Present-day Borgo Teresiano (from Corso Italia to Piazza della Libertà) was once an area of salt marshes, now completely reclaimed. The channels perpendicular to the seafront were surveyed extensively and plans were made to excavate them in order to expand the navigable area of the city and allow easy loading / unloading of goods at canal-side warehouses, but the project was later abandoned and the Canal Grande remained the city's only canal. Later, in 1934, the final part of the canal was filled with waste material from demolition work in the Jewish ghetto and the old city. There is even a small torpedo boat lying on the canal bed. The canal was one of the nerve centres of Trieste's commercial hub. Its banks are still lined with the squares, churches and historic cafés built by the merchants who made the city great: Palazzo Gopcevich, now the home of the Schmidl Museum Theatre and the Photo Library of the Civic Museums, Palazzo Carciotti, Piazza Ponterosso, Piazza Sant'Antonio, built on the in-filled canal section in 1934, the Serbian Orthodox Church of San Spiridone, the Church of Sant'Antonio Taumaturgo, and the historic Stella Polare café.
|
