in May or June. For thousands of years, tuna have been caught by the locals in the upper Adriatic Sea, and thus also off Barcola. The swarms mostly consisted of little tunny (Euthynnus alletteratus). Increasing fishing prevented the migration of large schools of fish, often thousands of specimens, into the Gulf of Trieste. The last major local tuna catch was made in 1954 by the fishermen of Santa Croce, Contovello and Barcola. Fishing in Barcola was often practiced by Slovenes, who had settled on the shores of the Adriatic since the eighth century AD. They also used the Cupa, a simply hollowed-out tree trunk, until World War II. Only when storm-proof harbors could be built under Habsburg administration in the 19th century did fishing experience a strong boom and fishermen increasingly bought their own larger fishing boats. After the First World War, the Slovenian fishermen were systematically disadvantaged by the Italian fascist policy and the Slovenian fishing cooperatives were abolished. Expropriations were carried out and the influx of non-local fishermen from Naples was financially supported. Today there are only a few local professional fishermen left. On Viale Miramare 291 is the old fisherman's house, formerly a defensive structure of the city of Trieste, which is now used as a restaurant. Tourist resort At the end of the 19th century, in Barcola, between the cemetery and the San Bartolomeo church, at about Viale Miramare 48, the remains of a magnificent Roman villa by the sea, worthy of a prince, were discovered. This complex of buildings, now known as Villa Maritima of Barcola, with a first construction phase in the second half of the first century BC, stretched along the coast and was divided into terraces into a representation area in which luxury and power were displayed, a separate one living area, a garden, some facilities open to the sea and a thermal bath. Extensions and renovations can be dated to the second half of the first century AD. The works of art and mosaics found are now in the Lapidario Tergestino Museum in the San Giusto Castle, although comparable works can only be found in Rome and Campania. Fishing and the cultivation of wine and olives dominated the area until the 19th century. In 1826 Barcola had 418 inhabitants and people from Trieste increasingly began to build their summer residences in the settlement, including Archduke Maximilian's famous Miramare Castle, completed in