The city lies at the intersection of Latin, Slavic and Germanic cultures, where Central Europe meets the Mediterranean Sea, and is home to diverse ethnic groups and religious communities.

The most likely origin is a Celtic word, Tergeste – with the -est- suffix typical of Venetic – and derived from the hypothetical Illyrian word *terg- "market" (etymologically cognate to the Albanian term treg 'market, marketplace'[5] and reconstructed Proto-Slavic "*tъrgъ")[5][6][7] Roman authors also transliterated the name as Tergestum (according to Strabo, the name of the oppidum Tergestum originated from the three battles the Roman Army had to engage in with local tribes, "TER GESTUM [BELLUM]").

[citation needed] After it committed a perceived offence against Venice, the Venetian State declared war against Trieste in July 1368 and by November had occupied the city.

[16] Following an unsuccessful Habsburg invasion of Venice in the prelude to the 1508–16 War of the League of Cambrai, the Venetians occupied Trieste again in 1508, and were allowed to keep the city under the terms of the peace treaty.

With anti-clericalism on the rise in the rest of the Italian peninsula due to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardina's bellicose policies towards the church and its estates, Pope Leo XIII at times considered moving his residence to Trieste or Salzburg.

[21] At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste was a bustling cosmopolitan city frequented by artists and philosophers such as James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Sigmund Freud, Zofka Kveder, Dragotin Kette, Ivan Cankar, Scipio Slataper, and Umberto Saba.

[citation needed] Italy, in return for entering World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, had been promised substantial territorial gains, which included the former Austrian Littoral and western Inner Carniola.

During the 1920s and 1930s, several monumental buildings were built in the Fascist architectural style, including the University of Trieste and the almost 70 m (229.66 ft) tall Victory Lighthouse (Faro della Vittoria), which became a city landmark.

[29] The worst raid took place on 10 June 1944, when a hundred tons of bombs dropped by 40 USAAF bombers, targeting the oil refineries, resulted in the destruction of 250 buildings, damage to another 700 and 463 victims.

[30][31][32] On 30 April 1945, the Slovenian and Italian anti-Fascist Osvobodilna fronta (OF) and National Liberation Committee (Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, or CLN) of Edoardo Marzari and Antonio Fonda Savio, made up of approximately 3,500 volunteers, incited a riot against the Nazi occupiers.

[33] The 2nd New Zealand Division under General Freyberg continued to advance towards Trieste along Route 14 around the northern coast of the Adriatic sea and arrived in the city the following day (see official histories The Italian Campaign[34] and Through the Venetian Line).

[44] The Julian March was divided by the Morgan Line between Anglo-American and Yugoslav military administration until September 1947 when the Paris Peace Treaty established the Free Territory of Trieste.

This state of affairs did not change until a formal peace treaty with Italy had been signed, granting the AMG the full powers to administer justice and re-establish law and order in those areas under its administration.

Zone A covered almost the same area of the current Italian Province of Trieste, except for four small villages south of Muggia (see below), which were given to Yugoslavia after the dissolution (see London Memorandum of 1954) of the Free Territory in 1954.

Occupied Zone B, which was under the administration of Miloš Stamatović, then a colonel in the Yugoslav People's Army, was composed of the north-westernmost portion of the Istrian peninsula, between the Mirna River and the cape Debeli Rtič.

The climate can be severely affected by the bora, a very dry and usually cool north-to-northeast katabatic wind that can last for some days and reach speeds of up to 140 km/h (87 mph) on the piers of the port, thus sometimes lowering temperatures to subzero levels.

The Fascist government promoted several development schemes in the 1930s, with new manufacturing activities dedicated to shipbuilding and defence production (such as the "Cantieri Aeronautici Navali Triestini (CANT)").

[66] The oil terminal is a key infrastructure in the Transalpine Pipeline, which covers 40% of Germany's energy requirements (100% of the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg), 90% of Austria and 50% of the Czech Republic's.

[69] The city is part of the Corridor 5 project to establish closer transport connections between Western and Eastern Europe, through countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Ukraine and Bosnia.

[70] The thriving coffee industry in Trieste began under Austria-Hungary, with the Austro-Hungarian government even awarding tax-free status to the city in order to encourage more commerce.

The rare alici ([anchovies - in the local dialect: Sardoni barcolani) from the Gulf of Trieste near Barcola, which are only caught at Sirocco, are particularly sought after because of their white meat and special taste and fetch high prices for fishermen.

The largest autochthonous minorities are Slovenes, Croats and Serbs,[86] but there is also a large immigrant group from Balkan nations (particularly Serbia, Romania and Croatia): 4.95%, Asia: 0.52%, and sub-saharan Africa: 0.2%.

During the period of the application of the Instrument for the Provisional Regime of the Free Territory of Trieste, as established in the Treaty of Peace with Italy (Paris 10/02/1947), the castle served as headquarters for the United States Army's TRUST force.

The Trieste plateau (Altopiano Triestino), called Kras or the Carso and covering an area of about 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi) within Italy has approximately 1,500 caves of various sizes (like that of Basovizza, now a monument to the Foibe massacres).

With the end of World War II and the arrival of the Anglo-Americans in the city, this café became a hangout place of many soldiers and a famous ballroom to meet local young women.

Among these are: Two important national monuments: The Slovenska gospodarsko-kulturna zveza—Unione Economica-Culturale Slovena is the umbrella organisation bringing together cultural and economic associations belonging to the Slovene minority.

At the end of the 2017–18 season, the team, now trained by coach Eugenio Dalmasson and sponsored by Alma, won promotion to the Lega Basket Serie A, Italy's highest basketball league, 14 years after its last tenure.

Traditional main courses include jota, minestra de bisi spacai (pea stew), rotolo di spinaci in straza (spinach rolls), sardoni impanai (breaded anchovies, a sought-after delicacy), capuzi garbi (krauts), capuzi garbi in tecia (sautéed krauts), vienna sausages, goulash, ćevapi and frito misto (fried fish).

This railway stretches for 1,400 km (870 mi) to Lviv, Ukraine, via Ljubljana, Slovenia; Sopron, Hungary; Vienna, Austria; and Kraków, Poland, crossing the backbone of the Alps mountains through the Semmering Pass near Graz.

Trieste is twinned with: L'Aquila, AbruzzoAosta, Aosta ValleyBari, ApuliaPotenza, Basilicata Catanzaro, CalabriaNaples, CampaniaBologna, Emilia-RomagnaTrieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia Rome, LazioGenoa, LiguriaMilan, LombardyAncona, Marche Campobasso, MoliseTurin, PiedmontCagliari, SardiniaPalermo, Sicily Trento, Trentino-Alto Adige/SüdtirolFlorence, TuscanyPerugia, UmbriaVenice, Veneto