Pula or Pola (in Slovenian, Pulj) is the largest city on the Istrian peninsula at the southern tip, northwest of Croatia. Its population amounts to 59,080 inhabitants (2005), who are mostly Croats, constituting 71.65% of the population (2001 census). Due to its situation, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy. Like the rest of the area, it is known for its moderate climate, calm sea and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition in tourism, wine production, fishing derivatives and shipbuilding, Pula-Pola has also been the administrative center of Istria since Ancient Rome. Pula located on the very south tip of Istra peninsula contains some of the best preserved Roman structures harmoniously included in the narrow streets.
Amphitheatre
The Pula Amphitheatre, known locally as the Arena, is
the city’s most famous Roman monument and one of the best-preserved
amphitheatres in the world. Built in stages from the late 1st
century BC and enlarged under Emperor Vespasian around the same time
as the Colosseum in Rome, it stands outside the ancient walls along
the Via Flavia and was constructed from local limestone. Its
elliptical plan measures about 132 by 105 metres, with the seaward
side rising three storeys plus a foundation level; four corner
towers survive intact. It once held some 20,000 to 23,000 spectators
for gladiatorial combats and animal hunts. In the Middle Ages it
hosted tournaments and fairs; today it seats several thousand for
the Pula Film Festival, concerts, opera, and summer historical
spectacles.
Castle and Historical Museum of Istria
The Venetian fortress on Kaštel hill, Pula’s central high point above an
ancient freshwater spring, occupies a site first settled by the
Histri as a hill-fort before Roman conquest. A medieval castrum of
the Castropola (Sergi) family stood here until the Venetians
demolished it after taking the city in 1331. The present star-shaped
baroque fort with four bastions was designed by French engineer
Antoine de Ville and built in 1630-1633, using stone from the ruined
Roman theatre. After World War II the fortress became home to the
Historical and Maritime Museum of Istria (founded 1955), whose
collections cover Pula’s urban history, Istrian medieval and modern
periods, Austro-Hungarian naval life, maps, furniture, photographs,
and military material. The hilltop also offers wide views of the
harbour, Arena, and old town.
Temple of Augustus
Temple of Augustus was built in Pula in the 1st century AD. It was dedicated to Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus who was honored as god during his own lifetime. All loyal subjects were supposed to worship official gods of the Roman Empire and "god" Augustus was no exception to this rule. Its simple and elegant design combined with great durability makes Temple of Augustus one of the most important buildings in Pula. During rule of the Venetian Republic former pagan temple was turned into a Christian Church. In the mid- nineteenth century it was turned into a grain storage and today it is turned into a museum of ancient Roman art. Temple of Augustus contain fragments of several Roman sculptures including a statue of Emperor Augustus himself that stands in the middle of the sanctuary.
History
The temple stood on the remains of the podium of an
earlier sanctuary built between 42 BC and 16 BC, when the Roman Empire
was booming and the city of Pietas Iulia was still outside its borders
and thus possessed the status of a colony. The construction is part of
the great plan wanted by Emperor Octavian to renew the urban planning of
most of the cities then subject to Rome, in order to celebrate the new
imperial institution, which had replaced a republic that lasted almost
five centuries. Built between 2 BC. and in 14 AD, the temple was
dedicated to the emperor himself.
The place of worship was also
dedicated to the goddess Rome, since Augustus was reluctant to build
buildings in her name that were not also dedicated to the figure of the
deified Empire, so that the transition to the new form of government did
not seem too abrupt and radical.
The temple was closed at the end
of the IV century, when Christianity became the State religion, and
pagan cults were suppressed. Like many other similar buildings
(including the Pantheon, the Maison Carree and the two small temples of
the Forum Boario) it owes its preservation to the transformation into a
church dedicated to Mary during the eighth century, when Istria was
annexed by the Byzantines. In theVI VI century one of the sides of the
cell was damaged by fire. The damage was repaired only in the third
century by the Venetians, who had conquered the coasts of Istria and
Dalmatia. Several buildings arose around the temple, which was
incorporated into a larger complex. The pronaos became a loggia, while
the interior was transformed into a granary. In the third century it was
transformed into a stable, but with the rediscovery of classical art the
scholar Scipione Maffei proposed to transport the temple to Venice, as
an excellent example of architecture, along with the Roman amphitheater
of the same city, but the idea was not carried out due to the high cost
of the operation.
Between 1920 and 1925 the structures that had
settled around the building were demolished. The latter was restored in
the same years and brought back to its original forms by the architect
Alessandro Rimini on behalf of the Superintendence of Trieste. During
the Second World War, on March 3, 1944, the temple suffered damage due
to an allied bombing on the city of Pula, which was occupied by Nazi
forces. The restoration lasted until 1947 and was overseen by the
Superintendence of Fine Arts of Trieste, since the city was still
Italian (it would be until February, when the Treaty of Paris was
signed). This allowed the structure to reach in good condition to the
present day.
The interior of the building houses a small museum
of Roman tombstones and sculptures found during the archaeological
excavations of the colony of Pietas Iulia, established in 1806 by the
French general Marmot, governor of the Illyrian Provinces, during the
Napoleonic conquests. Some traces of frescoes are still visible on the
walls of the cell.
A twin temple was built in the same area, but
already in the secolo The back of the temple is still visible outside
the palace.
Feature
The temple measures 8.05 meters in width,
17.5 meters in depth and 12 meters in height and rests on a high podium.
A staircase consisting of seven steps joins the level of the pavement
with that of the pronaos.
The temple is tetrastyle prostyle, that
is, with four columns on the main front, and two positioned laterally,
for a total of six columns. The order is Corinthian, despite the
atypical choice of using smooth stem columns instead of fluted ones (as
in the Pantheon). The cell has fluted pillars at the four corners, while
the entrance to the temple is decorated with pilasters. The material
used for the construction of the building is white marble. The temple
had no decorated pediments, but only a dedication written in bronze
characters on the lintel, which read "Romae et Augusto Caesari Divi F.
Patri Patriae"[1].
Overall, the building appears slender and
elegant, with a strong contrast between protruding and falling parts,
especially at the level of the pronaos, where there is a great contrast
between lights and shadows. The structure was studied by Andrea Palladio
in the third century.
Pula Town Hall
Pula Town Hall, or
the Communal Palace, stands on the Forum on the site of the Roman
Temple of Diana, part of the ancient civic and religious centre.
Municipal institutions used the temple remains from at least the 9th
century; the present palace was completed in 1296 as the seat of the
free commune under podestà Bartholomeus de Vitrei. Gothic fabric
incorporates Roman and Romanesque walls, later given Renaissance and
Baroque additions, so the building reads as a layered record of
every major period of the city. An inscription on the facade records
the 1296 work. It served Venetian governors and remains the office
of the mayor and city council, making it one of the longest
continuously used municipal seats in Europe.
Arch of the Sergii
The Arch of the
Sergii, also called the Golden Gate (Porta Aurea), is a small but
richly carved Roman triumphal arch erected about 29-27 BC at the
inner face of a city gate. It was paid for by Salvia Postuma Sergia
in honour of three members of the prominent Sergii family, including
her husband Lucius Sergius Lepidus, a tribune of the 29th Legion who
fought at Actium. The town-facing side shows Corinthian columns,
winged Victories, cupids, garlands, and bucrania; the outer side was
left largely plain. Statues of the three men once stood on the
attic. The adjoining walls were removed in the 19th century as the
city expanded, leaving the free-standing arch at the entrance to the
old-town pedestrian streets, where it remains a popular gathering
and performance spot.
Monastery and Church of Saint Francis
The Monastery and Church of Saint Francis occupy the western slope
of Kaštel hill between the Forum and the fortress, on the site of an
earlier complex of St John the Baptist. Franciscans arrived in Pula
soon after the order’s founding in 1209; Blessed Otto, associated
with the first community, died here in 1241 and is still venerated.
The late Romanesque church with Gothic details was built around 1314
by master Jakov Puljanin (Jacobus de Pola) to the simple rectangular
plan required of mendicant churches, with a square sanctuary,
cloister, chapter house, and refectory. A 15th-century cloister with
early Renaissance columns holds a small lapidarium and copies of
Istrian wall paintings. The church contains a notable gilded
altarpiece and remains in Franciscan use.
Archaeological Museum of Istria
The Archaeological Museum of Istria grew from stone monuments
gathered at the Temple of Augustus in 1802 and from the rich Iron
Age finds at Nesactium that prompted the city museum in 1902. After
collections from Poreč were transferred, the regional museum opened
in the former Austro-Hungarian gymnasium in 1930 and became the
specialised Archaeological Museum of Istria after World War II. Its
holdings cover Istria from the Palaeolithic (including very early
tools from Šandalja) through Histrian hill-forts and necropolises,
Roman towns and villas, early Christian mosaics and churches, and
the early medieval Slavic settlement. Permanent displays occupy
several floors and include sculpture, mosaics, pottery, jewellery,
and inscriptions that document the peninsula’s long sequence of
cultures.
Kandlerov Street
Kandlerov Street or Kandlerova Street is a popular tourist destination that runs through the center of the historic Pula. It begins at the Forum and ends with a beautiful park, which is dedicated to King Peter Krashemira. This quiet street goes through Triumphal Arch, Arena, Hercules Gate and many more buildings. You can start at the ancient Roman amphitheater and take a short walk through the historic part of Pula. Most of main sights in the city are lovated in its close vicinity. Although it can be quiet busy at the evenings due to large number of local residents and international tourists who love this area. Additionally there are a lot of restaurants and cafes along its length.
Gate of Hercules (Herkulova
vrata) is the oldest surviving city gate in Pula, a modest
single-arched limestone passage built around 47-44 BC when
the Roman colony Colonia Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea was
founded. At the crown of the arch a worn relief still shows
the bearded head of Hercules and his club, while a damaged
Latin inscription names the founding magistrates Lucius
Calpurnius Piso and Gaius Cassius Longinus, officials sent
by the Senate in the last years of the Republic. Flanked
today by later circular towers and long buried until
excavated in the early nineteenth century, the gate once
opened onto the upper circular street of the ancient town
and remains one of the clearest physical proofs of Pula’s
origin as a Caesar-era colony.
Twin Gate aka Double Gate aka Porta Gemini (Dvojna vrata),
is a late-second or early-third-century Roman city gate with
two equal arched openings framed by three pilasters with
composite capitals and tied together by a carved wreath.
Built over an earlier entrance on the north side of the
ancient circuit, it still shows the grooves used to drop
portcullises and later received a reused marble plaque
naming Lucius Menacius Priscus, who financed part of the
city’s water supply. Buried in the Middle Ages and uncovered
again in the modern period, the gate now leads toward the
Archaeological Museum of Istria, the Small Roman Theatre,
and Kaštel, and stands beside remains of an octagonal Roman
mausoleum.
Pula
Cathedral (Pula Katedrala), dedicated to the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, occupies a site used for worship
since Roman times and grew from a fourth- and fifth-century
early Christian complex into the co-cathedral of the Diocese
of Poreč and Pula. Fragments of fifth- and sixth-century
floor mosaics with donors’ inscriptions survive inside the
three-nave basilica, whose later Gothic aisle windows,
Renaissance columns, Classicist facade of 1712, and
free-standing Baroque bell tower of 1707 (built with stone
taken from the Arena) record successive rebuildings after
fire, Venetian rule, and wartime damage. An early Christian
baptistery once stood in front of the church, and the whole
ensemble still reads as one of Istria’s most continuous
Christian monuments.
The Small Roman Theater
sits on the eastern slope of the central hill below Kaštel,
a first-century BC Augustan venue whose semicircular cavea
was partly cut into the bedrock and whose stage and
orchestra served dramas and civic spectacles for a few
thousand spectators inside the city walls. Forgotten under
later fill, it was identified in 1911 and restored in
2021-2022 with steel and white concrete seating that
respects Vitruvian proportions without touching the ancient
fabric, so that about 1,250 people can again watch concerts
and performances against the museum facade. Together with
the Arena it forms Pula’s most complete pair of Roman
entertainment buildings, and the site remains free to visit
as an open archaeological park.
Church and Monastery of
Saint Anthony of Padua is a twentieth-century Franciscan
complex built in 1929-1931 from donated materials to designs
by city architect Guido Brass, with a small monastery added
in 1934 and a 45-metre bell tower that is still the tallest
structure in Pula. Simple Romanesque lines and local stone
were chosen so the church would sit quietly beside the
Arena, while later additions include marble paving, an apse,
an organ of 1961, and a large mosaic of Christ in the apse
by Josip Botteri. Entrusted to the Franciscans in 1939, it
remains an active parish and one of the city’s most visible
modern landmarks of popular devotion.
Church of Our Lady of Mercy
(Gospa od Milosti or Misericordia) is a late-medieval votive
church on Dante Alighieri Square, founded after a local
tradition that the Virgin appeared on the site in 1383.
Rebuilt and enlarged in 1447-1453, it passed to the
Augustinians, who kept a hospice beside it until the order
was suppressed; fire in 1858 and later restorations left a
modest nave whose side wall still follows the Roman cardo
and whose rear faces the decumanus of Ulica Sergijevaca.
Today it belongs to the cathedral parish, keeps the feast of
10 October, and stands as a compact spiritual marker in the
historic core rather than a grand basilica.
The Museum of
Contemporary Art of Istria occupies the adapted halls of an
1862 printing house on Svetog Ivana Street beside Tito’s
Park and the waterfront, collecting painting, sculpture,
design, photography, film, and video from the second half of
the twentieth century to the present, with a special focus
on Istrian and Croatian artists. Founded in 2008, it works
as a changing exhibition space rather than a single fixed
display, so each visit depends on the current programme of
installations, workshops, and temporary shows. Modest
admission and a central location make it an easy
counterpoint to Pula’s Roman monuments, a reminder that the
city continues to produce new art inside an industrial shell
from the Austrian era.
Prehistory
Human remains, dated back to one million years before Christ, were
found in the Šandalja cave near Pula. Pottery from the Neolithic period
(6000 - 2000. BC), indicating Human Settlements, was found in the
vicinity of Pula.
The earliest record of permanent settlement in
the areas of the city of Pula comes from 10 century BC. The first
settlement was founded by the Illyrian tribe Histra, an ancient people
who lived in Istria.
The city was known to Greek travelers and
sailors, as its founding is associated with the Colchians. Pula is
mentioned in the mythological story of Jason and Medea, who kidnapped
the Golden Fleece. The Colchians pursued Jason and reached the northern
Adriatic. Since they failed to capture Jason and return the Golden
Fleece, they were not allowed to return home, so they erected a
settlement on the nearby Coast where the Illyrian tribe lived. They
named it Polai which means "City of fugitives". The presence of Greek
culture is evidenced by the finding of Greek pottery and part of the
Statue of Apollo.
Ancient period
The Romans occupied the Istrian peninsula in 177 BC, beginning the
process of Romanization. The city was elevated to the colonial level
between 46. - 45 BC During this period, the city flourished, peaking at
about 30,000 inhabitants. It became a significant Roman port with a
large surrounding area under its administration. After the civil war, 42
BC between the triumvirs Octavian, Antony and Lepidus on the one hand
and Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius on the other, Pula sided with
Cassius because the city was founded by Cassius Longinus, Cassius '
brother. After Octavian's victory at Actium 31 BC the city is devastated
and devastated. However, the city was soon rebuilt at the request of
Octavian's daughter Julia, and was named Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola
Pollentia Herculanea. Large classical buildings were erected, several of
which survive to this day. The Romans also built a water and sewer
system in the city. They fortified the city with a rampart with ten
gates, some of which are still preserved: the Arch of the Sergians, the
gate of Hercules (in which the names of the founders of the city are
carved) and the double gate. During the reign of Emperor Septimius
Severus the name of the city was changed to "Res Publica Polensis".
In the year 425. the city became the seat of the bishop, as
evidenced by the remains of the foundations of several religious
buildings.
Middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire the city and the region
were devastated by the Ostrogoths. Their rule ended after 60 years, when
Pula came under the Exarchate of Ravenna (540. – 751.). During this
period Pula developed and became the main port of the Byzantine navy.
The cathedral and Church of STS. Mary Formosa dates from this period.
The first arrival of Croats in the vicinity of the city is recorded
at 7. century. The history of the city continues to reflect its location
and importance, as well as the entire region, in redrawing the borders
among European powers.
Of 788. furthermore, Pula is ruled by the
Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne. Pula became the seat of the
electoral counties of Istria until 1077.the Venetians took over the city
in 1148., a 1150. Pula swore allegiance to The Venetian Republic, thus
becoming a Venetian possession. Centuries later, the luck and fate of
the city remained closely linked to the Venetian power. In 1192. it was
conquered by the Pižani, but the Venetians soon returned it to their
administration.
In 1238. Pope Gregory IX. he created an alliance
between Genoa and Venice against the Empire, and soon against Pisa.
Since Pula sided with Pisa, the city was sacked by the Venetians in
1243. It was again devastated in 1267. te 1397. When the Genoese
defeated the Venetians in a naval battle. Pula is already at 13. the
century had its own written statute.
After that, a slow decline
began in Pula. This decline was accelerated by the conflicts of local
families: the ancient Sergian family with the Ionotasi family (1258). –
1271.) and Venice's conflict with Genoa over control of the city and its
port (late 13. - 14. century).
Italian poet Dante Alighieri
mentions Pula in His Divine Comedy: come a Pola, presso del Carnaro
ch'italia chiude e and suoi termini bagna or in Croatian translation and
ko što are [grave rakes] near Pula, near žal, where the Kvarner among
Italy washes (hell IX, 113-114). Istrian divorce (1325) originated from
the same period. It is an important Croatian document written in Latin,
German and Croatian, written in the oldest Croatian script, the
Glagolitic Alphabet.
Venetian, Napoleonic and early Habsburg rule
The Venetians captured Pula in 1331. and they ruled it until 1797.
year. During the 14., 15. and 16. for centuries Pula was attacked and
conquered by Genoese, Croatian-Hungarian army, Habsburg Army. This also
led to the demise of numerous small medieval settlements and villages.
In addition to the war conquests, the Pula and Istrian population was
decimated by large epidemics of plague, malaria, typhus, smallpox. By
the 1750s, the city had only 300 inhabitants.
After the fall of
The Venetian Republic in 1797., when the Venetians were defeated by
Napoleon, the city became part of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1805. the
city was broken into by the French after defeating the Austrians. The
city was incorporated into the French puppet Kingdom of Italy and then
placed under the direct control of the Illyrian Provinces of the French
Empire.
Austria-Hungary
In 1813. Pula and Istria were returned to the administration of the
Austrian Empire (later the Austro-Hungarian monarchy), and became part
of the Crown Lands of the Austrian littoral. During this period, Pula
regained its prosperity. Since 1859. Pula's huge natural port became the
main and most fortified Austrian war port and the main shipbuilding
center. The city has undergone a transformation from a small town with
faded antique splendor to an industrial city. The island of Losinj
(Lussino) located south of Pula became the summer residence of the
Austrian imperial family Habsburg. 1900. in 1901, the first car was
driven on the streets of Pula. the first electric car.
From
the beginning of the First World War it was one of the primary
objectives of the Italian navy. The Austro-Hungarian command decided to
fight with a deterrent fleet and avoid battles at sea. The Italians
tried several times to sneak into the port and sink a ship, but failed,
because the port was well monitored and various sea obstacles were
placed. After the upheaval of war fortunes in 1918., it was increasingly
certain that Austria-Hungary would collapse and one or more new Slavic
states would arise. To avoid the surrender of the Navy to the Entente
powers, Emperor Charles I. he decided to hand over his own navy to a
state that had already declared itself neutral, the state of SHS. He
hoped that the new kingdom would join a new Federation of states which
he would rule.
This was followed by an unnecessarily egotistical
Italian military action that had no military, strategic or diplomatic
effect. The end of the war was certain, as was the exhaustion of both
sides for the continuation of the war, and the wartime enemy
Austria-Hungary disappeared. During the declared armistice 1. November
1918. two Italian Royal Navy lieutenants raided the anchored fleet. The
former Imperial Navy admiral SMS Viribus Unitis, now under the Croatian
flag, was sunk. The result was about 300 casualties and missing. The
crew members, Croatian, Czech and Slovenian sailors, who were on board
awaiting the end of the war, were killed. That night in the port of
Pula, they celebrated on lighted ships (after a ceasefire was
announced), not anticipating the black fate.
Italian administration
After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Pula and the whole of Istria were handed over to Italy under the peace treaty. This period was marked by economic and political unrest. Under the fascist government of Benito Mussolini, netalians, especially Croats, were subjected to enormous political and cultural repression, were imprisoned in camps, plundered and Italianized, and many fled the city and Istria. Italian rule lasted until its capitulation during World War II in September 1943. The German army soon filled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of Italian soldiers. During the German administration Pula experienced the worst period up to that time: arrests, deportations and executions of people suspected of aiding the partisan struggle. Also, the Allied strategic bombing in succession destroyed entire parts of the city.
Post-war and modern times
After release 5. May 1945., which is celebrated today as the day of
the city of Pula, the city was captured by partisan forces who had
previously liberated the whole of Istria and United it with the
motherland of Croatia. Shortly after the liberation from Fascist Italy
and coming under Croatian rule, the government of the DF Yugoslavia and
the governments of Great Britain and the United States signed in
Belgrade on the 9th. You. 1945. agreement dividing the territories of
Julian Venice into Zone A and Zone B. Pula with its immediate
surroundings was in Zone a, west of the Morgan line. The JNA withdrew
from Pula, Trieste and other parts of zone A to do 12. You. 1945.
Commander of Allied forces in the Mediterranean Field Marshal Harold
Alexander declared in a proclamation that the allied military
administration was back in the zone and introduced Italian legislation
and administration according to the situation before 9. IX. 1943. A few
years after 1945. The pool was run by the United Nations. Istria is
divided into occupation zones, Zone A and Zone B. The territorial
division was resolved at the Paris Peace Conference. Croatian Catholic
priests played a major role in the conference. Among them he is best
known for his role was Monsignor Božo Milanović, one of the
representatives of Istria at the peace conference in Paris in 1946. to
decide the fate of Istria after the war. Data collected by mons.
Milanović, Zvonimir Brumnić and other Croatian priests were one of the
main arguments why Istria as part of Croatia entered Yugoslavia. The
main document that was dealt with in Paris was the monument of the
Croatian clergy in Istria to the Allied Commission for delimitation of
the Julijska Krajina adopted in Pazin on the 12th. February 1946. year.
The memorial was brought by the choir of priests of St. It was signed by
President Tomo Banko, Secretary Miro Bulešić, councilors Božo Milanović,
Leopold Jurca, Josip Pavlišić, Antun Cukarić and Srećko Štifanić, as
well as 48 board members. The monuments show all the horrors endured by
the Italians, especially by priests since 1918. by 1943. years, but
Istria still remained inhabited by the vast majority of Croats, and
therefore should forever belong only to Croatia.
Until then, most
of this territory was under the provisional Body Free territory of
Trieste, in which the provisional administration was accepted by the UN
Security Council, but the Civil Administration with the governor did not
come into existence. Pula was under Allied control until it was
officially united with the rest of Croatia within communist Yugoslavia
on the 15th. September 1947. year.
After the signing of the peace
treaty with the Allies 10. February 1947. Most of Istria was taken over
by Yugoslavia and the borders were largely drawn on ethnic grounds. Most
of those who did not leave after the fall of Italy did so then. Between
December 1946. and September 1947. the city was abandoned by the
majority of the Italian population (Istrian exodus) and a lot of the
Croatian population. Between 1947. and 1953. Italian Cultural Heritage,
which mainly appeared after war (i.e. after the fall of the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy), (inscriptions, symbols, etc.) it was
completely removed from the pula monuments. The fascists fled long
before, some Italians and Italian Croats were driven away, some Croats
and Italians left in fear of conflict and fear of persecution, fearing
Communist persecutions and stories coming from the rest of Croatia,
others spontaneously opted for the solution offered. A lot of people
have left.
Day 18. August 1946. a terrible explosion occurred in
Pula on Vergarola, killing 116 people.
In 1946. C. Schiffer
records that Pula has 87,787 inhabitants (54,074 (64%) Italians, 27,102
(32%) Croats and 771 Slovenes). In 1931. Pula had 41,439 inhabitants,
and in 1948. only 19,595 people lived there.
Allied pressure on
Yugoslavia was growing. The governments of the United States, the United
Kingdom and France proposed the Tripartite declaration 20. March 1948.
handing over the entire STT to the Italian administration, to which
Yugoslavia protested at the UN. The Informbiro resolution and the Tito -
Stalin conflict made the situation more difficult. Italy wanted to
outflank Yugoslavia and claim most of the STT, offering it a smaller
part of zone B. Italy in 1952. refused the Yugoslav condominium
proposal. Pula was located in Zone A, and 8. X. 1953. The United States
and the United Kingdom announced that they would withdraw their forces
and Zone A to Italy. Yugoslavia reacted violently and sent large
military forces to the border, and Italy did the same and the so-called
Trieste crisis broke out. The situation was resolved by negotiations
that had been ongoing since February 1954. A ended with a London
memorandum abolishing the STT, dividing it, and Yugoslavia getting the
whole Zone B and part of Zone A with Pula. Finally, the Croatian name of
the city, Pula, became official (the name Pulj is original, hence the
adjective Pula, which is found in literature, publicists and scientific
works). With the final division of Zone A and Zone B, Pula became part
of the people's Republic of Croatia, with which it has since shared its
fate.
The independent Croatia
After the London memorandum in 1954., Pula is definitely in Croatia.
The city has a rich (sub)cultural history that can be traced back to the
Fifties of the twentieth century. 1977. the punk phenomenon marks a
turning point. It slowly spread from Britain, without the influence of
communication technologies as we know it today, with the relative
neglect (or quiet disgust) of the media, especially the Yugoslav
socialist ones. The following year, the first punk group was founded in
Pula - Problemi.
In Pula, the Uljanik club was a real institution
of youth subculture for decades. The exception was the period between
1975. and 1992. kada functioned as a classic disco club where rock
concerts were occasionally held. In the independent Croatia he
experienced a boom. In the nineties it became the only scene of
"alternative" expression in Pula, and in the Croatian part of Istria,
even when Rijeka's Palach slowly faltered.
The Homeland War
On the orders of Admiral Letica, commander of HRM 21. October 1991.
the war port of Pula was established, the first commander was the
captain of the battleship Ante Budimir, now a retired Rear Admiral; at
the end of the same year, with the reorganization of the HV and HRM rl
Pula, the Naval Command for the northern Adriatic Pula was reorganized.
On the occasion of the celebration of Victory Day and Homeland
Thanksgiving, Pula has been held every year since 2013. on Homeland
Thanksgiving Day and Croatian defenders Day, 5. in August, he held a
March of Croatian defenders of Istria county, organized by the
Coordination of associations arising from the Homeland War and the city
of Pula and Istria County. The parade program begins at 8 a.m. with a
mass in the Cathedral, continues by paying tribute to the Croatian
defenders by laying wreaths at the central Cross of the city cemetery
and the monument to the fallen Croatian defenders in the Homeland war in
Franjo Josip Park and a minute of silence honors all the fallen
defenders.
The march begins with the announcement of ship and
factory Sirens, after which church bells are sounded, and members of the
Society of speleologists from the Pula Arena lower the ten-meter
Croatian flag. The march goes further along the Waterfront, St. John
Street, Carrara Street, and Giardini and Laginja Street to the Croatian
defenders ' home (entrance opposite the theatre). It is accompanied by
The Brass Band of the city of Pula and majorette, and with the help of
police officers and the participation of representatives of the local
self-government and the public Fire Department of Pula and the Ministry
of Defence. Ultramarathon Ivan Jagustin runs a mini marathon for the
March, an exhibition of war and peace photographs is held in the
Croatian defenders ' home and a music program performed by
schoolchildren. At the end is a party for all participants. Citizens
were invited to hang flags on their windows on that day. Suitable
T-shirts with knitter are printed for the participants of the March. The
parade is held regardless of the rain. In addition to the members of 17
defense associations from all over Istria, the contribution to the march
was made by the pula football first league NK Istra 1961, whose
representatives together with the representatives of the Demoni fan
club. The first procession gathered about 500 participants, the second
700, and on the third more than a thousand participants.
For most of the early modern period Pula remained a small walled
town. Disease, malaria and stagnation kept numbers low: around 900
people in 1818 and just over 1,100 by the early 1850s. The turning point
came in 1856, when the Habsburg monarchy chose Pula as the main naval
base of the Imperial and Royal Navy. Shipyards, barracks, docks and a
planned grid of new streets outside the medieval walls pulled in
workers, officers, craftsmen and their families from across the empire.
The city then grew at a pace rare in 19th-century Europe. Official
figures for the settlement in roughly today’s municipal limits show
about 3,600 inhabitants in 1857, more than 10,600 in 1869, around 25,400
in 1880 and about 31,500 in 1890. By the 1900 Imperial and Royal census
the town (including the garrison) counted 40,641 people: 24,056 Italians
(59 percent), 10,388 Croats (26 percent), 4,654 Germans (11 percent) and
1,543 Slovenes (4 percent). The last Austrian census in 1910 recorded
nearly 59,500 residents in the city proper and more than 86,000 if
surrounding villages later absorbed into the urban area are included. A
large military contingent (several thousand sailors and soldiers) formed
a distinct, often German-speaking layer on top of the civilian mix.
The First World War and the 1920 Treaty of Rapallo ended that boom. Pula
passed to Italy. Many Croats, Slovenes and Germans left; Italian
settlers arrived. The 1921 census already showed a drop to about 38,600.
After 1945 the city became part of Yugoslavia. The Italian exodus (the
Istrian-Dalmatian exodus) cut the population almost in half: the 1948
census registered only about 20,800 people. Reconstruction, industry and
in-migration from other Yugoslav republics then produced a long
recovery. Numbers rose to 37,000 in 1961, 47,000 in 1971, 56,000 in 1981
and a peak of 62,378 in 1991.
Independence and the 1990s wars brought
another decline. The 2001 census counted 58,594 inhabitants, 2011
recorded 57,460, and the 2021 census registered 52,220. Recent estimates
hover around 52,000-53,000. Croats now form a clear majority (about 70
percent in 2011, roughly 76 percent in 2021). The largest minorities in
2011 were Serbs (6.01 percent), Italians (4.43 percent) and Bosniaks
(3.5 percent), followed by smaller groups of Slovenes, Albanians,
Hungarians, Roma and others. The historic Jewish community, once larger,
today numbers only a few dozen members.
Pula is officially bilingual.
Croatian and Italian both have official status; street signs, municipal
documents and public services appear in both languages. In the rural
hinterland of southern Istria the Istriot (Istro-Romance) language
survives among older speakers. It is the oldest Romance idiom on the
peninsula and is now critically endangered.
Catholicism has been the dominant confession since late antiquity and
remains so after the departure of many Orthodox Serbs in the 1990s. In
the 2011 census Catholics made up about 64 percent of the city’s
population, Orthodox Christians about 5.5 percent, Muslims about 5.7
percent, with Protestants and other Christian groups each under 1
percent. A sizable share declared themselves non-religious or atheist
(around 14 percent). By 2021 the Catholic share had fallen further while
the non-religious and “other Christian” categories grew.
The city’s
oldest surviving Christian buildings date from the 6th century, the
period of Byzantine rule and the patronage of Maximian, Archbishop of
Ravenna (himself born near Rovinj).
The Chapel of St Mary Formosa
(Kapelica sv. Marije Formose, also called Santa Maria Formosa or Santa
Maria del Canneto) is the only standing remnant of a large three-nave
basilica and Benedictine abbey built around 546-547 on the site of an
earlier Roman temple of Minerva. The chapel follows a Greek-cross plan
and shows clear architectural links with Ravenna. The main basilica was
already ruined by the 16th century after Venetian-Genoese wars and later
stone-robbing; only the southern side chapel, fragments of mosaics, an
altar screen and parts of the perimeter walls survive.
The Church and
Monastery of St Francis (Samostan i crkva sv. Franje) stand on the
western slope of the old-town hill. Franciscans arrived soon after the
order’s foundation. The present single-nave late-Romanesque church, with
Gothic details, was completed in 1314 by the local master Jakov Puljanin
(Jacobus de Pola) according to the Narbonne building rules of 1260. The
adjoining monastery dates from the 14th century; its cloister mixes
Roman and later Renaissance elements. A valuable wooden Gothic polyptych
and a small lapidarium of medieval stonework are kept on the site.
The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Katedrala
Uznesenja Blažene Djevice Marije) occupies a site used for worship since
Roman times (a temple of Jupiter Conservator and later baths). The first
Christian basilica and baptistery rose in the late 4th-5th centuries.
The building was enlarged through the 6th-10th centuries, then
repeatedly damaged by Genoese and Venetian attacks. Major reconstruction
in the 15th century and a late-Renaissance façade in the 16th century
gave the church its present look. A free-standing campanile was added
from 1671, using stone taken from the nearby amphitheatre. A 5th-century
baptistery once stood in front of the cathedral; it was demolished in
1885. The cathedral is co-cathedral of the Diocese of Poreč and Pula.
The Orthodox Church of St Nicholas (Pravoslavna crkva sv. Nikole) also
began as a 6th-century basilica (originally dedicated to St Catherine)
with a characteristic polygonal Ravenna-style apse. It was enlarged in
the 10th century. In 1583 the Venetian authorities granted the building
to Greek Orthodox refugees from Cyprus and Nauplion; it has served the
Orthodox community ever since. The interior preserves 15th- and
16th-century icons and an 18th-century iconostasis by the Greek painter
Tomios Batos.