The gardens and a bunker!
Castle gate
The grounds are what make Castle Duino special as far as I'm concerned. In summer the gardens are alive with colour, there's even a lilypond with flowering waterlilies. The gardens are on different levels which adds some interest, they're very much part of the 'strolling garden' genre of garden. With the sea as a backdrop, they are just beautiful.
With diverse walled and gated areas, the gardens have a sense of being more than one garden. The first gate one encounters walking up from the gatehouse to the castle. The building on the left is the cafe and convention centre.
View of the oldest part of the castle from the lilypond garden.
Still in the lilypond garden, an olive tree with plantings of begonias. There's a lot of colour to be seen in the garden.
From the lilypond garden there are steps that will take you down to terraced areas below the castle.
Looking up to the castle.
I could hear male voices coming from below me, I looked down and there were these guys swimming below the cliffs. With there being a small hut down there, there must be a way to climb down, there was no boat nearby. (Photo taken with a long lens, they were quite a distance away)
From the higher parts of the castle you can look across to the Monfalcone shipyards. Many of the cruise ships now in operation were built at Monfalcone, there's one being constructed in this photo. (Another long lens photo!)
After the lovely gardens there is a darker side to history that can be found in the castle grounds. The castle was occupied by Nazis during World War II and they had a bunker built into the cliff, it was to provide protection to their ships and later midget submarines, that were docked at Sistiana, across the bay from the castle. The local population also used the bunker as an air-raid shelter and there's a recount from a Duino resident who was a child during World War II of going down into the bunker during an air-raid. (The account is just in Italian on the boards inside the bunker) The darkest part of the history of the bunker was that it was built by forced labourers, they were brought in, cut out the bunker and then taken away again. It was constructed in 1943. After the war the area was under Anglo-American control and they used the bunker as a fuel storage facility until 1954 when they withdrew as Trieste and the area around Duino was given back to Italy.
The bunker stairs from the outside entrance.
Once down the stairs, the now rusted away, door to the bunker itself.
According to a sign the bunker has an area of 400 square metres and is 18 metres deep into the cliff.
From the bunker, the entrance to the gun placements.
Where the military hardware was placed. The light coming from the gap in the cliff looking out to sea.
The gun placement gap in the cliff.
View from the gun placement, in the distance the reason why the bunker was built. Sistiana, used as a base by the Nazis in World War II.
Another long lens photo! Sistiana today is a marina and popular beach area for the locals and visitors alike.
Just experiencing the bunker is well worth visiting Duino Castle, the bunker is cold and damp, especially if there's been some rain in the days preceding. There are some artefacts in the bunker from the war years and information as well. The main information is only in Italian, which is a shame as it makes for interesting reading.
The grounds are what make Castle Duino special as far as I'm concerned. In summer the gardens are alive with colour, there's even a lilypond with flowering waterlilies. The gardens are on different levels which adds some interest, they're very much part of the 'strolling garden' genre of garden. With the sea as a backdrop, they are just beautiful.
With diverse walled and gated areas, the gardens have a sense of being more than one garden. The first gate one encounters walking up from the gatehouse to the castle. The building on the left is the cafe and convention centre.
After the lovely gardens there is a darker side to history that can be found in the castle grounds. The castle was occupied by Nazis during World War II and they had a bunker built into the cliff, it was to provide protection to their ships and later midget submarines, that were docked at Sistiana, across the bay from the castle. The local population also used the bunker as an air-raid shelter and there's a recount from a Duino resident who was a child during World War II of going down into the bunker during an air-raid. (The account is just in Italian on the boards inside the bunker) The darkest part of the history of the bunker was that it was built by forced labourers, they were brought in, cut out the bunker and then taken away again. It was constructed in 1943. After the war the area was under Anglo-American control and they used the bunker as a fuel storage facility until 1954 when they withdrew as Trieste and the area around Duino was given back to Italy.
Just experiencing the bunker is well worth visiting Duino Castle, the bunker is cold and damp, especially if there's been some rain in the days preceding. There are some artefacts in the bunker from the war years and information as well. The main information is only in Italian, which is a shame as it makes for interesting reading.
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