If you ever wondered what kinda castle a mega rich Austrian Emperor's brother would build on the edge of a once Slovenian city that is now in Italy, then you need to go visit Miramare Castle just down the road from Trieste..

This is a little Vienna by the Italian seaside..

This white castello was built by the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian in the mid 1800's and is perhaps a unique example of the Hapsburg empire by the sea, perched on prime real estate looking out over the Adriatic, with views back to Trieste in the shade of the highest cliffs in the Mediterranean..

Luckily for us, the Archduke was also very interested in botany, so we get the additional bonus of the most fantastic Mediterranean gardens, stuffed with tropical plants and flowers, to wander in outside the castle!

This sure was a little white castle fit for an emperor..

Miramare is one of the top tourist attractions for Trieste and can be maybe simply described as an uber extravagent summer seaside home for an incredibly rich dude, with an even better garden.

It was never really a functioning castle, more a holiday home, but still, way more grand than a stately home and so it is another really different possible option to mix into a fab day trip from the Lodge into old Slovenia, with several other enticing places that could be combined to make this a most unexpected adventure.. in Italy!

The gardens were also filled with many tropical flowers as the Archduke was very interested in botany..

You need to know how to get to Miramare..

If you just look on a map the castle looks a simple target, really close to Trieste, but the geography of getting here is a little more complicated than that, but no probs if you know how!

The small city of Trieste is crammed in against the highest cliffs in the Mediterranean and the castle is another 6km or so along the coast from the centre of Trieste, even more squeezed in against the cliffs.

Miramare looks really close to the Lodge and Slovenia as the crow flies, but if you do not have a crow or a helicopter, then there are basically 2 ways to approach it from either end of the long Adriatic cliffs above.

Lovely view back to the city of Trieste and those green hills in the background behind Trieste are Green Slovenia..

Coming from Trieste you use the long marine promenade road, making very sure not to miss the sign for the car park..

Coming from the top of the cliff, the quickest way from the Lodge is to jump on the motorway towards Venice and turn off back towards Trieste, taking the main road down the cliff to reach the castle from the other side, journey time approx 50 mins..

We normally mention a few of the other things you could mix into your day out at the end of our "secret places to visit" articles, but there is another SNEAKY 3RD ROAD OPTION from on top of the cliffs, with stellar views, that pops out onto the coastal promenade road almost next to the castle!

Absolutely stunning lavender wisteria looking pagoda in the gardens..

So here are a few other Secret Places to Visit that you could combine with your visit to Miramare and they are ALL on top of the cliffs above Miramare, hence even closer to the Lodge! 

So you might consider also visiting the enormous Grotta Gigante Cave, Prosecco for a spot of wine tasting , Opcine old town or maybe the very different medieval style Duino castle or do the Sistiana cliff top walk, and then you can take that 3rd curvy road leading directly down the cliff from PROSECCO village directly down to Miramare!

The main gate to keep the Riff Raff out..

Parking..

It can seem a bit tight to park at Miramare, but actually there are quite a lot of spaces..

Look very carefully as the Miramare sign comes up very quickly from both sides and if you miss it you will have a surprisingly frustrating drive back along the coast or up the hill until you can turn round safely.

The long car park is crammed in between the sea wall and the road and then the huge cliffs, so it is pretty narrow too. Take a ticket at the barrier and then go find your space.

Park in the long car park and walk along the sea wall to the castle..

On our visit we drove by mistake up to the main entrance gate, finding a lucky space at the end, but the further up the car park you go the tighter the turning gets, so we had to do at least a 24 point turn to squeeze into our space!  

Maybe use the "Supermarket Mind Trick", where if you believe you will get a space when you show up then you will! There are a lot of spaces further away from the castle, so if you cannot find anything, just hang around a bit as someone is always leaving..

And if that does not work there are pockets of parking dotted all along the long sea promenade back towards Trieste.. So you might decide to add a beach experience to your day by parking up and joining the local population sun bathing on the rocky beaches and swimming in the warm salty sea on the other side of the wall..

We bagged this parking spot at the far end of the car park near the main gate, but is gets really narrow here..

Visiting Miramare..

Depending what you are interested in doing & seeing and how much time you have, if you allocate about an hour to the castle and 90 mins to the gardens then that would be about right..

The Hapsburg Austro Hungarian empire was vast, but mainly located in landlocked central Europe with the main access to the ocean starting here in old Slovenia, stretching along the current Slovenian and Croatian Adriatic Venetian coasts.

This is a very pretty little white castle in a sensational location..

In an effort to compete with the mighty British & French fleets, Trieste had been rapidly expanded into the main port of the Austrian empire and one of the main attractions here is just walking around and experiencing all the different European styles & genres ranging from Roman to Venetian to Hapsburg and now all of this is in modern Italy.. So it is really great and kinda unique!

Well, Miramare stands on its own as a summer Palace residence created at the peak of the Austro Hungarian empire in 1860.. with terrible times approaching down the track like a runaway train.. but here you can see the splendour, good & bad interior decorating tastes and imagine the Archduke Maximilian and Charlotte of Belgium spending time here on their hollibubbles, entertaining, relaxing, dining and doing whatever else they did in those days.. It is all here to wander around!

You walk along corridors through the rooms..

the Castle..

You pay to enter the castle and the gardens are free, but for the reasons we just stated, even if you whizz quickly around the castle, there will still be something historical, cultural, or fashionable to take your fancy.

The speed you can walk around inside is dictated by the other visitors, often small groups dillying & dallying in the wide corridors, making them seem very narrow, but there really is a lot of detail to look at if you do get stuck in a traffic jam.

The Archduke was a keen botanist and there is a room full of detailed drawings of plants and flowers..

The Archduke loved flora & fauna, so one room is filled with fantastic drawings and artwork depicting exotic plants & flowers.

Another room was decked out just like the interior of one of his grand battleships, so you feel like you are at sea and if you look out the window all you can actually sea is the see!

One room is decked out in the same style as the Archduke's battleship, so it feels like you are in a ship's cabin..

There are bedrooms, dining rooms, grand halls and everything else you would expect from a castle, so go fill your boots..

Do not miss some of the really fantastic paintings hanging on the walls featuring the main protaganists, dressed in all their finery and receiving guests to the castle like an embassy.. These paintings are truly like snapshots in time, so you can see & imagine what was going on here.

What a fantastic little marina for welcoming guests..

The owners were part of an elite group of European royal families, ruling, competing with each other, spending, playing monopoly with real castles and making our modern day Billionaires look like a bunch of car salesmen!

This castle generally reflects that certain period in time around 1860, before Maximilian went off to Mexico to become emperor and ended up getting himself executed by1867..

Art Deco bathroom, love the marble floor..

One of our favourite sections of the castle was altered by later generations with a few rooms done out in Art Deco style and near the grand stairs you can hear water trickling away in a really fantastic fountain with four dragons breathing water instead of fire..

But whatever you do, leave a generous amount of time from your schedule to go see the gardens and if you feel trapped by a long line of chattering school kids inside the house, you can lose them all in the gardens!

This indoor Dragon fountain is literally totally cool and must have helped to provide freshness on hot Mediterranean afternoons. I want one..

the Gardens..

Did we mention how fantastic these gardens are?!

Outside is the spot to be in Miramare and also the best place to admire the castle from ALL angles.. Indeed this very pretty, rather unique white castle, looks a bit like a fairytale lego creation, long before lego was invented..

Lieterally one of the highlights in the garden is this 30m tall Giant Sequoia tree, what a beauty..

Make sure you do a small loop of the castle exterior to get a real understanding of what a fantastic location in the world this was to build a castle..

Enjoy the views down to the really fantastic marina, perfect for receiving visitors or to sail off into the middle of an Agatha Christie movie.

Then try to lose yourself in the huge park like gardens that connect the castle with the sea and rise up to the huge Adriatic cliffs dominating the skyline from behind the castle.

Stunning tulip garden and a big greenhouse..

It is always a challenge in these gardens to have a sense you have seen everything as the paths twist & turn, but you could try to follow the detailed maps.

There are a few steep hills here too to navigate or just go sit in the cafe at the end of a very English looking courtyard garden with hedges and scantily clad (hardly any clothes on) statues.

Perhaps the best statue is the giant horse with elongated legs standing directly outside the castle..

A really beautiful horse statue outside the front of the castle gazing out to sea..

Our personal favourites outside would be the showbiz stairs leading down to the private dock, with little seaside cottages hidden away in the shade.. The giant Sequoia tree fully grown at 30m tall and the tulip gardens with stunning "British Victorian" looking glass house next to the mini castle villa at the far end of the gardnes on a hill.

Oh yes and the cool pot with 4 squirrels!

So choose a day & time least likely to be busy, get your logistics right and you can mix a surprisingly varied little Italian seaside into your Green Slovenian cocktail with this visit to the white Austrian Castello and the tropical gardens!