Third stage

3

Stage No.

33.1

KM

LINK

Starting Point

Description

From the upper exit of the park, you reach the Miramare railway station and climb a staircase to reach Via Plinio, where you turn left (from here, another staircase leads to the HIGH VARIANT). Continue straight ahead and, after passing a crossroads, continue along the road beside the railway line, passing stately villas and terraces planted with vines or olive trees. Leave the small station of Santa Croce to reach the main road that climbs to the village of Santa Croce/Križ. Follow it for a hundred meters and turn left onto a track that leads to some aqueduct buildings and then follow the railway line. You are now in the Karst, an area famous for its surface and underground phenomena caused by water and limestone rocks. This open road in the white limestone is the Strada della Salvia (Sage Road), which leads through the Babiza Forest, artificially reforested with various species of pine trees and offering breathtaking views of the gulf, to Aurisina/Nabrežina, at the start of the Sentiero dei pescatori (Fishermen’s Trail). The HIGH VARIANT, if passable due to long road works, leads to the same point, but reaches the Karst plateau via the terraces clinging to the mountain of the famous Contovello/Kontovel wine, through the Marian temple of Monte Grisa, then crossing the pine forests of Prosecco/ Prosek and Santa Croce, touching the Slataper Lookout and the Liburnia Tower. Leaving the Fishermen’s Trail that descends to the sea, continue along the karstic scree and deposits of old quarries that are undergoing natural reforestation to reach the Weiss Lookout, the Coastal Road, and Sistiana, where you take the spectacular Rilke Trail in the Duino Cliffs Regional Nature Reserve. From the Castle of Duino, home to the princes Torre and Tasso, cross the holm oak forest of Bosco Cernizza and follow the paths of the Bratina promontory to reach the springs of the Timavo River, the karst river par excellence, which flows here after an underground journey of about 70 kilometers. Here you will find monuments commemorating the battles of the Great War and the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, built on the remains of an early Christian place of worship, which is regularly flooded when the river rises. From here, you continue climbing the surrounding karst hills along paths and dirt roads, then descend to the Sablici marsh and continue halfway up the hillside, skirting the Great War Theme Park with the important restoration of the Joffre Trench (option to take the HIGH VARIANT to the Rocca di Monfalcone) until you reach the large town of Monfalcone, the economic capital of the historic Bisiacaria area, famous for its shipyards.

WHAT TO SEE

Nature

Duino Cliffs Regional Nature Reserve LINK

Villaggio del Pescatore Dinosaur Geosite

Timavo River Springs Geosite

Sablici Marsh

Religion

Church of St. Jerome, Contovello/Kontovel

National Shrine to Mary Mother and Queen of Monte Grisa, Prosecco/Prosek LINK

Church of St. Nazarius, Prosecco/Prosek

Church of Santa Maria della Salvia, Prosecco/Prosek

Church of San Rocco, Santa Croce/Križ

Church of the Invention of the Holy Cross, Santa Croce/Križ

Church of San Giovanni Battista or San Giovanni in Tuba, San Giovanni di Duino/Štivan

Archpriest’s Cathedral of Sant’Ambrogio, Monfalcone LINK

Punto di Partenza

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