The building as seen today next to Palazzo Modello was built in two different stages. The original version was designed in 1839 for Nicolò Stratti, a rich Greek merchant. Business was not going too well by the time the building was completed and it was sold. It changed hands a number of times and in the end became part of the patrimony of Assicurazioni Generali, who commissioned Eugenio Geiringer and Domenico Righetti to turn the façade facing the square into the main one. A number of elements were therefore moved, including the sculptures by Luigi Zandomeneghi. These works represent man’s industriousness, with a significant and peculiar detail: a locomotive is depicted on the right of the group of sculptures. However, in 1839, when the work was completed, there was not a single locomotive in the whole Empire. In truth, this was a replica of Stevenson’s prototype and represented a desire of the time. Palazzo Stratti hosts one of Trieste’s historical cafés, Caffè degli Specchi.
Looking out onto Piazza Unità (and therefore the sea) ever since 1839, it is the last of the original four cafés on this square, which was once called Piazza Grande. During the Second World War, it was used as barracks and headquarters by the British Navy. The café’s name (“café of mirrors”) derives from the fact that, ever since it opened, it became a tradition to remember salient historical events by engraving the mirrors or glass panes, of which only three originals remain.
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