Church of St. Anthony Thaumaturge
The church is popularly called the New St. Anthony because it replaces an earlier one with the same title, buit in the second half of the eighteenth century. It was erected between 1828 and 1849 on a project made in 1808 by Swiss architect Pietro Nobile, one of the leading exponents of neoclassicism in Trieste. Nobile was inspired by the classic grandeur of famous Roman monuments.
In the past, the church was reflected in the waters of the channel arbour which, even today, partially enters the Theresian neighborhood.
The front is characterized by a magnificient pronaos with six ionic columns and a large fronton. On the attic, six statues are placed which were sculpted in 1842 by Francesco Bosa. They represent the patron saints of Trieste, who are (from left to right): St. Servolo, St. Eufemia, St. Giusto, St. Sergio, St. Tecla and St. Apollinare. The rear facade is surmounted by a pair of twin bell towers. The plant is almost rectangular (80x28 m).
The building had to be entirely made of Istria stone. For economic reasons, however, this was limited to the most significant architectural elements.
The interior is striking both for the majesty of the twelve ionic columns and for the wide space punctuated by the slow and quit rhythm of the arches, barrel vaults and cruises, which finds its end converging in the central dome.
The apseis is painted with a fresco executed in 1836 by Sebastiano Santi, depicting the Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The main altar, designed by Nobile, is topped by a shrine with Corinthian columns, according to the taste of the time, especially spread in Lombardy.
In each of the six lateral niches, lit by large moon-shaped windows, an altar is placed which is framed by pairs of pilasters. The great nineteenth-century blades host St. Anne and the child Virgin, painted by Michelangelo Grigoletti; the Presentation in the Temple, by Felice Schiavoni; St. Joseph, by Johann Schönmann; St. Anthony, by Odorico Politi; The Martyrdom of the Holy Eufemia, Erasma, Tecla and Dorotea, by Ludovico Lipparini; the Crucifixion, by Joseph Tunner.
In the Chapel said of the adoration, to the left of the main altar, one of the most important paintings in the Temple is placed: the Visitation of the Virgin of the Venetian painter Alessandro Longhi (1769). The blade belonged to the chapel of Rossetti's family.
To the right of the entrance, under the porch, a plate is placed where it is written: "Because of cholera that in October 15th raged in Trieste, this church was consecrated on November 15th, 1849". As a matter of fact, it is historically proven that, when the church was consecrated, in the city and throughout Europe an epidemic cholera raged, since nearly twenty years, which lasted until the end of 1800.
The church and its surroundings were witnesses to events of blood such as the massacre of two stokers of Austrian Lloyd during a strike in 1902. There were more deaths in 1945, when it was fired from the San Giusto castle against the Theresian neighborhood (see the signs on the bronze plaque next to the church).
There were also the tragic events of November 1953, when the city was in turmoil for the fear of being given to Yugoslavia. On November 5th, the civilian police (under the command of the Allied Military Government who then occupied the Free Territory of Trieste) used jeeps with water cannons to disperse the crowd gathered outside the church; but they did not act on the outside only: they forced the main entrance of the church to pursue demonstrators who refuged inside and fired against them wounding someones.
The crowd responded throwing stones, the police again fired killing a young high school student, Pietro Addobbati. In fights which took place in other parts of the city other 5 people were killed: their names are remembered in a commemorative plaque affixed under the pronaos of the Temple.