The old lighthouse of Trieste is situated on the Molo Fratelli Bandiera, 9 (on the pre-existing Molo Teresiano / Molo Santa Teresa), an area where maritime signals had existed in Roman times. This is the only Austrian-designed lighthouse in Italy.

The Scoglio dello Zucco (Zucco), later called the "Fanale" or lighthouse, was an islet 110 geometric paces in circumference that was built on sandstone (not the common limestone of the coast), and had a circular shape, later it became a pyriform with the stalk to the east, and a bastion of four faces protecting the north-west. The Roman Pharos is said to have been built on an octangular base. About 1666 the chapel of San Niccolò was built on it by Count Carlo della Torre Popaita, Captain of Trieste, after escaping a storm. It had lights  lights showing from the chapel tower. It was washed away by the sea in 1718.

A lighthouse station was established on this islet from 1769 to 1833, ordered by Empress Maria Theresa and purported to have taken 25 years to build (1744-69). The lighthouse that replaced it was ordered by Carlo Zinzendorf, and designed by the architect Matteo Pertsch. It was constructed 1830 and went into active use in 1833, only to have its main functions superceded in 1927 by the monumental Faro della Vittoria.