Baron Pasquale Revoltella was a 19th-century Triestine shipping magnate who helped finance the Suez Canal (his statue of the canal's allegorical figure, a woman with one foot in the Mediterranean and one in the Red Sea, stands in the palazzo). When he died in 1869, he left his palazzo and art collection to the city of Trieste. In the 1960s, Carlo Scarpa — the Venetian architect who was Italy's greatest museum designer — added a modernist wing that connects three adjoining palazzi into a single museum. The combination of Revoltella's opulent 19th-century rooms and Scarpa's minimalist concrete galleries creates one of the most architecturally compelling museums in northern Italy. The art collection spans Italian 19th-20th century painting and sculpture — Fontana, Morandi, De Chirico, Burri, Afro, and strong local artists. Trieste guide →
Plan my Trieste trip →The Revoltella palazzo (ground and first floors): The Baron's original rooms — lavishly furnished in 19th-century eclectic style with his personal art collection, including the Suez Canal allegory by Pietro Magni. The Carlo Scarpa wing (upper floors): Scarpa's intervention is itself the art — exposed concrete, precise natural lighting, glass and steel connections between the old buildings. The galleries house the Galleria d'Arte Moderna: Fontana's Concetto Spaziale works, Morandi still lifes, De Chirico metaphysical paintings, and a strong selection of Italian postwar abstraction. The 6th-floor terrace: Views over Trieste's harbor and the Adriatic — on clear days, the Slovenian and Croatian coasts are visible. Scarpa's staircase: A spiraling concrete and stone staircase connecting the floors is a masterwork of architectural sculpture — every detail (the handrail joints, the stone inserts, the light slots) is designed with a precision that makes you slow down and look.
Address: Via Diaz 27, Trieste (near Piazza Venezia and the waterfront). Tickets: €7. Hours: Mon, Wed-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 10am-7pm. Closed Tuesdays. Duration: 1-1.5 hours. Almost nobody visits. Combine with: Trieste (Piazza Unità d'Italia, the largest sea-facing piazza in Europe; Miramare Castle; the cafè culture — Caffè San Marco, Caffè degli Specchi), the Carso plateau (wine and osmize — traditional rural restaurants).