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Pula

Description of Pula

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.

Travel Destinations in Pula

Amphitheatre (Pula)

Castle and Historical Museum of Istria (Pula)

Kandlerov Street (Pula)

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.

Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria (Pula)

Ulica Svetog Ivana 3

Tel. +385 052 423 205

Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria was founded in 2008. It hold a collection of contemporary art that spans the whole post WWII period. It is located in the former printing office in the Pula Harbour. Museum exposition is divided into four parts including international art, Croatian art, design and multimedia art (movies, video, photo) from the early 20th century till our days. Despite its recent history Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria already has a large collection that continues to grow. Additionally museum holds interesting activities including exhibitions from other museum, presentations, educational programs and others.

History of Pula

Prehistory
Human remains, dating back a million years before Christ, were found in the Šandalj cave near Pula. Pottery from the Neolithic period (6000 - 2000 BC), which indicates human settlements, was found in the vicinity of Pula.

The earliest records of permanent settlement in the area of ​​the city of Pula date from the 10th century BC. Kr. The first settlement was founded by the Illyrian tribe Histri, an ancient people who lived in Istria.

The city was known to Greek travelers and sailors because its founding is associated with the Colchians. Pula is mentioned in the mythological story of Jason and Medea, who stole the golden fleece. The Colchians set out in pursuit of Jason, reaching the northern Adriatic. Since they failed to capture Jason and return the golden fleece, they were not allowed to return home, so they built a settlement on the nearby coast where the Illyrian tribe lived. They called it Polai which means "city of fugitives". The presence of Greek culture is evidenced by the invention of Greek pottery and part of the statue of Apollo.

Ancient period
The Romans occupied the Istrian peninsula in 177 BC. BC, beginning the process of Romanization. The city was elevated to a colonial level between 46-45 BC. Kr. During this period the city flourished, and reached its peak with about 30,000 inhabitants. It became a significant Roman port with a large surrounding area under its administration. After the civil war in 42 BC. Kr. between the triumvirate of 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 Action in 31 BC. Kr. 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 edifices were erected, several of which have survived to this day. The Romans also built water and sewage in the city. They fortified the city with a wall with ten gates, some of which are still preserved: the Arc de Triomphe, the Gate of Hercules (in which the names of the city's founders are engraved) and the Double Gate. During the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus, the name of the city was changed to "Res Publica Polensis".

In 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 destroyed by the Ostrogoths. Their reign ended after 60 years, when Pula came under the Ravenna Exarchate (540-751). During this period, Pula developed and became the main port of the Byzantine navy. Cathedral and Church of St. Maria Formosa originates from that period.

The first arrival of Croats in the vicinity of the city is recorded in the 7th 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.

From 788 onwards, Pula was ruled by the Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne. Pula became the seat of the elected counts of Istria until 1077. The Venetians took over the city in 1148, and in 1150 Pula swore allegiance to the Venetian Republic, thus becoming a Venetian estate. Centuries later, the happiness and destiny of the city remained closely linked to Venetian power. In 1192, it was conquered by the Pigeons, but the Venetians soon returned it to their rule.

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 plundered by the Venetians in 1243. It was destroyed again in 1267 and 1397, when the Genoese defeated the Venetians in a naval battle. Pula already had its written statute in the 13th century.

After that, a slow decline began in Pula. This decline was accelerated by the conflicts of local families: the ancient Sergius family with the Ionotasi family (1258-1271) and the conflict of Venice with Genoa over control of the city and its port (late 13th - 14th century).

The Italian poet Dante Alighieri mentions Pula in his Divine Comedy: come a Pola, presso del Carnaro ch'Italia chiude ei suoi termini bagna or in Croatian translation and like [grave crabs] near Pula, near the shores, where Kvarner washes among Italy ( Hell IX, 113-114). The Istrian divorce (1325) dates from the same period. It is an important Croatian document written in Latin, German and Croatian, written in the oldest Croatian alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet.

Venetian, Napoleonic and early Habsburg administration
The Venetians occupied Pula in 1331 and ruled it until 1797. During the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, Pula was attacked and conquered by the Genoese, the Croatian-Hungarian army, the Habsburg army. This also led to the extinction of many small medieval settlements and villages. In addition to the war conquests, the population of Pula and Istria was decimated by great epidemics of plague, malaria, typhus, and smallpox. By the 1750s the city was inhabited by only 300 inhabitants.

After the collapse of the Venetian Republic in 1797, when Venice was defeated by Napoleon, the city became part of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1805, the city was invaded 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.

Austro-Hungary
In 1813, Pula and Istria were returned to the rule of the Austrian Empire (later the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy), and became part of the crown land of the Austrian coast. During this period, Pula regained prosperity. From 1859, Pula's huge natural port became the main and most fortified Austrian war port and the main center of shipbuilding. The city underwent a transformation from a small town with a faded ancient splendor to an industrial city. The island of Lošinj (Lussino) located south of Pula became the summer residence of the Austrian imperial family Habsburg. In 1900, the first car drove through the streets of Pula, and in 1901, the first electric car.

Since the beginning of the First World War, it has been one of the primary targets of the Italian Navy. The Austro-Hungarian command decided to fight the deterrence fleet and avoid open sea battles. The Italians tried several times to sneak into the port and sink a ship, but they did not succeed, because the port was well controlled and various naval obstacles were set up. After the reversal of the fortunes of war in 1918, it was increasingly certain that Austro-Hungary would collapse and one or more new Slavic states would emerge. To avoid the surrender of the navy to the Entente forces, Emperor Charles I decided to surrender his own navy to a state that had already declared itself neutral, the State of SHS. He hoped that the new kingdom would join the new federation of states he would rule.

This was followed by unnecessary selfish 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 to continue the war, and the war enemy Austro-Hungary disappeared. During the declared truce on November 1, 1918, two soldiers of the Italian Royal Navy carried out a cowardly raid on the anchored fleet. The former flagship of the Imperial Navy SMS Viribus Unitis, now under the Croatian flag, was sunk. The result was about 300 victims and missing. Crew members, Croatian, Czech and Slovenian sailors, who were waiting on board the end of the war, were killed. That night in the port of Pula, they celebrated on lighted ships (since a ceasefire was announced), unaware of a 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 a peace treaty. This period was marked by economic and political unrest. Under the fascist government of Benito Mussolini, non-Italians, especially Croats, were subjected to enormous political and cultural repression, imprisoned in camps, looted and Italianized, and many fled the city and Istria. The Italian administration lasted until its capitulation during World War II in September 1943. The German army soon filled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of Italian troops. During German rule, Pula experienced the worst period to date: arrests, deportations and executions of people suspected of aiding the partisan struggle. Also, Allied strategic bombing successively destroyed entire parts of the city.

Post-war and modern times

After the liberation on May 5, 1945, which is today celebrated as the day of the city of Pula, the city was occupied by partisan forces that 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 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the governments of Great Britain and the United States signed in Belgrade on June 9. In 1945, the agreement on the division of the territory of Julian Venice into Zone A and Zone B. Pula with its immediate surroundings found itself in Zone A, west of the Morgan line. The JNA withdrew from Pula, Trieste and other parts of zone A by 12. VI. In 1945, the commander of the Allied forces in the Mediterranean, Field Marshal Harold Alexander, announced in a proclamation that the Allied military administration had reintroduced Italian legislation and administration in Zone A as before 9 September. 1943 For several years after 1945, Pula was governed by the United Nations. Istria is divided into occupation zones, Zone A and Zone B. Territorial division was resolved at the Paris Peace Conference. Croatian Catholic priests played a major role in the conference. Among them, the most famous for his role was Monsignor Božo Milanović, one of the representatives of Istria at the Peace Conference in Paris in 1946, at which the fate of Istria after the war was decided. Data collected by Msgr. Milanovic, Zvonimir Brumnic and other Croatian priests were one of the main arguments why Istria, as part of Croatia, became part of Yugoslavia. The main document used in Paris was the Monument of the Croatian Clergy in Istria to the Allied Commission for the Demarcation of the Julian Krajina, adopted in Pazin on February 12, 1946. The monument was brought by the Choir of Priests of St. Pavle for Istria, and 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 monument depicts all the horrors endured by the Croats from the Italians, especially the priests from 1918 to 1943, but Istria nevertheless remained inhabited by the vast majority of Croats, so it should forever belong only to Croatia.

Until then, most of that territory was under the temporary body of the Free Territory of Trieste, where the temporary administration regime was accepted by the UN Security Council, but the civilian administration with the governor did not come to life. Pula remained under Allied control until it was officially united with the rest of Croatia within communist Yugoslavia on 15 September 1947.

After the signing of a peace treaty with the Allies on February 10, 1947, Yugoslavia gained most of Istria and the borders were largely drawn along ethnic lines. Most of those who did not leave after the fall of Italy did so then. Between December 1946 and September 1947, the majority of the Italian population (Istrian exodus) and a large Croatian population left the city by opting. Between 1947 and 1953, the Italian cultural heritage, which mainly appeared after I.svj. war (ie after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy), (inscriptions, symbols, etc.) was completely removed from the monuments of Pula. The fascists fled long ago, some Italians and Italian Croats were expelled, some Croats and Italians left in fear of conflict and fear of persecution, fearing communist persecution and stories coming from the rest of Croatia, others spontaneously opted for the solution offered. A lot of the population left.

On August 18, 1946, a terrible explosion took place in Vergarola in Pula.

In 1946, C. Schiffer recorded that 87,787 inhabitants lived in Pula (54,074 (64%) Italians, 27,102 (32%) Croats, 771 Slovenes). In 1931, Pula had a population of 41,439, and in 1948 there lived only 19,595 inhabitants.

Allied pressure on Yugoslavia grew. The Governments of the United States, Great Britain, and France proposed in a Tripartite Declaration on March 20, 1948, that the entire STT be handed over to the Italian administration, to which Yugoslavia protested at the UN. The resolution of the Inform Bureau and the conflict between Tito and Stalin aggravated the situation. Italy wanted to circumvent Yugoslavia and appropriate most of the STT, offering it a smaller part of Zone B. In 1952, Italy rejected the Yugoslav condominium proposal. Pula was in Zone A, and on October 8, 1953, the United States and Great Britain announced that they would withdraw their forces and leave 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 lasted from February 1954 and ended with the London Memorandum by which the STT was abolished, divided, and Yugoslavia received the entire Zone B and part of Zone A with Pula. Eventually, the Croatian name of the city, Pula, became official (the name Pula is the original, hence the adjective Pula, which is found in literature, journalism 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 destiny. In 1948, today's Pula-Rovinj Auto Club was founded. In 1949, on today's Dante Square, then Revolution Square, in the area of ​​the repair and transport company AMK Pula, it truly began to operate, with an additional expansion of activities with car workshops. They have been working on this space for over 40 years. From 1951 to 1959, auto-moto races were held in Pula. The 1961 motorcycle race was run at the Arena and broadcast on the radio. In 1989, on the initiative of the then president of the auto-moto club Vlado Drndić, the construction of a new facility on Monvidal, today's Štiglićeva Street, was started. It was officially opened on April 13, 1991, on the same day as the new Statute of the Croatian Auto Club was voted and adopted in Pula.

In independent Croatia
After the London Memorandum in 1954, Pula is definitely in Croatia. The city is marked by a rich (sub) cultural history that can be traced back to the fifties of the twentieth century. In 1977, the punk phenomenon marked a turning point. It spread slowly from Britain, without the influence of the communication technologies we know 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 has been a real institution of the youth subculture for decades. The exception was the period between 1975 and 1992 when it functioned as a classic disco club where rock concerts were occasionally held. It flourished in independent Croatia. In the 1990s, it became the only scene of "alternative" expression in Pula, and in the Croatian part of Istria, even when Rijeka's Palach slowly gave way.

In the Homeland War
Based on the orders of Admiral Letica, Commander of the Croatian Navy, the Pula Port of War was established on October 21, 1991, 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 was reorganized into the Naval Command for the North Adriatic Pula. On the occasion of Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, a Parade of Croatian Veterans of the Istrian County has been held in Pula every year since 2013 on Thanksgiving Day and Croatian Veterans Day, organized by the Coordination of Associations from the Homeland War and the City of Pula and Istria County. . The parade program begins at 8 am with a Mass in the Cathedral, continues with paying tribute to Croatian veterans by laying wreaths at the Central Cross of the City Cemetery and the Monument to Croatian Veterans Killed in the Homeland War in Franjo Josip Park and a minute of silence paying tribute to all fallen veterans.

The parade begins with the sounding of ship and factory sirens, after which church bells are rung, and members of the Society of Speleologists from the Pula Arena lower the ten-meter Croatian flag. The parade continues along the waterfront, Sveti Ivan Street, Carrarina Street, and Giardini and Laginjina Streets to the House of Croatian Veterans (entrance opposite the Theater). He is accompanied by the Wind Orchestra of the City of Pula and majorettes, and with the help of police officers and the participation of representatives of local self-government and the Pula Public Fire Brigade and the Ministry of Defense. Ultramarathoner Ivan Jagustin runs a mini marathon for the parade, an exhibition of war and peacetime photographs is held in the House of Croatian Veterans and a music program performed by schoolchildren. At the end there is a reception for all participants. Citizens are invited to hang flags on their windows on that day. For the participants of the parade, appropriate t-shirts with a plait are printed. The parade is held regardless of the rain. In addition to members of 17 veterans' associations from all over Istria, the Pula football first league NK Istra 1961 also contributed to the parade, whose representatives together with the representatives of the Demoni fan club. The first parade gathered about 500 participants, the second 700, and the third more than a thousand participants.