On 2 July 1914 the remains of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Duchess Sophie, who were assassinated in Sarajevo, arrived on the shores of Trieste. The funeral procession through the streets of the city departed from the dock, accompanied by a silent throng, the event that marked the outbreak of World War I and changed Trieste's destiny.

Although not directly involved in the conflict, the city underwent radical change from an important Austrian commercial centre trading in the markets of the Far East to the bridgehead of emerging Italian imperialism in the Balkans. This change drove out the entrepreneurs and the imperial administrative class, attracting Italians that Attilio Tamaro referred to as "a flock of parasites, tenors, baritones, violinists, mandolinists… guitarists".

"Grand Trieste" means exploring the pre-war city, and the political and cultural climate that fed the clash of the city's diverse souls - the Italian and irredentist, the entrepreneurial and Austrian , and the socialist and internationalist.  

This complex scenario is still evident in historic buildings such as the Italian language secondary school, "the breeding ground of Trieste's intellectual and ruling class" (Giani Stuparich), the Post Office building, a symbol of imperial power, and the Narodni Dom, the Slovenian secular community centre.

This is the objective of the "Grand Trieste" route, which explores the city's diverse souls, accompanied by the narrations of various Trieste writers, such as Saba, Slataper and Svevo. 

Piero Ongaro - ScopriTrieste