{"id":100427,"date":"2026-07-23T21:39:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T21:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.s1trail.com\/costa-dei-barbari\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T13:16:01","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T13:16:01","slug":"costa-dei-barbari","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.s1trail.com\/en\/costa-dei-barbari\/","title":{"rendered":"Costa dei Barbari"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE AREA<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Costa dei Barbari<\/h1>\n\n\n

A kilometre of wild coast without a single beach club, set among the white cliffs of the Karst.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Costa dei Barbari<\/strong> (Slovene: Botanjek<\/strong>) is a wild stretch of Karst coastline about a kilometre long, in the Municipality of Duino Aurisina\/Devin Nabre\u017eina, wedged between PortoPiccolo\/Sistiana<\/strong> at one end and the Residence Europa (Marina di Aurisina) at the other \u2014 about 17 km from Trieste. There are no beach clubs, and it can only be reached on foot along paths, with a steep final descent to the sea between white cliffs and Mediterranean vegetation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is part of the same arc of coastline as the Duino Cliffs Regional Nature Reserve<\/strong> (see the dedicated page Duino and the Sentiero Rilke<\/a> for the other end of the reserve, to the north-west): the Costa dei Barbari is its south-eastern tip, the one closest to PortoPiccolo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to see and why it\u2019s special<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A coast with no beach clubs.<\/strong> Unlike Sistiana Bay (a beach with facilities, see the dedicated page PortoPiccolo and Sistiana Bay<\/a>), the Costa dei Barbari is a free public beach along its entire length: no parasols for hire, no beach bars. Pale pebbles, water shading from turquoise to deep blue, hidden coves separated by spurs of rock, and an open view over the Gulf of Trieste\/Tr\u017ea\u0161ki zaliv. Nearby, but outside the stretch covered by the race, there are other unofficial bathing coves along the same wild coast \u2014 a network of inlets that the people of Trieste have been coming to for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A coast that is loved and championed.<\/strong> The “Spiaggia e Costa dei Barbari a Sistiana” stretch has been nominated in several editions of the FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano, the Italian National Trust) \u201cLuoghi del Cuore\u201d (Places of the Heart) campaign (2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) \u2014 a sign of how much the local community cares about this piece of coast. The origin of the stretch\u2019s name remains uncertain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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