The ghosts of Cittavecchia

Art & Culture

1 July 2019

Art & Culture

The ghosts of Cittavecchia

I am very fond of gothic literature, legends and magic so, for me, visiting a city also means discovering its mysterious aspect, the one hidden behind its "official" history.

Trieste is the perfect city, whether it owes this to its longstanding Masonic tradition, to the spiritualism that took root and flourished here or to its beauty, truly capable of bewitching you. From Cittavecchia to the Castles of Miramare and Duino, to the remote woods of the Karst, it offers a succession of haunted houses, weird apparitions and cults that are lost in the mists of time, and often wrapped in a sulphurous cloud. On the other hand, it is no coincidence that our city, together with Prague, London, Venice and Turin, is one of the European capitals of the occult...

But that's enough idle talk, now follow me on a ghost hunt in the streets around Cittavecchia!
Starting from Piazza Venezia, the first haunted house we meet is nothing less than the Palazzo that was owned by Barone Revoltella, now the Museum of Modern Art. Since 1880, the melancholic ghost of Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg has been appearing here, observing, in tears, his own portrait. Some people, however, claim that they have seen him roaming, with his wife Charlotte, in the park of his ancient and cursed mansion, Miramare Castle...

[The Revoltella Museum]

From the Revoltella Museum, we continue to Via Madonna del Mare, to the Svevo and Joyce Museum, the protagonist of a story worthy of an episode of “American Horror Story”, which happened about ten years ago, during the renovation of the building, once a prison for women. One of the workers saw a figure wrapped in a black gown walking along the corridors. He chased her but on turning a corner, he found himself alone facing a wall. After that day, the worker asked to be transferred to another construction site, and the wing where the apparition occurred is still out of bounds to the public.

[The forbidden wing of the Svevo Museum]

The third haunted house is situated just a short distance from the Svevo Museum, in Via Felice Venezian. It is known as the Rotonda Pancera, a splendid neoclassical building that is currently uninhabited. The Rotonda Pancera was a Masonic temple and, according to the voice of the people, who believed that the Freemasons were all Satanists, the restless spirits of some of its members still dwell in its basements.

[Rotonda Pancera]

We can end this short spooky tour with the legend of the White Lady of Cittavecchia, also known as “the Foreigner", a young girl in a white dress who has been appearing for about two centuries on nights with a full moon, in Piazzetta Barbacan and in the streets that lead from Richard's Arch to San Giusto.

[Piazzetta Barbacan and Richard's Arch]

She is less famous than the White Lady of Duino Castle, however, it is said that her beauty is truly incomparable.

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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.