The Freight Forwarder Paolo Preinitsch in the Port of Trieste

Around 1835, goods moving between Vienna and the port of Trieste still went by road, behind horses. The railway joining the two cities would not be finished until 1857. That traffic made Paolo Preinitsch's fortune. Born in Rosegg in Carinthia, he grew rich in Trieste as a freight forwarder, and here, in his seventies, he stands with folded arms and a tall black hat in front of his own business. Behind him carriages wait under a long tiled arcade, a boat works the water, and up on the hillside a line of horse teams hauls wagons uphill. The Belvedere reads those wagons as a nod to his trade and to the route itself. In Vienna, the old way south to the sea still carries the name Triester Strasse.