The region of Istria is a miniature, heart-shaped world and the largest peninsula on the Adriatic coast, just below the Alps. It is divided in two parts by the 45th parallel, thus emphasizing its idyllic geographical position, with perfectly arranged seasons, springs of lush greenery, colourful autumns, pleasant summers and mild winters...

On this very area three European civilizations met throughout history: the Roman, the Slavic and the German. And the entire European history permeated through the Istrian Peninsula. Already in the 3rd century B.C. the Romans named the native population of the Peninsula as Histri, and in the 2nd century B.C. they conquered them. Then six centuries of of Roman rulership followed, barbarian tribes, the Empire of Byzantium, Charlemagne's Franks, German-Roman ruler Otto, the Aquileian Church Oligarchy, half a milennium of the Republic of Venice, Austrian counts, Napoleaon, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italian reign, Yugoslavia... today Istria is the westernmost region of the Republic of Croatia.

Here seven millennia of history can be touched, smelled and absorbed. Istria is a blackboard of history: prehistoric hill-forts, Roman amphitheaters and triumphal arches, early Christian churches, Byzantine mosaics, Romanesque basilicas, medieval towns on almost every hilltop, Renaissance frescoes, castles, towers and town walls, magnificent architectural decorations, Gothic cathedrals, Baroque palaces, Austro-Hungarian fortifications....

The Castles

This castle was also the center of the Habsburg rulership in Istria. They had inherited it from the Counts of Gorizia, and then leased it to different noble familes. An increasing amount of obligations and tributes for the peasants led to the great Peasant's Revolt, where around 2000 rebels took part.

In the 10th and 11th century the castle was a small fortress, but the appearance of fire-arms and new warfare called for constant alterations and reconstructions until the 18th century. It was possible to reach the castle only by a drawbridge over a moat which was filled up in the 19th century.

[2] More recently, the castle of Pazin inspired Jules Verne, the famous French science-fiction novelist. The main character of his novel Mathias Sandorf flees from the dungeon of the castle where he was imprisoned by descending into the Pazin cave and manages to reach Lim Bay by passing through the underground labirynth of the River Pazinčica.

Today the castle is the seat of the Etnographic Museum of Istria as well as Town Museum.

The Grimani Castle is located in Svetvinčenat (Savicenti), a small town nearPula (Pola) which according to the experts is the most beautiful example of urban planning in Croatia. Besides that, one of the most significant examples on the entire territory that was once held by the Republic of Venice. When Pietro Morosini, who later became the doge of Venice, obtained an estate in Istria, he wanted to derive material profit from it and so he decided to make a settlement on his fief. Thus emerged the symmetrical rectangular square with rows of Renaissance houses, planned, uniform, built in series, which is a proof that this is a town that did not emerge spontaneously, but intentionally, with a clear purpose of vision, and that some architect must have participated in its planning. An assumption which still need to be proved is that around 1490 the circle around the most eminent architect of the early Reanaissance Venice Mauro Cordusia, or even he himself projected Svetvinčenat and its immaculate urban order.

This town is geometrically planned in its Renaissance projection: assembled around the main square there are the secular administration, the church authorities and the communal administration. This is also the location of the famous Grimani castle which is a pure lexicon of morphology and almost a kind of reference book on fortifications, and the fact of being so well preserved points to the symmetrical ground plan with two circular and two rectangular towers.

The Castle dates form the 13th century, and was owned first by the Bishops and then by the Castropola family from Pula. In the second half of the 15th century it became the property of the Venetian Morosini family which enlarged the medieval tower. The new owner the Venetian patrician family Grimani di San Luca reconstructed it and made alterations according to the design of the Venetian architects Scamozzi and Campagna.

Today the castle is a quadrangular fortification with corner towers. One of the towers was used as a palace with master chambers and residence of the captain. There is a large inner courtyyard and balcony along the walls from which guards watched through the loopholes. On the gate, apart from the drawbridge, there was a large portcullis. Above the castle's entrance there is the coat of arms of the Grimani family as well as the coat of arms of the castle which is also today's Svetvinčenat's coat of arms. On the eastern side of the castle there is the Parish Church of the Annunciation with a trefoil facade and on the other side the town loggia dating from the 15th-16th century.

The castle of Bale (Valle): In the 15th century the Soardo family commissioned the building of a residential palace in the Venetian Gothic style between the two already existing towers. The facade is articulated by windows mullioned in four lights on two floors, and at the foot of one of the towers is the semicircular entrance to the town. In the [3] 17th century the castle became property of the Bembo family by marriage, and remained so until the 20th century. One of the notable members of the family very popular amongst the townpeople was Tommaso Bembo, mayor of Valle from 1849 until 1891. In the old town there are numerous intertwined paved streets which remind us of the liveliness of the little town centuries ago.

The Pietrapilosa [Pietrapelosa] castle was first mentioned in 1102 in a written document in which Henry of Bavaria donates it to Ulrich I, the patriarch of Aquileia. The castle is situated in one of the most picturesque Istrian landscapes: on a cliff near the Bračana River, which flows into the river Mirna further ahead. The name of the castle literally means "hairy stone" probably due to the vegetation surrounding the rocks where it stands.

The rulers of Pietrapilosa played important political roles in those days, and that they were inclined to being "naughty" is substantiated by the sketch on the life of this castle in which we find out how Katzman and Henry de Pietrapilosa murdered Bianchino da Momian, when the victim's family caught Henry "they undertook to chop his head off!"

Nor was treason anything unfamiliar in the history of the "hairy stone". Thus in 1287 when the Patriarch of Aquileia started war against Venice ( we must keep in mind that during all that time it is him who was the feudal lord of the fief, and he rented it to the lease-holders), Vikard handed it over to Grožnjan (the Grožnjan castle was at the time still under the mnagement of Pietrapilosa) and for this act he was sentenced to exile. However, since nobody profits from exiles, the penalty sentence was changed to a fine, so that the 300 Aquileian marks which he did not have to pay for the fine were compensated by a concession of one of his smaller castles, of which there is no trace today.

After the purchase of the Grožnjan castle in 1358, Venice occupied Pietrapilosa in 1411, and sold it to Nicolò Gravisi of Pirano, who from then on was obliged to send a candle weighing 10 libras each year to the Basilika of Saint Mark in Venice.

Hungary and Venice "tangled" over the border held by Pietrapilosa, but the historical developments pushed Pietrapilosa into the background and it lasted until 1625 when a fire broke out. The flames extinguished the castle together with the Saint Magdalene's Chapel from the 13th century which was integral part of it.The castle, therefore, turned into an ordinary heap of stones, overgrown in thickets and underbrush, dead...

The truth is that its spirit is still alive, its walls are loquacious (one has only just to listen).... It stands proudly, on a high cliff as a witness of its own turbulent time, of life and death, of the eternal struggle between eros and thanatos.

[4] The setting of the the castle of Momjan (Momiano) is perfect for a film by James Ivory: it stands in a valley filled with vineyards, corn and sunflowers dancing in the wind along the little stream Argilla. The castle seems to be the guardian of the valley and the people who live nearby in the little lilliputian villages spread here and there on the surrounding hills- Monticello, Montepiccolo, Montegrande...The colours of the castle change during the day as well as during the different seasons: a sunset near the castle is an experience that a romantic soul cannot simply miss!

Its history began before its actual physical appearance, when the Orlamunde family donated the settlement of Mammilanum (Momjan) to the Church of Aquileia. The castle itself is mentioned for the first time in 1234 with the appearance of its owner Dominus Wosalcus de Mimilano (or Utshalcuhus de Duino, a descendant of the Duino stem of counts directly related to the Habsburg lineage) and until its ruin in 1778 played a very important political role on the Istrian territory. It is interesting that there is no mention of the castle in the literature, aldough it figures among the most significant monument not only for Istria and Croatia, but for Euope as well.

An attractiveness that maks it so exceptional is the fact that in spite of the actual antiquity of the castle, it is still considerably well preseved, aldough surrounded by an Amazonian-like vegetation.

The main tower is almost all there, the town walls are almost completely preserved, the ground plan of the interior arrangement of the space is apparent, a beautiful Romanesque portal shaped like a sickle is preserved, and there are also available records on the tenanants of the castle. On the basis of an inspection report to the castle by the Lord Mayor of Buje, sent by assignment by Venice in 1778, we know exactly where the church was located, and to this very day, next to the main tower there are the columns of the stone bridge that spanned the dale over a true jungle that encircles the castle crating a climate which could probably only be found in the tropics.

Historical records tells us that all the enemies of the Momjan landlords from Wosalcus, through Vicarda de Mamilanis, to Bianchini, killed in 1274 and Conona who was mentioned a year later in 1275 and alla the way up to Count Rota, the last owner of the castle disappeared. After the Treaty of Madrid was signed between Venice and the Habsburgs in 1617, the significance of the castle as a defensive fortress diminished.

The Momjan castle has remained preserved because of its extraordinary position, completely out of reach of besieging cannon balls. And it is indeed a pity that it slowly, devoured by the tooth of time goes to ruin and ebbs, not seen by anyone, while all the conditions for its revival are present. The Momjan beauty, like any other fairy tale maiden under the magic spell seems to be waiting for the awakening kiss and a new breath of life!

The castle of Dvigrad-Duecastelli was built in antique times for the purpose of defence of the northerm and eastern agricultural stretches of land around Pula, and became the site of this medieval settlement.It is located in the armpit of the long tectonic incision known as Limska Draga. The fortress facing north was called Kastel-Parentin and was [5] abandoned after a short period, while the southern Montecastello was up to the moment of the town's death called Dvigrad or Duecastelli.

After the plague in 1631 the remaining inhabitants founded the nearby settlement called Kanfanar. A point of interest is that its ruins preserve the appearance from the time when the settlement was devastated, nemely there were no subsequent reconstructions.

The valley of the river Raša on the south-east of Istria still preserves the ruins of the ancient medieval castles which form a sort of crown to the beautiful scenary of the valley. These are spread here and there on the hills and rocky peaks reminding us of the tough feudal period which had lasted in this area for ten centuries.

With the beginning of the feudalism in the IX century, after a permanenece under the domain of the Dukes of Carintia, Istria passed under the dependancy of of the Emperor and the territory called "marca" was entrusted to a marquise or "margravio" with the task to defend this border territory.

In the middle of the XI century the majority of the fortifications had already been built, some of them on the foundations of the ancient roman fortifications. The Carintian marquise Ulrich I or Voldarico from the Weimer-Orlamunde dynasty received as a gift various localities in the Raša Valley, directly from the king Henry IV in the 1064, and it was him who with most of probability costructed the main part of this belt of fortifications.

The castles, which represented the defence system of this vast area for about six centuries are situated in Lupoglav (Lupogliano), Boljun (Bogliuno), Vranja (Vragna), Kožljak (Cosliacco), Kršan (Chersano), Letaj (Lettai), Gradinje (Gradigne), Paz (Passo), Čepić (Felicia), Posert (S. Martino), and Belaj (Belai). Some of them had also a smaller defence system called "battifredo".

In the 1102 the whole area was subjected to the control of the Church of Aquileia, aldough being a part of the empire, and the patriarch enfeoffed these localities to their vassals since the Church was not able to manage the earthly goods. Afterwords, with the decay of the political authority of Aquileia, these small properties were given to the Counts of Gorizia in a vassal type of dominium and they had full sovranity over them. With the growth of the County of Pazin-Pisino, the fiefs passed many times from the patriarcan domain to that of the counts'. There were continuous little wars which caused considerable damage and the loss of the population.

[6] After the 1374 the County of Pazin passed under the domain of the Dukes of Austria and the castle owner of the Raša valley formed their private lordships becoming austrian subjects, administratively separated from the County and only some time later they were dependant on Pazin for the criminal acts. The fiefs obtained from the Patriarch could be inheredited by the descendants of both sexex, they could be sold or leased. At the beginning of the second milennium, in the poor villages of the Raša valley, situated along the Roman roads, still lived the italic population which had survived the fall of the Roman Empire, the following distructions and slaughters, the barbaric invasions of the Longobards and other populations. The pressure on this people by other oriental races who were anxious to enter this territory was very strong.

In the XI and XII centuries, Slavic servants were called to the fiefs with the purpose to cultivate the fields and for home service. Afterwords, already in the middle of the XIV century, the region became inhabitated by rumenian populations, quite compactly, along the whole Raša valley.

Normally these castles were composed of a palace, a tower and the castle walls. Only much later in the XVI and XVII centuries, when they had lost thir military importance, they became more comfortable residences. The inhabitants of this castles led quite a hard life, the only pastime being hunting and tournaments. They were copact in its feudal cast - they spoke german dialects, but being illiterate, all the documents were written in Latin by the notary.

The lords of the fief was the absolute rulers of their lands and the only authority he recognised was that of the emperor or the archduke. They were very tough people both the former of German origins as well as the later of Italian origin. The poor peasants which were living in ignorance and hardship had to do all types of services and any request for betterment of their way of life were cut off severely, even with the use of the military force.

The most famous of the castles of tha Raša valley was the castle of Kožljak called Wachsenstein, from the name of his lord; it was Duinati's, Walsee's, Gutenecher's, Moyses's, Barbo's and Nicolich's fief.

The castle of Vragna on the border of a precipice was inexspugnable; it belonged to Ugone VI from Duino, to the Walsees, to the Wachsensteins and the Sincovich.

The best preserved is the castle of Kršan (Chersano) built more recently. It was built by the de Pisino family, sold to the Karscheiner until 1600, then it passed to the de Fin after being property of the commander di Rabatta from Senj for a short period.The next owners were Rampelli, Dell'Argento and Susani.

The castle of Belai, from the XVII century was built by Giorgio Barbo and his son Daniele as a replacement of the castle of Schabez which had been destroyed by the Venetians.

The castle of Letaj does not exist any more and was the one which was the longest under the rulership of the Patriarchs. It was fief of Doimo da S. Vito from Rijeka (Fiume) who sold it to Gutenecker from Kožljak. Then, by inheritance, it passed to Nicolich and then to the Greek Calotti.