Known in Roman times as "Vallicula" or later as "Valcula", Barcola is known for its exclusive houses, the view from the green hills of the Gulf of Trieste, its long coastal promenade with extensive bathing and sports facilities and its hedonistically relaxed sporty mood.

[2] The area of Barcola has a special microclimate (protected from cold winds by the mountains, early temperature increase in spring and long summer), the benefits of which have been valued since ancient times.

Together with Grignano, Miramare, Gretta, Roiano, Scorcola, Cologna and part of Guardiella, Barcola forms the administrative district 3 of the municipality of Trieste (Circoscrizione III).

At the end of the 19th century, in Barcola, between the cemetery and the San Bartolomeo church, at about Viale Miramare 48, the remains of a magnificent Roman villa by the sea, worthy of a prince, were discovered.

This complex of buildings, now known as Villa Maritima of Barcola, with a first construction phase in the second half of the first century BC, stretched along the coast and was divided into terraces into a representation area in which luxury and power were displayed, a separate one living area, a garden, some facilities open to the sea and a thermal bath.

In 1826 Barcola had 418 inhabitants and people from Trieste increasingly began to build their summer residences in the settlement, including Archduke Maximilian's famous Miramare Castle, completed in 1860.

At the end of the 19th century, Barcola increasingly took on the characteristics of a recreational area and there were inns and wine bars with arbor gardens and views of the sea.

In 1890, the architect Edoardo Tureck was commissioned by Alessandro Cesare di Salvore, a shipowner, city councilor and theater director, to build a bathing facility at the natural sandbar, and in 1895 the hotel of the same name was also built across the street.

The then well-known and flourishing bathhouse Excelsior, which passed on to other owners in the following years, was expanded several times, so in 1909 a small theater and a restaurant were integrated.

According to a local story, the world champion in underwater fishing Claudio Martinuzzi learned in the 1980s at the Excelsior lido to swim.

The "Pineta di Barcola", with its 25,400 square meters of pine forest, today houses numerous bars and sports areas for bathers.

This villa, the Casa Jakic, dates from 1896 and initially belonged to a Russian Orthodox priest who was said to be a tsarist spy and was later used as an arcade and brothel.

[16][17] In 2020 there are plans to solve the traffic and parking problems in the summer through structural measures and the creation of an original beach, corresponding to the time before the road was built in the 19th century.

The Barcolana became the Guinness World Record holder in February 2019 when it was named "the greatest sailing race" with its 2,689 boats and over 16,000 sailors on the starting line.