Vestige of the Austrian Empire, Miramare Castle is enchantingly located on the Grignano promontory facing the Trieste Gulf on the Adriatic Sea, about 8 km / 5 miles northwest of the most north-easterly city of Italy, Trieste. The Austrian emperor Maximilian of Habsburg (Austrian archduke, and later Emperor of Mexico) commissioned the Viennese architect Carl Junker to build the residential palace between 1856 and 1860, and the castle preserves to this day the furniture and original decorations of the era.

Miramare is surrounded by a sea shore park of 22 hectares / 54 acres, characterised by an impressive variety of plants, many of which were specially chosen by the archduke during his travels around the world as admiral of the Austrian Military Marine. A smaller castle (“castelletto”) is located in the park, which was used as residence by the couple during the construction of the main castle, and later “prison” for Carlota, who was said to suffer from mental illness after the murder of her husband in Mexico.

Miramare later became the residence of Duke Amedeo da Aosta, who lived in the castle from 1931 until 1937, when he received the nomination as viceroy of Ethiopia. His wife Anna of Orléans and their daughters Margherita and Maria Cristina continued to live there, albeit with interruptions, until early 1943. During their stay at the castle, modifications were undertaken in some of the ground floor rooms following the style of the times, and modernity moved into the castle with electricity, two lifts, a neon lighting system, running water, phone lines, and central heating.

Your visit to the castle allows access to the apartments of Maximilian and his wife Carlota of Belgium, the guests rooms, the room dedicated to telling the storey of how the castle and park were built, the apartment inhabited by Duke Amedeo da Aosta with furniture in the 1930s rationalist style. Do take note of the music room where Carlota used to play the piano (room 7), the series of paintings by Cesare dell'Acqua telling the storey of Miramare (room 19), and the Throne Room, recently restored to its original splendour.

The beautiful park offers a botanic stroll of enormous interest together with a variety of landscaping elements, such as the important decorative sculpture collection by the famous sculpture firm Moritz Geiss from Berlin. You can also visit the stables – the recently restored building is now used for temporary exhibitions &ndas