Fantastic animals and where to find them

Art & Culture

16 August 2019

Art & Culture

Fantastic animals and where to find them

On this itinerary I’ll take you through a world populated by lions, eagles, snakes and dragons. It is a veritable wood and stone bestiary sculpted onto the townhouses in Trieste centre.
In building the itinerary I used Francesco Boer’s book Il volto arcano di Trieste in which the author also speaks of many other symbols to be found in the city’s streets.

And so we set off from Via San Lazzaro and the ultra-famous Casa delle Bisse (Casa delle Bisce). Above the door there are three eagles and a long snake. The eagle in the centre holds the snake’s head in its beak while the latter attempts to get to a small golden sphere dangling before it.

Eagle and snake are two juxtaposed symbols. They represent the power of conservation (the eagle) struggling with that of change (the snake) and the Casa delle Bisse sculpture, in particular, contains a precise historic reference: the snake moving towards the sphere is Napoleon wanting to ‘devour’ the world held back by the eagle, namely Italy, Germany and Russia.

From Via San Lazzaro we move to Corso Italia. At number 12 is Palazzo Ananian (later Treves). Here we find two of the great many lions in Trieste with their distinguishing characteristic of not being seen as proud and majestic, as they usually are, but crouching down with their prey between their feet.

Lions symbolise physical strength, the power of the will and the spiritual will which, from the prey's point of view, is violence, pride and arrogance.
That there is this twofold symbolism on Palazzo Ananian is perhaps due to the humble wisdom of its historic, rich owner, known in the city as a benefactor for the poor.

Symbol of desire and possession, custodian of treasures, in Trieste dragons are less frequent than lions in their function as ‘threshold guardians’. However, in the ‘vegetable dragon’ form, as Boer called it, we find it on the Palazzo del Municipio columns, for example, in Piazza Unità d’Italia.

From the mouths of the two dragons to either side of a ‘tree of life’ no flames come out but rather leaves, a sign of life and regeneration.

Here in Piazza Unità our brief walk ends. In actual fact Trieste is packed with fantastical animals and thus we advise that you always keep a watch out for truly surprising encounters!

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Lisa Deiuri

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I graduated in Philosophy, I work for an insurance company and I have three great passions: travelling, writing and drawing. I love gothic and horror literature, on which I have published articles and reviews. I will be your guide on a visit to “Trieste Arcana”, a city of magic, legends and mystery.