Trieste Secession (Liberty)

In the Art Nouveau era, Trieste was a part of Austria-Hungary. It was the fourth biggest city of the empire and its major seaport. Like in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague, Art Nouveau was very popular in Trieste. The predominant strains of Art Nouveau here were Vienna Secession and the Italian Stile Liberty. The most famous of the architects who worked here at the time was Max Fabiani.

My portfolio contains photos of 39 notable Art Nouveau buildings in Trieste. I took most photos in November 2022 and some in November 2016.

You will find the locations of the mentioned buildings on the map below:

1. Casa Agnani

Viale XX Settembre 32 / Via Domenico Rossetti 8
Eugenio Geiringer, 1901

This building was designed by the famous Triestine architect Eugenio Geiringer. It hosted the well-known Caffè Secesion.

2. Casa Luzzatto-Piani

Via Cesare Battisti 16 / Via Gaetano Donizetti 1
Ettore Luzzatto & Isidoro Piani, 1902

This attractive corner building stands close to the Trieste Synagogue. It has early Liberty façades with rich plastic decoration.

3. Viale XX Settembre 89

C. Mosettig, 1902

The most attractive part of this early Art Nouveau building is the entrance decoration.

4. Casa Basevi

Via Armando Diaz 22 / Via San Giorgio 5
Eugenio Geiringer, 1903

Eugenio Geiringer designed this building for Giuseppe Basevi, a famous entrepreneur. The façade is adorned with polymorphic friezes, flower garlands, medallions, and fluted pilasters.

5. National Hall

Via Fabio Filzi 14 / Via della Geppa 23 / Via Giorgio Galatti 20
Max Fabiani, 1902-1904

The designer of this massive brick building was the Austrian-Italian-Slovene architect Max Fabiani. He had been a student of Otto Wagner and had designed the Portois & Fix House and the Artaria House in Vienna some years before.

The building was constructed as a centre of the Slovene community of Trieste. It was a multifunctional structure, including Hotel Balkan, the Slovene theatre, a restaurant, two cafes, a gym, a print shop, a bank, and apartments. It had a Secessionist entrance designed by Koloman Moser.

The building was set in fire in 1920 by Italian Fascists, which made it a symbol of the repression of the Slovene minority in Italy. It was later restored.

6. Casa Junz-Calabrese / Casa Mordo

Via Giosuè Carducci 11
Giovanni Maria Mosco, 1902-1904

This building is located on a triangular lot on one of the busiest streets in the city center of Trieste. Its Eclectic façade has a number of Art Nouveau elements.

7. Casa Righetti

Via Giulia 33 / Via Galileo Galilei 24
Giusto Righetti & Giovanni Maria Mosco, 1903-1904

This corner building has an elegant facade decoration, which includes floral, animal, and geometric elements.

8. Casa Sonz

Via Giovanni Boccaccio 1
1903-1904

This building close to the Central Railway Station is less famous for its architecture than for the fact that James Joyce lived here on the second floor from January 24 to July 30, 1906.

9. Via Giovanni Boccaccio 5

There are several Secessionist buildings on Via Giovanni Boccaccio. This building has a restrained façade decoration, dominated by masks, wreaths, and line patterns.

10. Casa Martelanz

Via Armando Diaz 14
1904

The upper part of the otherwise Neoclassical façade is adorned with mascarons. The building has an elegant Art Nouveau entrance door and mascarons and frescoes decorating the hall and the stairwell wall. It now houses the Residence Liberty hotel.