Refreshment Assonautica Trieste

Construction of the Teresian Pier today Fratelli Bandiera On the Zucco rock, now incorporated by the Fratelli Bandiera pier, there was already a signaling system in Roman times. In 1560, as a votive offering for surviving a sea storm, imperial captain Count Antonio della Torre had a chapel erected dedicated to St. Nicholas the Bishop, protector of sailors, with a lamp placed inside it that was always lit as a maritime signal. From a print it appears that in 1617 the little church was already in ruins, and in notes written around 1620 by the monk Fortunato Olmo we read that observing from the shore it still appears recognizable. In 1734 Admiral Luca Pallavicini, commander of the Austrian navy of war, had a battery built there, part of the plan for the maritime defense of the city. On that occasion the ruins of the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas were demolished. In 1744 Maria Theresa began the mighty and costly construction of a pier, which would be named Teresian in honor of the Empress (today Fratelli Bandiera), connecting the mainland to the Zucco Rock, also with the intention of replacing the battery located at the end of the pier with a military fortress. The project was entrusted to engineer Francesco Saverio Bonomo, but due to repeated fraud on the part of the contractor, there was a lawsuit that led to the suspension of the work; when it resumed, the task was given to the Venetian Matteo Pirona, who completed the pentagonal fort, which became operational in 1787 when it was armed with eight cannons, a furnace for red-hot bullets, and a guard post. (source: Triestesegreta)