The Caserma Grande of Trieste, located in the area today between via Carducci (formerly via del Torrente), via Fabio Severo, via Coroneo and via Crociera, was for over a century one of the main military structures of the city.
Origins: the Conservatorio Generale dei Poveri
With the demographic growth following the free port of 1719, the care of the sick — entrusted to modest hospitals managed by religious orders — quickly became inadequate. With the patent of September 1, 1769, Empress Maria Theresa decreed the construction of the Conservatorio Generale dei Poveri (General Conservatory of the Poor), popularly known as the Hospital of Maria Theresa.
The project was entrusted to the Belgian engineer Jean Baptiste Hovyn, although the drawings were made by Antonio Montanelli. The estimated cost was 70,000 florins, widely exceeded according to Kandler. Construction began in June 1770 and the Conservatory entered service in 1772.
The two-story building had a quadrangular form with a large porticoed courtyard featuring four natural wells, a cistern, and a fountain. The structure had capacity for 100 foundlings, 40 sick, and 100 poor. Behind the building was a botanical garden for growing medicinal herbs and a vegetable garden that provided daily produce to the kitchens.
Conversion into barracks (1785)
In April 1784, during his visit to Trieste, Emperor Giuseppe II — accompanied by Dr. Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla, his personal physician — inspected the Conservatory and decided to convert it into barracks. Patients were transferred to buildings on via del Castello and via dell'Ospitale (the former Episcopate), where they remained until 1841, when the Ospedale Maggiore opened.
In 1785, conversion works began: the adjacent botanical garden was leveled to create the parade ground. During excavations, two funerary stones and other Roman artifacts were found, now preserved in the Lapidary.
The First Military Hospital (1786–1789)
Between 1786 and 1789, the First Military Hospital was built adjacent to the barracks, with 126 beds in four large wards. It remained active until 1868, when it was transferred to a new Military Hospital on via Fabio Severo. That building became the Infantry Cadet School (K.u.K. Infanterie Cadettenschule) from 1875.
Expansions
In 1820, the Municipality donated adjacent land, greatly extending the parade ground, which hosted military drills, chariot races, equestrian shows, athletics, circuses and aerostatic ascents. Behind the barracks, a space called "Piazza del Fieno" (Hay Square) was used mainly for the trade in straw and hay. In 1883, with the reorganization of the Austro-Hungarian army, the barracks became the permanent home of the 97th Infantry Regiment.
The military band and religious ceremonies
With the construction of the Church of San Vincenzo de' Paoli (begun in 1890), the garrison marched there in column for every religious feast day. At the head of the long column marched the military band, whose drum was strapped to the back of a little white horse positioned in front of the church portal to let the soldiers through.
The martyrdom of Guglielmo Oberdan
On December 20, 1882, the Triestine patriot Guglielmo Oberdan was hanged in the barracks courtyard. After Trieste's annexation to Italy, the barracks was named after Oberdan in 1918.
Decline and demolition
On May 15, 1927, the last soldiers left the barracks — an armed guard watching over Oberdan's cell. They were replaced by Municipal Police officers, as the Municipality had committed to preserving the cell. Demolitions began in 1927, giving way to today's Piazza Guglielmo Oberdan.