Casa delle Bisse (1771)
via San Lazzaro
Arch. Bobolini

Built in via San Lazzaro in 1771 by the architect Bobolini the "casa delle Bisse" has not only one particularity, but even four!
The first is impossible not to see it! Above the front door a sculptural group: a snake (the bissa) rushes to prey on a pommel, but three eagles are hurling at her from above. The three eagles are Russia, Prussia and Austria who, united in the Holy Alliance, are fighting against Napoleon Buonaparte (the bissa) launched to conquer the world (the apple).
Another visible feature is the central dormer window, adorned with unusual plaster curtains.
The third eccentricity of the building is visible only upon entering the door: a cannonball is embedded in a wall and under a plaque: "Hoc me ornament galli affecerunt MDCCCIX". Easy to understand, the writing is not reflected in Trieste's history: in 1809 there was no war event that could justify a bombing of the city center!
Last of the four oddities (but certainly not the least strange), the other plaque placed in the door, this one well founded in the reality of the facts: "Aedes year MDCCLXXI ob aque inopiam aceto absoluta". ... The house was built using vinegar and not water in the preparation of the mortars due to a severe drought that hit the area in that year.