Spiridione Gopcevich

Spiridione Gopcevich (Serbian: Spiridon Gopčević, Cyrillic: Спиридон Гопчевић, Trieste, 1815-1861) was an ethnic-Serb shipowner from Trieste.

His father, Christopher Gopcevich, born in 1765, originated from the village of Podi near Herceg Novi, in Boka Kotorska (modern Montenegro), which had been annexed by the Austrian Empire in 1815 from the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro. The mother was Sofia Kvekich (Herceg Novi 1792 - Trieste 1854).

Spiridione was sent to Vienna to be educated. He spoke fluently thirteen languages and become a great shipowner in Trieste, then Austrian Littoral (modern Italy) and in Odessa, Imperial Russia. His ships traded on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea routes, and he was in contact with the British Prime Minister William Gladstone and Giuseppe Garibaldi. A ruinous crash suffered after reckless speculation during the Crimean War (1853-1856), prompted him to suicide in 1861.

His son Spiridon Gopčević (1855 Trieste-Vienna 1936) was a political journalist and world-renowned astronomer.

Another illustrious descendant of the family was Marino Gopcevich (1899-1965), a neurologist, who in 1945 founded the Neurological division of the Hospital in Trieste.

Gopcevich built the Palazzo Gopcevich in Trieste.

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