This statue of James Joyce is standing next to the canal in Trieste.
There is a James Joyce Museum in Trieste, and their website explains his ties to the city.
"Joyce left Dublin, that he found intolerably suffocating and provincial, with Nora Barnacle, whom he had met only a few months earlier and who would become his wife in 1931.
The two moved to Trieste after learning that a teaching post was available at the Berlitz School, but when they arrived the position was not available. However Joyce was sent to the Pula branch that had opened in the Istrian Peninsula, but in March 1905 all foreigners were expelled for fears of counterespionage. Joyce returned to Trieste, where he was hired by the Berlitz School and where he entered one of the richest phases of his literary production.
While in Trieste Joyce completed Dubliners, a collection of short stories; he published a second version of his poems collection Chamber Music, he wrote the autobiographical poem in prose Giacomo Joyce and he started to work on a theater play, Exiles, and on the novel Ulysses that would bring him international fame."
"The statue is the work of the Trieste-born sculptor Nino Spagnoli and it was positioned on the bridge in 2004 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Joyce’s arrival in Trieste."
Source and more information on his relationship to the city can be found here: (
visit link)
The plaque next to the statue is in Italian. It reads:
"... la mia anima è a Trieste...
(Lettera a Nora, 27 ottobre 1909)
James Joyce
1882 - 1941
Fondazione CRTrieste
AIAT - Agenzia di informazione e di accoglienza turistica Trieste
Commune di Trieste - Assessorato alla Cultura
opera di Nino Spagnoli 2004"
This translates to:
"my soul is in Trieste...
(letter to Nora, October 27, 1909)
James Joyce
1882 - 1941
CRTrieste Foundation
Trieste Tourist Information and Hospitality Agency Foundation
Municipality of Trieste - Department of Culture
work by Nino Spagnoli 2004"