If you are passionate about opera, music, musical instruments or just theatre in general, a visit to the  Civico Museo Teatrale “Carlo Schmidl” is a must for tourists and locals.

The museum is located in the city centre, on the rive of Trieste, next to the Ponterosso canal and a stone's throw from the Serb-Orthodox church of San Spiridione and the church of church of S. Antonio Nuovo.

The exhibition rooms occupy all of the first and half of the second floor of Palazzo Gopcevich. From the staircase leading to the first floor, one will already be fascinated by the posters of performances staged over the years in the theatres of Trieste (famous for not staging only prose but also opera, musicals, ...)

But there is more: there are also some seats from the Teatro Verdi and, between the first and second floors, some seats from the Politeama Rossetti dating back to before its refurbishment.

The Schmidl theatre museum houses the history of theatre and music in Trieste from the eighteenth century to the present day, with displays of costumes and stage jewellery that belonged to some of the most famous sopranos to perform in Trieste, such as the Triestine Fedora Barbieri.

On the first floor—along with the aforementioned posters— visitors will see programmes, photographs, prints, paintings, musical instruments, objects and original manuscripts. Among the various articles on display are the reproductions of various small theatres, both experimental and puppet theatres, as well as the medal collection.

On the second floor instead there are some historic pianos, a whole series of mechanical instruments and the personal archival collection dedicated to Giorgio Strehler, a Triestine director who died on 25 December 1997, exactly twenty years ago.

There is much more to say because the museum is constant source of amazement on one’s first visit, so you cannot miss visiting when you are in the area!