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THE HISTORY OF THE PORT OF TRIESTE
The Port of Trieste gained international fame in the first decade of the 19th century as the first port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This fortunate circumstance occured at the beginning of the 18th century when the Emperor Charles VI of Austria proclaimed it as a “Free Port”. Since then this important regime has represented the peculiar characteristic of the Port of Trieste. In the second half of the 19th century, thanks to the railway connection with Vienna, the Trieste port assumed a transit function that spurred the Habsburg authorities to launch the first major expansion plan of the port facilities, realized then in the second half of the 19th century: today known as Odl Port.
With the opening of the Suez Canal, the port’s trade with the Middle and Far East flourished, making further expansion of the port facilities soon necessary. This project was largely completed only at the beginning of the 20th century after the return of Trieste to Italy: thus the New Port was born. After the Second World War the port re-emerged developing and adapting to the changed geopolitical conditions. A qualitative leap in the volume of traffic took place at the end of the 60s with the opening of the transalpine oil pipeline and at the beginning of the 70s with the completion of the container terminal.
Subsequently, the port was enriched with new infrastructures functional to the needs of modern logistics and with the beginning of the new century, year after year, a strong development of intermodal services was recorded. Free point, natural geomorphological characteristics, railway infrastructure, excellent connections with the national and international network, make the Port of Trieste an efficient and competitive destination to reach the reference markets of Central-Eastern Europe.
