Miramare

Miramare is just 5 minutes walk up the road from the hostel. Normally I'm not very interested in museums, but the fairy-tale like castle and the story behind it was fascinating, and, a little sad.

When I was a kid, the plot of one spaghetti western I saw featured the capture and execution of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. That didn't make sense to me. I thought Mexico never had any royalty. Later on I found that the fact was more fascinating than any fiction. Summarised, it goes like this:

In 1863 monarchists in Mexico invited Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria to be their emperor. His brother was the future Franz Josef I. Up to that that time in his life Ferdinand had served in the Navy and as a Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, then under Austrian rule. From accounts his political views and policies were liberal. Franz Josef dismissed him from his post in 1859 because of them. Shortly afterwards Austria lost most of her Italian possessions. Ferdinand then retired to Trieste and began planning his castle, Miramare. He was a man with scientific interests and had taken part in a botanical expedition in Brazil.

It is believed by some that his wife Charlotte of Belgium, who was also his second cousin, being an ambitious woman, prevailed upon her husband to accept the monarchists' invitation. They sailed for Mexico in 1864 and took up residence in Mexico City. However the country was in the throes of a civil war between monarchists, propped up by Napoleon III of France, and the republicans, supplied with arms by the US after the end of their Civil War. (This is where the spaghetti western connection comes in.) By 1866, France had withdrawn her support and Ferdinand was under pressure to abdicate. Charlotte returned to Europe to try to gather support for Ferdinand, but to no avail. In 1867, the republicans were victorious and Ferdinand's contingent was captured at Santiago de Querétaro, and he was executed by firing squad. Although the powers of Europe pleaded for his life, Benito Juárez felt that he had to send a message to Europe not to interfere in Mexican affairs, despite his liking Ferdinand at a personal level.

Charlotte had a mental breakdown and lived first at Miramare for a short time, then the rest of her life back home in Belguim. She died in 1927, aged 86.

Miramare has extensive gardens, reflecting Ferdinand's love of botany. But he never lived to see his finished castle as he left before completion. The inside of the museum, where I was not allowed to take pictures, is furnished as it was in that era. It is a well-preserved glimpse into that period. There are also exhibits from when it was the residence of the Duke Amedeo of Aosta. During the Allied occupation of Trieste until 1954, it was military headquarters. It was turned into a public museum in 1955.

The castle stands on a tip of land and has splendid views up and down the coast. Ferdinand had good taste, if not good political judgement.

On the Trieste buses I had noticed anti-suicide campaign posters giving a host of reasons why not. One of them was: because chocolate tastes good. I also noticed that notices at bus stops state that services may be disrupted by bad weather. Those must refer to the bora, a fierce katabatic wind that rushes down the karst mostly in winter and makes life miserable for people in this part of the world. It accounts for measures such as closely clustered houses, stones on roof tiles to weigh them down, and chains along sidewalks for pedestrians unlucky enough to be caught by a gust, to grab onto.

(The remainder of the day will be in another post.)