Santa Croce and Aurisina

Santa Croce in slovenian Crossis an ancient fishing village overlooking the Gulf of Trieste/Tržaški zaliv at about 200 metres above sea level, on the edge of the Trieste Karst, between Prosecco and Aurisina along Provincial Road No. 1 – the furthest district of Trieste from the city centre. The houses huddle around small internal courtyards sheltered from the bora wind, with decorated stone doorways and narrow alleys, often with no space for cars.

Aurisina in slovenian MarlstoneTogether with Duino, it is one of the two main locations in the Municipality of Duino Aurisina/Devin Nabrežina, also housing its municipal seat (in the hamlet of Aurisina Cave). Santa Croce, administratively, belongs to the Municipality of Trieste: they are two different municipalities, united on this page because they are contiguous on the same Karst edge and connected by the same path.

The two locations are united by Trail Tiziana Weiss, also known as Sage Trail — the same path that the longer races of the Corsa della Bora take towards the Costa dei Barbari (see the dedicated page Costa dei Barbari).

What to see and why it's special

Santa Croce, the village of the “tonnaroti”. Until a few generations ago, Santa Croce was a fishing village specialising in tuna fishing with a unique technique: lookouts, positioned high on the karst cliff, would await the arrival of tuna shoals, recognisable by the glint of their scales, and signal their approach to the fishermen. They would then quickly descend to the sea for the mattanza – a collective ritual involving men, women, and children, which was part of the village's subsistence. The practice remained active until the last century, but lives on in the Museum of Fishing on the Trieste Coast (Località S. Croce 61, opened on 25 September 2016), which collects tools, nets, and testimonies of the fishing practiced by the Slovenian inhabitants of the coast between Trieste and the mouth of the Timavo. Open at weekends from April to November, groups by appointment — opening times updated on the official museum website.

A vessel that arrived from Russia. Among the curiosities of the local fishing tradition is the plucked, a vessel hollowed out from a single trunk, of Russian origin, used until the mid-20th century in this very area (the last example, which was hauled ashore every day due to the scarcity of ports between Trieste and Duino, is now preserved in the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana).

The churches and the village festival. Santa Croce houses the Church of the Invention of the Holy Cross (16th-18th century) and the small Church of San Rocco (17th century). Every 29th June, the village celebrates Saints Peter and Paul with processions in traditional costume, and in the summer, the traditional football match is played, symbolically dividing the town into two halves.

The Liburnia Lookout. A short distance outside Aurisina, on the ridge between Monte Berciza and Monte Babiza (179 m), stands this cylindrical stone tower, built in 1854-56 to a design by the Viennese engineer Karl Junker — the same architect behind Miramare Castle. It began life as the water tower of the Aurisina aqueduct, built to keep up water pressure towards Trieste. Today it can't be visited — there's no climbing it — but it remains strikingly evocative: it seems to appear out of nowhere in the dense scrub around it, an unexpected silhouette for anyone walking through the area.

Aurisina, two thousand years of quarries. The quarries at Aurisina have been in continuous operation since the 1st century BC: the limestone quarried here — in its various types (Fiorita, Granitello, Lumachella, Chiara and others) — has been used to clad Aquileia and the Roman city of Tergeste, Theodoric’s Mausoleum in Ravenna (c. 520 AD), and, centuries later, during the Habsburg era, the Neue Burg of the Hofburg in Vienna (1881–1913) and the Vienna Parliament Building (1874–1883, over 6,000 tonnes of stone for columns and cladding). In Trieste, the same stone cladders Miramare Castle, the Verdi Theatre, the Revoltella Museum and the Central Station; more recently, it was also chosen for Milan Central Station (38,000 tonnes) and for Line 3 of the Milan underground. The Kamen Museum (Museum of Quarries and Stone of Aurisina, Aurisina Quarry 25) organises guided tours of the Roman Quarry and offers five numbered “Stone Trails” – routes that take you through quarries, Iron Age settlements, caves and kilns in the area — tours by appointment, information on the museum's official website.

A historic railway junction. Aurisina also hosts the Bivio d’Aurisina station, which has been in operation since 1860. Here, the line for Venice/Udine separates from the line for Villa Opicina towards Ljubljana – a detail for those travelling by train rather than a tourist attraction in itself.

How to get there

On the bus. Urban line 44 at Trieste Trasporti, from Piazza Oberdan to Duino, with stops at Santa Croce/Križ and Aurisina/Nabrežina (the same line mentioned on the page Duino and the Rilke Path).

By car. Provincial Road No. 1 (Trieste-Prosecco-Santa Croce-Aurisina-Duino); the municipality of Duino Aurisina is located right in Aurisina Cave.

On the train. Aurisina/Bivio d’Aurisina station, on the Trieste-Villa Opicina line and the Venice-Trieste line — particularly useful for those arriving from outside the region.

On foot, between the two villages. The Tiziana Weiss Path/Sage Trail connects Santa Croce to Aurisina along the Karst cliff edge – the same stretch that the long races of the Corsa della Bora traverse, in the opposite direction, towards the Barbari Coast before returning to PortoPiccolo.

Santa Croce and Aurisina in La Corsa della Bora

Santa Croce is an explicit waypoint – refreshment and time checkpoint – in 3 out of 7 races. Aurisina, on the other hand, is never mentioned as a stage in the “section by section” descriptions of the 7 races: the link is indirect, through the Tiziana Weiss Trail/Sage Trail which the races themselves follow immediately after Santa Croce, and which, according to an external source (GAL Carso), is the same trail that connects Santa Croce to Aurisina.

Santa Croce is a turning point in the race narrative. For S1 Borderless Trail, S1 TransKarst Ultra e S1 Bora Ultra, The published account describes it as the point where the sea is found again after the inland stretch of the Karst, with the village, once home to Slovenian fishermen who would climb up the Sage Path from the coast to spot tuna shoals. From here onwards, the route, for all three races, is the smoother section, useful for making up time at the checkpoints.

A race without Santa Croce formal. La S1 Trieste Ultra (61.2 km) there is no “Santa Croce” gate/refreshment point on the official table: the last checkpoint is Contovello (km 46.7), then the route continues towards the Weiss Trail and the Costa dei Barbari.

Aurisina is left out of the race report. None of the 7 pages name the hamlet of Aurisina as a stage on the route. The connection to the race is therefore geographical and indirect – the same path, adjacent municipality – not a declared passage: information worth keeping honest, rather than forcing a “the race passes here” that the sources do not confirm.

An experience to be had even outside of competition

A walk that combines sport and history: follow the Tiziana Weiss Path/Sage Path from Santa Croce to Aurisina (or vice versa), the same stretch of karst cliff edge crossed by the long races of the Corsa della Bora, with views of the gulf all the way. To be combined, on a weekend with more time available: the Fishing Museum in Santa Croce for the history of tuna fishermen, and a guided tour of the Roman Quarry with the Kamen Museum in Aurisina to understand where the white stone comes from that can be seen all along the route, from Duino to PortoPiccolo (see also Duino and the Rilke Path e PortoPiccolo and Sistiana BayThe best time remains the shoulder season, when the path is less crowded and the low-angled light enhances the view of the gulf.

For the final stretch to the sea, see also Costa dei Barbari; for the experience of an osmiza after the walk, see also The Karst HallowsFor a comprehensive overview of the trails of the Trieste Karst, all year round, also see Trail running in Trieste and the Karst.