3220736
Situated in an 18th Century building, this is the only museum in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region specifically dedicated to oriental art. It houses collections of art, travel mementoes, arms and instruments from China and Japan.

Museo della Comunità Ebraica “Carlo e Vera Wagner”

Via del Monte, 5
Tel. 040 633819
The Jewish museum houses items of ritual art belonging to the community, to bear witness to Jewish life in the town.

Civico Museo Morpurgo

Via Imbriani, 5
Tel. 040 636969
Ambience museum in the Borgo Teresiano. It is a splendid example of a bourgeois house from the second half of the 19th Century. This magnificently furnished home is particularly interesting thanks to the excellent conservation and wealth of its rooms, each representing a different historical style.

Civico Museo della Risiera di S. Sabba

Via G. Palatucci, 5
Tel. 040 8262902
National monument since 1965. Built as a rice-husking factory, during the German occupation the Risiera was first converted into a clearing station for the concentration camps and then into Italy’s only extermination camp, equipped with a cremation furnace.

Riserva Naturale Marina di Miramare

Viale Miramare, 349
Tel. 040 224147
Protected marine area, created by the WWF; swimming, sailing and fishing are forbidden. It hosts the typical fauna and flora of the Trieste coast. Underwater tours are available.

Science Centre Immaginario Scientifico

Riva Massimiliano e Carlotta, 15 Grignano
Tel. 040 224424
A new form of science museum combining the enjoyment of discovery and knowledge to interactive games and multimedia shows.

Civico Museo di Guerra per la pace Diego De Henriquez

Via Revoltella, 37
Tel. 040 948430
Fax 040 944390
Via Cumano, 24 (heavy duty vehicles, artillery)
A display of military relics from the two world wars collected by the Triestine scholar, Diego de Henriquez, designed to help visitors reflect on the outcome of using human intelligence for the purposes of war and peace.

Civico Museo Teatrale Carlo Schmidl

Via Rossini 4
Tel. 040 6754072
Fax 040 6754030
The library specialized in music and theatre stems from Carlo Schmidl’s personal library. It includes a rich collection of musical items and a newspaper library.

Museo Postale Palazzo delle Poste Italiane

Piazza Vittorio Veneto, 1
Tel. 040 6764264
Fax 040 6764570

Museo Commerciale

Via San Nicolò 7, II piano
Tel. 040 6701234/229
Fax 040 6701321
This trade museum was founded by the Chamber of Commerce as part of the celebrations for its 250th anniversary.

Museo Etnografico di Servola

Via del Pane Bianco, 52
Tel. 040 827248
Founded privately, the museum documents the customs and traditions of Servola with photographs, old edicts, and various items. It displays the various rooms of a house, including a kitchen with an oven for baking bread.