Duino is a town in the coastal part of the municipality (
comuneIn Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division of both provinces and regions, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.- Importance and function :...
) of
Duino-AurisinaDuino-Aurisina is a comune in the Province of Trieste in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Lying near the border with Slovenia, it has a substantial Slovene population.-Geography:...
, part of the region of
Friuli-Venezia GiuliaFriuli-Venezia Giulia is one of the twenty regions of Italy, and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The capital is Trieste. It has an area of 7,856 km² and about 1.2 million inhabitants. A natural opening to the sea for many Central European countries, the region is...
in the
province of TriesteThe Province of Trieste is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Trieste.It has an area of 212 km², and a total population of 236,520...
, north-eastern
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
.
The total population is recorded as 8,753 (4,281 males, 4,472 females in 3,753 families), the population density (per square kilometre) as 193.8, and number of housing units as 3,983.
Duino is noted for being the place where the physicist
Ludwig BoltzmannLudwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics...
died and for inspiring the poet
Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th-century poets...
to write his
Duino ElegiesThe Duino Elegies are a set of ten elegies written in German by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke from 1912 to 1922. Rilke had been visiting Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis in the Duino castle near Trieste in January 1912 and, according to his own recounting, had taken a stroll near the castle,...
.
The two castles are the main attraction. The older castle, dating back to the eleventh century, is in ruins, while the newer castle is inhabited to this day and can be visited by tourists.
Below the ruins of the ancient castle there lies a white rock projecting into the sea, the
Dama Bianca, which resembles a veiled woman and gave origin to many gothic legends.
The new castle of Duino is approximately dated to about the year 1400, when the family Wallsee commanded the construction of a strong fortress. Over time, the Wallsee family disappeared and the castle, after having been used as a prison, became the residence of the Luogar and Hofer. At the end of the 19th century it became the property of Prince Alexander Johann Vincenz Rudolf Hugo Karl Lamoral Eligius von Thurn und Taxis from the
Czech Branch of the House of Thurn und TaxisThe Czech branch of the Princely House of Thurn and Taxis is dynastic branch of a German family that was a key player in the postal services in Europe in the 16th century and is well known as owners of breweries and builders of countless castles.-History:...
. It remains with the family to this day with his great-grandson
Prince Carlo Alessandro della Torre e TassoCarlo Alessandro, Prince della Torre e Tasso, 3rd Duke of Castel Duino, full Italian name: Carlo Alessandro, Principe della Torre e Tasso, Duca di Castel Duino is the current head of the Castel Duino branch of the House of Thurn and Taxis.-Family:Carlo Alessandro is the only child of Raymundo,...
,
Duke of Castel DuinoThe Dukes of Castel Duino are a noble family in Italy descending from the Czech Branch of the House of Thurn und Taxis. The title was created along with the additional title of Prince della Torre e Tasso in 1923 for Prince Alexander von Thurn und Taxis following his naturalisation in Italy...
the current owner. The castle has been opened to the public as a museum and park.
Since 1982 the town has been home to the
United World College of the AdriaticUnited World College of the Adriatic is a part of the United World Colleges. The school, which is in the village of Duino, near Trieste and Monfalcone in North-Eastern Italy, was founded in 1982, by the Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with the support of the Italian Government...
, a no-fee international school attended by students from 80 different countries.
External links