Miramare Castle
[3][need quotation to verify] According to tradition, when the archduke was caught in a sudden storm in the Gulf, he took shelter in the little harbour of Grignano and chose a bare rocky spur of limestone origin as the setting for his home.
The whole complex, purchased for the first time at the beginning of March 1856, was called Miramar, possibly after the name of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry's residence in Pena, Portugal.
He rented a villa on the slopes of the hill of San Vito from Niccolò Marco Lazarovich with a clause in the contract that allowed him to make all the modifications he considered necessary.
The Castelletto, situated in a panoramic area, faces Grignano on one side and on the other a parterre surrounded by trees and on a clearing in front of greenhouses at the centre of which there is a fountain.
Modelled on eclectic forms on a square base with a terrace facing the castle, the tower and the arbour entrance, the Castelletto has a small number of simply furnished rooms.
Miramare Park, which at one time had no vegetation, and has now a surface area of 22 hectares (54 acres), stands on a rocky promontory overlooking the Adriatic Sea.
As far as the botanical aspect was concerned, a gardener, Josef Laube, was called in but was replaced in 1859 by Anton Jelinek, a Bohemian who had taken part in the frigate Novara's expedition around the world.
The park, on which work began in 1856, represents a classic example of a mixed, artificial implantation of ligneous forest-trees and bushes and it succeeds in blending the charm of a typically Northern environment and a Mediterranean context.
Within a period of ten years, cedars of Lebanon, North Africa and the Himalayas were planted, along with firs and spruces from Spain, cypresses from California and Mexico, various species of pine from Asia and America, to which some exotic specimens, such as the giant sequoia and the ginkgo biloba, were added.
The park is also characterised by the presence of some buildings included in Junker’s project: the Castelletto – inhabited off and on by Maximilian and Charlotte – on which work began at the same time as work on the castle; the greenhouses, intended for the growing of the plants to be placed in the park; the ruins of the chapel dedicated to Saint Canciano, in whose apse is preserved a cross made from the wood of the frigate Novara, which was laid up in 1899; and lastly a little house, used nowadays as a coffee-shop, the "Swiss house", placed at the edge of the swans’ lake.
Today the gardens play host during the summer season to spectacles such as the musical "Sissi", reliving the story of the Empire in its natural setting, and various concerts.
He had already planned all the works to be done in the area of Miramare: the castle, the park and all its access paths, the Castelletto, the Porticciolo ('little port'), the conservatories, the Swiss house and the pavilion at the back of the parterre.
After the death of Maximilian I in Mexico in June 1867 and Charlotte’s departure for Belgium, the castle and the park continued to be a place where the Habsburgs spent short periods.
Already in September 1882 the Emperor Franz Joseph with Empress Elisabeth and the heir to the throne Rudolf with his consort Stéphanie of Belgium, stayed in Miramare during an official visit to Trieste and gave receptions for the notables of the city.
On March 22, 1900, Stéphanie of Belgium – Charlotte’s niece and Rudolf’s widow – chose the chapel of the castle for her second marriage to the Hungarian noble Elemér de Lónyay.
During the First World War all the furniture and works of art belonging to the castle were moved to Vienna and stored in the Schönbrunn and Belvedere Palaces and in the court libraries.
Between October 1925 and March 1926, by mutual consent of the two governments, Austria returned all the furnishings in order to make possible the reconstruction of the castle’s original interior.
Two years later the government assigned Miramare to Duke Amedeo of Aosta, captain of the first air division stationed in Gorizia, who lived there continuously till 1937 when he was appointed viceroy of Ethiopia.
Over the years it has become an attraction for thousands of tourists interested in experiencing full immersion in one of the very few examples of European historical residences which have preserved almost entirely their original furnishings and which, still today, transmit the charm of living around the middle of the Nineteenth century.
