The castle that gave both Gorizia and Nova Gorica their names sits on a low hill in the centre of Italian Gorizia, a fifteen-minute walk from Trg Evrope. The earliest castle here dates from the 11th century, when it was the seat of the Counts of Gorizia; the present walls and bastions are mostly 15th- and 16th-century. The Italian state restored it after wartime damage and it now contains a small museum of medieval Gorizia.
The point of climbing up here is the view: the entire bowl of the two cities is spread out below, with the Slovene grid of Nova Gorica to the east and the Italian streetscape of old Gorizia in the foreground. The castle also gives you a reason to wander Italian Gorizia's old town on the way back down — quietly atmospheric, full of Habsburg-era cafés and palazzi.