Istrian history
To know about the Istrian peninsula background, you have to move to almost the beginning of the history of humankind just to times of the dawn of it. The first people inhabiting this region dwelled in most of the caves round the area, with high marked evidence presented in the location of the Karst. One of the latest prove of the human presence in the zone has been found in the pebbles of the Sandalj Cave somewhere around Pula where an upper left incisor tooth was found. This and several other evidences have made most of historians established the belief that the Istrian area was the exact place where the Homo Erectus began to settle the first bricks of the civilization in the old continent, and therefore, the whole world.
THE HISTRIAN AND THE LIBURNI
By the first millennium before Christ, in times of the Iron Age, the biggest amount of people living in the Istrian region were members of the Illyrian tribes. In the western and central of Istria, following down to the slopes of Učka, the population consisted on several members of the Histri, which was the origin of the name of the area. To the east of the Raša River following from what the Croatian coast is nowadays to the Krka River in Dalmatia lived the tribe close related to the Histri – the Liburni. In the present, this region of Istria is named Liburnia in honor of its first inhabitants; the zone is limited to the space that goes from Plomin to Rječina. Living in the west of the Istrian area there were the Lapodi, a Illyrian and Celtic tribe.
Most of Illyrian tribes from Istria kept in touch with the Greek culture several times, proved by some legends told in the region – such as the one about the Argonauts and the way Pula was founded.
There are several remnants of material culture date from the Illyan area in the Istrian regions; finding them in different places all over the area: one of these evidences are the presence of the Illyrian origin constructions which were built in several spots in the region. In order to avoid weaken structures, the Istrian of yesteryear, it is good to know that those Illyrian constructions using the dry-wall technique along with big stone blocks. Some of the toponyms present in the daily language by mentioning places such as gradina, grandinje, and kaštelir (coming from the Italian word castelliere). Once you checked all the terms and vocabulary used by divers in any given moment, you get to the conclusion that names with very few changes, started as part of the influence the Illyrian exerted in the area.
THE CELTS
The influence played by the Celts, in the formation of the Istian nation, began to be essential to Istria way back to the year 400 BC. The exodus movement came from the west going east. The domination of several European territories started with the northern part of the town; and it continued to the zone of Pannonia. Celts were also an unwanted presence in the USA at several cities of the country as well as in the whole world. The invasion of Istria perhaps it did not take place in a single period of time; several months and years passed by and the Celts kept conquering the mountainous regions inhabited by the Illyrian people. But this was not an aggressive conquer, Celts started to get the attention of the conquered tribes and, instead of inoculate you and your children, by forcing them; they started to be that essential part of the Histri culture.
ROMAN PERIOD
After, way after, the Celts invaded the area and Roma – Capital of the Empire that follow the Celts influence – and it can be said that the Roman were the biggest influence in the life aspects that come after the Celts’ period of time there.
The Romans began their spreading in the zone with the occupation of the Cysalpine Galia and the territory of Veneto, a region that was selected to raise the first base commanded by of the veteran Uncle. After, they shallow research with water, Romans took the right to move all over the area and start establish settlements along the whole territory and, also, began building structure in order to keep order and the respect of law such as the fort of Aquileia (Oglej) by the year 181 B.C.; the first structure using for the defense of the territory and the model to follow when invasions started to move to the east part of the region.
This construction was attacked by the Histri in order to avoid the domination of the Romans, a movement that was fruitless and the Istrian land was taken by the Latin people. Istrians and Romans acknowledged the importance of the construction of Aquileia considering the highest military and politically control center of the area; this acquired high significance when years later the Aquilean Patriarchs took control of the whole region for a long period of time – ending all domination of the area by the 16th century. But Aquileia was not the only well-organized town built during that period; even before the construction of this important city, other towns in the area were at the same level Aquileia reached later on. Most of the towns founded during the Roman domination of Istria are still standing and have kept (most of them) their foundation names – although some of them have changed obeying the linguistic rules of the inhabitants who followed as tenant of the land in the region, first the Romans and later on the Slavs. For instance, the former Istrian town of Plomona (from the latin Flanona) is known as Plomin nowadays; Labin changed its name to Albona; Pola is called Pula; Tergeste ended to be known as Trieste; Tarsatica is named Trsat now; the Histri’s capital town of Nesactium has morphed into Vizače.
But it was not a peaceful conquering of the Istrian region by the Romans; they found a lot of resistance from the Histri people. This war against the Istrian army took effect into two different stages; even though it did not take a long time, it was not an easy one. In 178 B.C., Romans were defeated by Epulon and his army; forcing the empire army to make a better plan in order to get control of the region. By 177, the Romans went back to the offensive attack and they began to take control of Istrians forts one by one. According to historian Livy, the decisive battle forced Epulon and his people fled the Romans; after that, the Imperial army decided to cut the water supply to the region. This shortage of the vital liquid diminished the Istrian army willingness and the Romans started to take control of the zone. Later on, success was on the Roman’s side, ended with the conquering of Nesactium which was totally disheveled. The series of defeats took its toll on the Istrian army, forcing Epulon and his army leaders committed suicide. After that, Istria went through a very successful period of prosperity while the zone was becoming more and more a Roman colony. Although the unrest of the Histri’s people never ended, with an uprising episode in 129 B.C., Romans kept control on the city with a high level of success and the control of the city and the region was totally under the Empire’s hand shortly after. Moving east, the Roman Empire continued its expansion along the adjacent territory of the Istrian region. In the year 50 B.C., Libumi was controlled by the Romans and according to historians it was the beginning of the Imperial control in the complete Istria as we know it nowadays. A huge number of inhabitants were expatriated and approximately 15000 Latins coming from Italy moved to Istria and settled there.
At the turn of the century, Octavian Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, established the frontier of the Empire from Rižana to the Raša River. By doing this, the Roman Empire added a large sector of the Istrian peninsula to the territory it controls; the region of Istria was then annexed to the northern Italic area of Venice which was called “Venetia et Histria”. Other areas from the Istria region, such as Eastern Istria (LIburnia), were also part of the Roman Empire but in the province of Dalmatia.
During the first colonization and Romanization of the region, there was a huge exodus of autochthonous people from the eastern and the western coast of Istria to the secure and secluded hilly sector of the zone where woods serve as a natural protection. Just as soon as this process concluded, the migration of people took the opposite direction – coming from the interior to the towns in the coast. The main reason for this return to the coastal areas, made by the then totally Romanized people, was the fertile land and the greater development of town in the coast of the peninsula.
After the Roman Empire lost all its power around 476, the region of Istria was controlled by the Goths at the very beginning (476 – 539), and then the Byzantium ruled the area. The Byzantine control period was effective until 788.
THE ARRIVAL OF THE SLAVS
The Istrian peninsula was not ready for a rest from invasions; the truly desired area was the objective of different groups of people or rulers all over its history. By the 6th and 7th century, the area was the object of the greed of the Slavs who penetrated the region during that time. In a missive wrote to the Salona’s bishop by Pope Gregory I in 600, he stated that the Slavs were moving forward to Italy through Istria. The colonization of the zone went into a large-scale mode just after 788, when the Frank State controlled Istria brought a huge deal of Slavs as their serfs. As simple as Istria was part of the Frank State, the encouragement of Slavs to move to the area from the Raša River to mountain Učka was highly promoted by the rulers of the time. This time period was characterized by a total Croanization of the Kvarner coast reaching the zone of Učka and it was extended to Labin. During this period of highly remarked Slavic colonization originates names of some places in the region such as the one from the Old Croatian fortified town of Gočan near Barban.
THE FRANK RULE
Due to the big number of confrontations between the new arriving people – serfs – and the disinherited Roman autochthonous population, forced the Frank Emperor Charles the Great to convoke an Assembly at the Rižana River in 804. By this Settlement, most of the towns in the area were granted self-government rights, but the lands occupied by the Slavs were not going to be returned. The colonization from the Slavs kept moving forward, and this was highly remarked through the fact that in the 11th century the immediate hinterlands of the towns were named by the Slavic denomination in official documentation and by the tongues of people living in the area; another prove of the Slavic domination was also provided by the official names given to the roads which went through these towns (via sclavoniva).
People descending from Romans or the Romanized peasants were established in some of the towns located in the southern and western Istria – such as Rovinj, Vodnjan, Bale, Galižan and Fažana. The remains of the land dedicated to the agriculture were completely ruled by the Slavs, or the previous Romanized sectors of the area were totally Slavenized during the colonization and the Slavs ruling period.
The Croatian state during the 10th century was such a huge region that, according to the words of Byzantine Emperor Constantin Porfirogenet, it reached up to the Raša River. It was also a very organized region, the Croats established municipal communities all over the area with their respective leaders under the figure of County Presidents.
OTHER RULERS
Since its condition of a margraviate, during the ruling of Frank vassals, at the very beginning Istria was part of the Aquileian mark with Furlania, under the dominance of the Bavarian dukedom. Several changes took place in the feudal rulers of the area, so Istria was given away from Bavaria to the dukedom of Koruška. Later on, in the 11th century, the region turned into a separate margraviate, and it became an inherited item to several members of German Emperors descendants.
During the 12th century, the Pazin County was given, by the Poreč bishops, as a independent unit to the county from Gorica as a fief. In the year 1209, the Aquileian Patriarch received the Istrian margraviate as a feud of the Aquileian Church straight from the German emperors. The region was under this condition until 1420, while the Pazin County was kept as a separate area.
This period of the Istrian history was marked by a relative peace environment, turning the Istrian coastal towns free from the Patriarchal control from the Aquileian church; these towns acquired this free of action thanks to the development of trade, but they still recognized the control of the Patriarch. Richness spread all over the place, also in the 12th century, due to the increase of craftsmanship and maritime trade; the increment of both activities turned the region into a feudal rule free area creating, thus, the town communes. During the Crusades, the Istrian towns were completely rich and independent; the richness and the independence of the region brought several conflicts with Venice. One of them took place in 1145 when the towns of Kopar, Izola, and Pula rose against Venice; these towns were defeated and they were forced to sign their capitulation and swear loyalty to the doge. A second event took place four years later when Pula resisted the Venice control once again, allying with the towns of Rovinj, Poreč and Umag; the rebellious towns were defeated one more time and a new peace and loyalty agreement favoring Venice was signed. Pula went into a new war in 1195 and it was defeated once again; this time, the Venetian government demanded the demolishing of all its walls. A new peace treaty was signed in 1243, forcing Pula to accept a Venetian as its leader and not to rebuild their walls unless the permission was granted in Venice.
As the Patriarch’s rule was fading out in the 13th century, most of the towns in the Istrian area considered Venice a less evil ruler so they started to surrender to the Venetians one by one. The first town to do it was Poreč in 1267; in 1269 it was Umag’s turn; Novigrad did the same in 1270; Sveti Lovreč follow the example in 1271; Motovun did the proper movement in 1278; Kopar surrendered in 1279; and by the year 1283, it was the time when Piran and Rovinj accepted Venice as their ruler. Venice started dominating the area gradually, in a process that turned it into the protector of some coastal towns as well as fighting some of them from time to time.
PERIOD UNDER VENICE AND THE HABSBURGS
As the Patriarch ruling was abolished by the 15th century, the areas of Istria, with the exception of the Pazin County and the Kvarner coast, went to be part of the Venetian government. On the other hand, the Habsburgs controlled the Pazin County and the eastern coast of Istria since the end of the 14th century. So when the Patriarch rule came to an end, the Istria peninsula was under the control of two different rulers: the Austro-German and the Venetian-Roman administrations.
The administrative center of the Venetian Istra was Kopar. It was ruled by two different figures, since Venice did not establish an unique ruler; there was the presence of a special captain with the military power in the rural part of Istria, based in Sveti Lovreč Pazenatiki. While in the border zone with the Austrian land, another military post was established there in 1394 located in the base of Rašpor; this post had to be moved to Buzet whem Venice lost control of the town of Rašpor in 1511.
The center of all activities of the Austro-German territory was located in the Pazin County. The ruling of the Habsburgs was not very strong, so the situation of the Croatian inhabitants of the region was more favorable than their counterpart in the Venetian part. One of the biggest influences exerted in the Pazin area was in the field of literature with a big impact made by the Glagolitic presence. A clear example of the Glagolitic influence is given in the Glagolitic inscription in Plomin, the Supetar’s fragment, the Grdoselki fragment, the presence of graffiti in Hum and, most of all, the Glagolitic alphabetic name register from Roč. An important item of the cultural history of Istria was the well-known “Istrian Razvod”; published in medieval times it is a legal document that explains in detail the demarcation of Istrian rural municipalities and feudal rulers. On its elaboration it was given plenty of time, the creation of the Razvod started in 1275 and it ended in 1395; the document was written in Croation, German, and Latin.
TURKISH INVASION
Nine times was the number of Turkish invasions on the Istrian region between 1470 and 1499; with each of them, the inhabitants of Istria went into large migrations to the Venetian or Austrian zones of the peninsula looking for protection. These invasions focused especially on those unprotected areas of Istria, outside of the town walls, such as Ćićarija, Roč, Hum, Draguć, among others. The last time the Turkish invaded the Istrian region was in 1511 when the Pazin County suffered severely from the Turkish’s rage, leaving the county completely destroyed.
Another element that damaged the area, along with the Turkish invasion, was the plague which attached the Istrian zone from the 13th to the 17th century: 12 times in the 14th century, 14 occasions in the 15th century, and 16 times during the 16th century. These repeated actions of the plague took its toll in the population; this quite decimated all people in the area, so it was easy to find entire zones completely desolated. Besides the Turkish Invasions and the Plague, other events in the history of Istria brought more devastation to the region; two of them were the war between Venice and Austria from 1508 to 1523 and the Fugitives’ war from 1615 to 1618. After all these events, the population of Istria was established in 51,692 people according to a Venice ordered census made at the end of 1649. The results of the census showed that the Venetian part of Istria had an amount of 49,332 people while the Pazin County reached a total of 2,360 people.
After all this devastation, the next step taken by Venice and the Pazin County was the repopulation of those desolated areas. They tried to attract people from the nearby settlements of Padua, Treviso, Furlania, and Karnia in order to populate the almost empty area of Pula.
However, the biggest amount of people returning to the Istria region came from the areas of Dalmatia, where the Istrian people sought for shelter when the Turkish Invasions started. Most of these people who returned to Istria from Dalmatia were Montenegrins, Arbanases, and Romanians. As time went by, the Arbanases assumed all the Croatian customs; the Montenegrins kept their beliefs, exclusively in Peroj. Meanwhile, Romanians kept their own mother tongue, but only limited to the areas of Sušnjevica and Žejane.
The need for new people was not limited to the Venetian part of the Istrian peninsula; the Pazin County was in such a need too. In 1532, the urge was so demanding that the Emperor Ferdinand I ordered his special commissioners to settle the empty areas with Bosnian refugees and fugitives.
The Turkish were defeated under Vienna in 1683 and all the migrations from Istria came to an end and so the colonization of the whole area finally ended.
ILLYRIN PROVINCES
In 1797, Italy was occupied by Napoleon’s army and it decided to sign a peace accord in Campoformio; one of the points decided in this accord was the giving of Venice and the Venetian part of Istria and Dalmatia in exchange for the Netherlands and Lombardia. Nevertheless, Austria did not annex the Venetian Istria initially; instead, it founded a special administration entity named “Istria Austro-Veneta” with legal base in Kopar. Later on, in a new war between France and Austria, Napoleon took back the Venetian Istria and turned it into a special district, together with Venice, Kvarner Islands, and Dalmatia, annexing all of them to the Kingdom of Italy. In 1809, the peace treaty in Vienna was signed, and with this agreement the entire Istrian region was added to the Napoleon’s Illyric provinces. The defeat of Napoleon in the “Battle of Nations”, close to Leipzig in 1813, gave Austria the chance to occupy Istria and then it formed a unique province with Trieste as its capital. The capital moved to Pazin in 1825, while Istria still remained an Austrian territorial unit.
ISTRIA UNDER THE AUSTRIAN RULE
Once the Austrians took control of the Istrian region, all French legislation and influence was eliminated. The Austrian Empire made several large changes in the constitution of the Istrian peninsula in the years 1860 and 1861. These constitutional reforms turned Istria into an Austrian province, under the title of margraviate, with certain administration decentralization and a parliament based in Poreč. By 1867, the governor’s office moved to the population of Trieste.
Austria decided to build its main naval arsenal in Pula in the year 1856; ten years later, this town turned into the capital port of the Austrian Empire Navy. This fact was a high contributor into the development of Pula. During a period of 50 years, the population of this port increased in approximately thirty-fold.
During the second part of the 19th century, and also in the period of the First World War, the movement for the national and political rights of the Croatian and the Slovenian inhabitants in comparison with their Italian counterpart. These events favored the Austrian government in order to establish the true control of German origin. Most of the Istrian Croatians were rural and, except for the clergy of Croatian origin, poorly educated. Most of the population in Istria were originally of Italian origin and it was favored by the parliament thanks to the electoral law.
The movement for the Croatian rights in Istria was leaded by Bishop Juraj Dobrila. His main demands were aimed to the activation of people in the national self-defense area, keeping the tradition, improving the economic and political environment for Croatians, the acceptance of new civilization and cultural achievements, and offering people a way to get out of poverty.
With these goals in mind, his first step to give the Croatian part of Istria a sense of belonging to the area was looking for the admission of Croatian as the official language together with Italian.
FIRST WORLD WAR
But all these movements for national fights were interrupted with the beginning of the First World War (1914). It was noticeable that the Kingdom of Italy wanted to annex as much of the Adriatic coast at any cost. Secret negotiations were made with the Entente and Central Powers for almost a year. In such negotiations, it was offered to the Kingdom of Italy regions such as South Tyrol, Istria with Trieste and Gorizia, and a part of Dalmatia if the Italian took part of the Allies.
In 1920, Yugoslavia ceded Istria to Italy with the signing of the Rapallo Agreement.
THE PERIOD OF FASCISM
The outbreak and control of Fascism in the Italian regimen made that all national and political expression favoring Croatians and Slovenians be eradicated almost immediately. Since Istria was now part of Italy, these demonstrations were halted at once. For instance, all Croatian schools, cultural institutions and associations were abolished. All Croatian names were Italianized. The usage of the Croatian language, even in family settings, was forbidden. These restrictions forced much of the population immigrating to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Before the Second World War, the numbers of Croats and Slovenes reached the amount of 70,000, all of them emigrated from the controlled regions in Italy; a migration movement which started with the first steps taken in the revolutionary actions in Istria in 1941.
SECOND WORLD WAR
After the end of the Second World War, with the capitulation of Italy on September 8th, 1943, the uprising of a nationality nature took control in the whole region of Istria. All the fascist authorities were expelled, the Italian army and police formations were disarmed, and most of Istria was liberated, except Pula, Vodnjan, Fažana, and Brijuni.
On September 13th, 1943, the National Liberation Committee of Istria declared, through a resolution, the liberation of Istria and its further annexation to Croatia; a week later, the Land Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Croatia supported these resolutions. By the 25th of September of the same year, the representatives of Istria confirmed the resolutions at the Istrian Parliament in Pazin, and they also took the final steps to a total separation from Italy and the annexation to Croatia in the new Yugoslavia.
The German attacks in October 1943 put a halt in the movement in the Istrian region. But, shortly after, it took new breath and the liberation actions could free the whole south Slav area, as well as Istria, on May 1945. No more enemies were presented in the peninsula by the ninth day of May of the year the war ended.
With more than 28,000 people involved in the fight against the fascist forces, Istria was a great contributor for the allies. 5,000 of these fighters died during the war, with almost the same amount of fatalities took place in the civilian area (5,802). More than 21,000 people were taken to concentration camps, with an additional 14,000 civilians arrested. The damage caused by the war reached a higher amount of 5,000 facilities, both public and private, were destroyed and burned down.
THE PERIOD AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR
With the Belgrade Agreement from May 9th, 1945, the area of the liberated regions was divided into two zones – A and B. The zone A was under the Anglo – American administration, meanwhile zone B was controlled by the Yugoslav military. The limits were established following the Italian – Austrian borders. This division was totally backed up by the Duino Agreement on June 20th, 1945.
Another treaty, made in Paris in 1947, confirmed the division in two zones, but there were some territories disputed by both zones. This discussion comes to an end in October 1964 when an agreement between Italy and Yugoslavia was signed in London; there it established that the border of both zones and the remaining territory of Slovenia should turn into a temporary state border between the two signed countries.
By October 10th, 1975, the border between the two states was totally defined. In Yugoslavia, the Istria peninsula was divided, according to the ethnic principle, into the republics of Croatia and Slovenia. This remained the same for several years until the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the international recognition of the new nations turning the republic borders into state ones.
THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
During the beginning of the decade of the 90s, Yugoslavia broke up and Istria became one of the twenty Croatian Counties in the new, independent and free Croatian state.
The importance of the Istrian region in the independent and free Republic of Croatia is due to the big amount of historic sites and events, as well as its agriculture, industry, and touristic potentials. There are also several monuments and art movements that made the region a relevant cultural reference.
With its different inhabitants from various beliefs, traditions, and cultures, the Istria region is considered one of the most important areas of the European continent, with the acceptance of it in the Assembly of European Region. And, furthermore, the regionalism express in the region is object of study by different countries with developing countries.