Since 2024 URSUS has no longer been afloat: the pontoon was moved ashore to the Cartubi area, where conservation work has been carried out. Its future remains open, and discussion continues over a new setting that can preserve both its historical value and, as far as possible, its relationship with the sea.
ursus (lat.)
transcr. of the Indo-European-Sanskrit term rksa (“bear”)
“rising [r] to show its power [ksa]”
URSUS has been part of Trieste’s industrial history for more than a century. The pontoon was laid down in 1913 and launched in January 1914, when the city was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The First World War interrupted its completion, and the great crane was not finished until 1931.
From then on, URSUS became one of the most recognizable machines in the port of Trieste. With its huge lattice structure, capable of lifting loads of up to 150 tonnes, it took part for decades in the construction and fitting-out of the great ships built in the Upper Adriatic. It lived through wars, political changes and reconstruction, continuing to work until 1994. In 2011 it was officially declared a cultural heritage asset, as a remarkable example of Trieste’s industrial archaeology.
That same year, URSUS also entered local legend. On 2 March 2011, during an exceptional Bora with gusts exceeding 170 km/h, it broke its moorings and began drifting out to sea. Two tugboats eventually managed to reach it and bring it back under control. For a few hours, the old giant of the port seemed to have set off on a journey of its own.
My paper model retains a limited degree of movement in the crane, but it was conceived above all as a small sculpture. Its finely cut openwork structure is deliberately free of graphic textures: the white surface allows voids, thicknesses and shadows to emphasize the three-dimensional quality of the construction. A steel giant translated, almost by contrast, into the lightness of paper.
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