| ISTRIAN SIGHTS
In this feature, we will reveal to you some of the sights of one of Croatia's very special regions, Istria, that, besides its splendid coastline, can boast of having a green inland with Medieval hilltop towns.
Istria is Croatia's largest peninsula and a very special region. Besides its splendid coastline, it can boast of having a green inland with hilltop Medieval towns. The local churches contain valuable frescoes of old masters, while rural estates offer dishes prepared according to ancient recipes and excellent wines. Some of Istria's sights will be revealed to you in our November feature.
Hum
With its some twenty inhabitants, Hum is known as the smallest town in the world. Legend has it that giants who built other larger towns in the Mirna River Valley built Hum from the remaining stone. The town is surrounded by fortress walls, while the well-maintained town center consists of only two small streets with a few houses, a parish church from 1802, Romanesque Sv. Jeronim church from the 12th century, typical Istrian restaurant and a museum. Hum acquired its today's form in the 11th century. From that time, almost nothing was built outside the fortress walls, meaning that the town remained within the limits defined in the early Middle Ages.
Sv. Jeronim church has old frescoes that are unique works of art in all of Istria. Painted in the spirit of the Romanesque West, nevertheless, under the strong influence of Byzantine art, they bear witness to the encounter of the two mentioned cultures. Some forty Glagolitic inscriptions, dating back to the period from the 12th to the 15th century, are chiseled on the painted walls of this church. Humska biska, a homemade brandy, is prepared here according to a recipe that is over two thousand years old, a part of the magic of the old Celts who used to live in the area. The biska is medicinal, while the way it is made, inherited from Hum's late parish priest, a well-known herbalist, is only known in the konoba (traditional restaurant) in Hum.
Aleja glagoljasa (Glagolitic Alley)
The Alley is a seven kilometer long memorial to the old Croatian Glagolitic script. Croatians used it for over a thousand years, while it was used in this area even at the beginning of the 20th century. The Alley was built recently along the road between Roc and Hum. It consists of 11 monuments dedicated to the development and preservation of this script.
The Alley starts at Roc and ends in front of Hum's town gates. Among those who the monuments are dedicated to are Sv. Ciril and Metod, who spread literacy among the Slavs, as well as Kliment Ohridski, their most deserving student and follower, the founder of the first Slav university. The monuments are also dedicated to the oldest and best known Croatian Glagolitic inscriptions chiseled in stone, written documents and Croatian printed documents.
Roc
This town has been inhabited since prehistoric times. In the Middle Ages, it was a border fortress, which can be seen from its well-preserved fortress walls and five towers surrounding it. In the past, a center of Glagolitic literature and printing, Roc was the place where preparations for the first Croatian printed book - Missal from 1483 - were made.
It is protected as a cultural monument, while it preserves the heritage of the past such as a collection of Roman stone monuments, a Venician cannon, Glagolitic inscriptions chiseled in stone slabs, Medieval books written in Glagolitic script, housing architecture from the 16th century and three churches - Sv. Bartol from 1492, Sv. Rok with frescoes from the 14th and 15th centuries and Sv. Antun Opat from the 12th century with one of the most famous Glagolitic inscriptions - Roc's Glagolitic alphabetary.
Dance of the Dead
One of Istria's best known cultural and artistic monuments are frescoes in the church Sv. Marija na Skrilinah, painted by master Vincent from Kastav with his students in 1474. This cycle of Late Gothic frescoes is divided into 46 fields, in which sequences from the life of the Mother of God and Christ are presented in a narrative way, similar to a comic strip. The largest areas are taken by the composition Poklonstvo kraljeva (Paying Homage to Kings), which presents a procession of three kings accompanied by Medieval escorts and an allegoric theme Ples mrtvaca (Dance of the Dead).
All frescoes depict life of the time and Istrian landscapes, as well as the idea of the unpredictable destiny and death that equalizes all social classes. Sv. Marija church lies close to Beram, a picturesque Medieval town built on the place of a prehistoric Illyrian castle. In the field close to Beram, an Illyrian necropolis was uncovered.
Astronomical Observatory in Visnjan
The astronomical observatory is part of the picturesque town of Visnjan. In 1999, it was fifth in the world according to the number of discovered objects in the Solar System. In front of it were only American military and NASA's observatories. With Visnjan's telescope, over 1400 small planets were discovered.
Besides astronomy, students and amateurs organize educational projects for the young who have a creative approach to the methodology of teaching natural sciences. Currently, a new observatory is being built some 3 km from Visnjan, where a special telescope for tracking potentially dangerous objects for Earth, one of the 10 largest of its kind in the world, will be located.
Destinations in our offer in Istria's inland are traditional rural estates where you can capture a glimpse of authentic life in this region and can also be the starting point for recommended itineraries. |
