Mjesta (12)
Grožnjan is located above the Mirna River valley on a hill above the sea level of 228 meters. Medieval urban complex has remained largely untouched until now. It is a natural base for an intense and interesting life Grožnjan lives today. We invite you to share it with us.
Away from the sea ten miles has always been attractive for settlement. From the 1358th The Grožnjan has free status of the municipality. In the fifties of the last century just becomes part of the municipality Buje. Since 1993. The re-gained the status of municipalities.
Apart from the Croatian and Italian languages in official use, as well as Slovenia, which is not a problem on the streets Grožnjan hear and many other world languages.
Zavrsje is nested on a 240-metre high hill, amid marl and sandstone mountainous area where, between Groznjan and Oprtalj, is the south end of Karst. It has always been a town of farmers who worked the fields and grew olives and fruits; there were also leather tanners. The town was surrounded by double walls, partly still visible, which had two gates; the remains of one can still be seen. Above this gate there are ancient bas-reliefs and a coat of arms of the Contarini family, who owned the town for three centuries. A cobblestone road leads to an elevation with an ancient church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Holy Rosary with a church tower. The church has a round apse and a portal with pointed arch with inscribed year 1879, when it was last renovated. It was built in the 16th century and renovated in 1634, when of the four original altars only two remained.
Stone relief from the Roman times built in the city gates
There used to be silver candelabras and candle holders dating from the 18th century, and a magnificent goblet decorated with glazed medallions from 1476. The church sold it in the late 18th century and it ended up in the Rothschild's' collection. Today it can be seen at the Louvre. A gothic monstrance from 1849 shows Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist and Christ rising from the grave. Next to the church is a magnificent Zavrsje castle, built in the 11th century, once a residence of the Contarini aristocracy. Inside the walls there is a little house, built in 1579, with inscription Hosteria di Valentino Valle. In front of the northern gate a new, large parish church of Sts. John and Paul was built, renovated in 1792. It has a round apse, five altars and is richly decorated. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary was donated by a nobleman Besenghi in 1792.
On a roof side there is a small sandstone distaff. Coming from the valley, before you reach the still existing city gates, there is a small church of St. Rocco built in 1556, and about a kilometer north of the parish church there is a cemetery with St. Andrew's church. Zavrsje was inhabited in ancient times; artifacts from the pre-Roman era as well as Roman tombs and inscriptions have been discovered. Traces of the alleged first consul's road, which passed through the Istria's interior, have also been found. In 1885 a tombstone with names of various historic persons was discovered by the road. This medieval town was in ancient times known by the Italian name Piemonte.
This name was mentioned in 1102, when Istrian marquis Ulrich II donated the town to the Patriarchy of Aquileia. In documents dating from 1341 and 1508 it was called Pyamont or Poymont. In 1427 the Germans named it Pemund. In 1300 Zavrsje belonged to Istrian counts. Later Venice took it over, and it had to fight the army of the Count of Krk. In 1360 a Trieste army of patriarch Lodovico de' Della Torrea and bishop Negri, at the time at war with the counts of Pazin, launched an unsuccessful attack on Zavrsje.
In 1374 it came under the Austrian rule and was elevated to a fiefdom status. It had its own feudal law and administration, a captain and a prefect. At that time - late 14th century - Croatian population started to settle in the area. Austrian authorities began to lease the Zavrsje estate so it changed many owners in the years to come.
After 1412 Venice, fighting the Hungarians, Turks and Austrians, attacked Zavrsje several times. The attacks lasted until 1511, when it finally took it over, although its rule was not acknowledged until the Worms Treaty. In 1530 Venice auctioned Zavrsje and Giustignano Contarini became the new owner. His descendants kept it until the 19th century, when it was conquered by Napoleon, and shortly thereafter taken over by the Austrian Empire. The area prospered under the well-organized Austrian rule. A narrow-gauge Parenzana railroad was built. Trading contributed to intensive development of agriculture, especially fruit and vegetable growing. Various trades also blossomed. During the Austrian and later Italian rule Zavrsje had a post office, school, two stores, oil-processing plant and various trade shops.
In 1943 the anti-fascist movement spread to Zavrsje, and Croatian and Italian anti-fascists fought together against the Germans. Under the terms of the Paris Peace Treaty Zavrsje became a part of the People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Economic and political reasons contributed to a mass exodus, and of the 90 families who lived in Zavrsje at the time only about 40 inhabitants have remained. This fortressed little town boasts magnificent architecture. It is a mandatory destination for every traveller interested in Istrian history and culture.
Vrnjak is situated on a steep hill side. High enough for a good view. Low enough not to be touched by winds and storms. .
On a road passing through the Sterna valley, a country road past Marusici winds uphill to the left, along the right bank of the Bazuja steam. A kilometer later one crosses a little bridge built of railroad crossties filled with gravel.
Once there used to be a mill of which only foundations remain. Having crossed to the left bank and 2 more kilometers up the hill one reaches this completely deserted village at the 320-metre altitude. Empty houses with no doors or windows, lanes hidden by locust trees - all creates a gloomy atmosphere. There is a little church 50 metres above the village, on a plateau from which one can see far. Both the church and the adjacent cemetery have been abandoned. The church was built in 1892, a year inscribed on a limestone above the portal, and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary the Mournful. It was consecrated in 1901. Through the open door one can see the interior; there is still an altar, while the rest of the inventory has been removed.
The church plateau offers a view of the village. The church has double distaff and no bell. Until 1930 it belonged to the Sterna parish, then it was annexed to the Brda one. Before the village there are Gradinja (or Gradenje) hill slopes which end in the Fineda top. They are covered with chestnuts, oaks and various fruit trees, criss-crossed with uncultivated fields now used as grazing pastures for goats and horses. Past the church a country road leads up a hill slope to Dugo Brdo, another almost completely deserted hamlet, with the Bazuja stream on the west. It springs in Brda and sinks into a hollow by a paved road leading from Marusici to Sterna. Once there used to be two mills.
The Sterna municipal area was once very large. It included Kuberton, Topolovec, Kucibreg, Cepici and Gradinja. In old days it was known as the Groznjan Cistern because it belonged to Groznjan. Toponym Sterna is short for Cistern, and it comes from an inexhaustible spring which feeds six troughs in a valley north of the church. In 1067 German emperor Henry IV gave this fief, then know as Steina, to bishop Freisinga. In 1102 Marquis Ulrich II donates Sterna to the Aquileia Patriarchy, which gave it as a fief to a bishop of Novigrad. In 1260 the patriarchs gave Sterna to Almerich XXX of St. George on the Mirna. Later it became the property of counts of Gorizia, and in the mid-13th century it became a part of the Momjan estate.
Venice bought Groznjan and the area in 1368, and Sterna came under Venetian rule. In 1420 Venice conquered a patriarch's part of Istria, Sterna came under Pietrapelosa's jurisdiction, and in 1564 became the Gravisi family, and partly the Del Bello family, fief. During the war between Venice and the Cambray League, which lasted from 1508 to 1516, Sterna was frequently attacked by both mercenary armies.
The town's altitude is 304 metres, and the urban core is at a somewhat higher level than a church situated in a small Karst valley. Some mortarless houses are built of gray sandstone, and some of white limestone. If you are coming to Sterna from the south, at Kastel take a road to the right. The road clearly separates a marl-sandstone area in the north from a limestone area in the south.
The parish church once was a large edifice and a main church in the area. The church tower was built in 1791, and it has octagonal cone-shaped belfry. The church itself was built in 1746, as is inscribed on a white architrave, and it was consecrated by the Novigrad's bishop Leoni in 1753 and dedicated to the archangel Michael. It replaced the old church of S. Michaelis in Nemore, of which nothing remains.
It replaced the old church of S. Michaelis in Nemore, of which nothing remains.
In the north, at 383 meters, there is a cemetery with St. Cancian's church, rebuilt in 1885. Inside there are no ornaments except for a large crucifix and a simple altar with a valuable wooden retable from the 16th century. In 1525 Venice started to encourage immigration of Slavic settlers, mostly farmers, as well as tradesmen from Furlania and Carnia.
Sterna was under Groznjan's jurisdiction until the end of World War II, and as a result it shared its history. In 1947 the Treaty of Paris deeded Sterna to the newly established People's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, while Groznjan remained a part of the Free Territory of Trieste until 1954. Today Sterna is home to farmers and small entrepreneurs.
Gradnja pruge započela je u svibnju 1900. nakon što su se sve zainteresirane strane usuglasile oko konačne trase. U početnom projektu pruga je trebala imati trasu Trst-Poreč-Kanfanar . No, problemi s financiranjem koji su pratili projekt od samoga početka doveli su do toga da trasa od Poreča do Kanfanara nikada nije završena. Duljina trase iznosi 123,1 km, širina kolosijeka iznosila je 760 mm. Prva dionica od Trsta do Buja puštena je u promet 1. travnja 1902. Svečano otvorenje druge dionice od Buja do Poreča bilo je 15.12.1902.
Trasa parenzane vrlo je zavojita, usječena u padine pitomih istarskih brežuljaka, prilagođavala se oblicima terena. Duž trase prokopano je 9 tunela ukupne dužine 1530 m. Najzahtjevniji za izvedbu je bio tunel Lucan dužine 544 m, a slijedili su nešto manji tuneli Motovun, Šaleta, Kalcini, Freski, Kostanjica, Sv. Vid, te dva mala tunela Završje I i Završje II. Od ostalih građevina treba istaknuti 16 mostova i 6 vijadukata, te veći broj propusta i nadvožnjaka.
Svojom dužinom od 79,10 m ističe se vijadukt Antonci s pet otvora i najvećim rasponom od 12 m, te nešto manji vijadukt Oprtalj od 75,24 m. Vijadukti su građeni od kamena s polukružnim lukovima položenim na masivne kamene stupove. Zadnja vožnja Parenzane bila je 31.08.1935., a nakon toga je prugu Musollini dao razmontirati, ukrcati na brod i odvesti u Etiopiju za potrebe osvajačkih ratova. Sudbina je htjela da brod nikada nije stigao do Abisinije, već je potonuo na sredini Sredozemnog mora.
Captivating beauty of a picturesque village on a hill. Old farm buildings are reminders of the past. The old and the new - left behind, altered, renovated, but never abandoned
Village facing a spacious plateau. New and old - past and future in one place. Nicely renovated house and well-kept surrounding area in the Vigini hamlet.
Abandoned and then reinhabited, the place invites you to visit. riving from Marusici to Sterna, after the turn leading to Vrnjak, a road on the left climbs to Kuberton. It is 1.5 km long and passes through Gomila Donja and Buslete villages. Prehistoric graves have been found in both Gomila villages. Kuberton is situated on the top of a hill, in a beautiful landscape with many chestnut trees. The church was dedicated to St. Lawrence and a wooden altar is still there; the rest of the inventory has mostly been stolen. Monsignor Parentin remembers a very precious object which once belonged to the church: a procession cross galvanized with copper, with reliefs on both sides and a bronze crucifix, with a built-in enameled plate displaying celestial symbols on a blue background, on the back.
The cross was made in the 13th century, and its present whereabouts are unknown. In 1655 a sealed parchment from 1543 was found in one of the altars of the Kuberton church. It documented dedication of the church by Pier Paolo Vergerio, a renegade Bishop of Koper. Kuberton was a part of the Sterna church district, and it was a fief of the bishops of Novigrad.
In the 13th century it belonged to Filip di Cosiliaco, a vassal of Count Mainard III of Gorizia. In 1250 he confirmed to of Andrea de Cirlago's descendants that he had sold the property to their father. In the 16th century the area was annexed by the Venetian Republic, and Kuberton became property of the Vergerio family. In 1585 it was sold to the Del Bello family, who gave it away to a certain Gropp of Piran as a part of their daughter's dowry. As a private property, Kuberton had its own jurisdiction until the fall of Venice in 1797. After that it shared Sterna's and Groznjan's destiny. It had a school, various trade shops and many farms, but after World War II many people emigrated to Italy and it remained empty, gradually turning to ruins. In the last several years some houses have been renovated and the place has slowly started to live again.
If you turn from the ancient Via Flavia at Ponte Porton, you will find yourself on a road climbing up the hill, where the old burial/sepulchral church of St. Stephen built in the 14th or 15th century, with a part of a wooden altar belonging to the ancient church of St. Anthony, still stands. In the middle of the cemetery there is a big cross with a bronze sculpture of Christ. From the Kostanjica crossroad a road leads to Biloslav, a village where the Parenzana railroad station used to be.
Past the cemetery, the road winds down to the ancient village of Kostanjica. The place was inhabited in ancient times; graves and inscriptions from the Roman era have been found. The parish church has been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Peter and Paul. It bears the Electamus Genoa 1769 inscription. It was rebuilt in 1500 and expanded in the year mentioned in the inscription. There are three altars, the biggest one, made of marble, displays statues of St. Paul and St. Peter. In front of the church there is a sandstone bell tower built during the Venetian rule; it has square ground-plan and octagonal belfry. On the arch one can read year 1766. The village is almost completely deserted; only a few people live by the main road. Houses have interesting architectural features, typical of Istrian villages: long balconies, small terraces and outdoor hearths for cooking and barbecuing.
Old cobblestone streets
In the late 14th century, during the Austrian rule, surrounding villages were populated by Wallachians. Venice took over in 1510, and the Worms Edict of 1521 confirmed the status. In 1530 Venice auctioned Kostanjica and it became, along with Zavrsje and Bercenigla, property of Giustignano Contarini, a citizen of Venice. The Contarini family owned it until the 18th century. There was also a Castagna family, whose coat of arms is still visible on an old façade. After the plague of 1630 Venice encouraged immigration of Croats from Dalmatia and other regions.
Local population has always been agricultural; fertile soil provided all the necessary aliments. Inhabitants of Kostanjica also worked on boats which transported timber down the river, from Bastija to the Mirna Harbour (Porto Quieto). They were called battellanti (bargemen).
Ancient Via Flavia, leading from Buje to Pula, crosses the Mirna at the bridge known as Ponte Porton. This ancient site, known also as Porta Porton, was once a little harbour where the local population exchanged various goods. The harbour was called Bastija, or palada Bastija. In the Roman times boats could sail up to there. Smaller boats could reach the Pietrapelosa fortress, near Buzet.
Over the centuries the river bed rose up because the canals were not cleaned, and only flat-bottomed boats could be used. Venetians cleaned the river bed so that timber from the nearby forest, dedicated to St. Mark and known as the Motovun forest, could be transported. By the Ponte Porton bridge there were a forester's house and an inn offering overnight stay. From there roads led to Vizinada, Buje, Groznjan, Kostanjica, Zavrsje, Livade, Pietrapelosa fortress, and Buzet.
Oasis of peace and quiet
A winding country road leads from the Ponte Porton site to the coast, through a beautiful region far away from the noise of civilization. The river valley is surrounded with fields and meadows.
PONTE PORTON
Ancient Via Flavia, leading from Buje to Pula, crosses the Mirna at the bridge known as Ponte Porton. This ancient site, known also as Porta Porton, was once a little harbour where the local population exchanged various goods. The harbour was called Bastija, or palada Bastija. In the Roman times boats could sail up to there. Smaller boats could reach the Pietrapelosa fortress, near Buzet.
Over the centuries the river bed rose up because the canals were not cleaned, and only flat-bottomed boats could be used. Venetians cleaned the river bed so that timber from the nearby forest, dedicated to St. Mark and known as the Motovun forest, could be transported. By the Ponte Porton bridge there were a forester's house and an inn offering overnight stay. From there roads led to Vizinada, Buje, Groznjan, Kostanjica, Zavrsje, Livade, Pietrapelosa fortress, and Buzet.
Bastija was a loading site for the precious timber from St. Mark's forest to be transported to the Venice Arsenal. Timber was loaded on the flat-bottomed boats which sailed to the sea pushed by the eastern wind. A landward breeze, called maestral, pushed long boats, loaded with various goods, upstream. Having passed a lime kiln, known as Cirenaica, where the river winds and capes create a lee, bargemen - inhabitants of Kostanjica - pushed and towed boats with forcadas (forked poles) and alzanas (towing ropes) up to the harbour. The harbour was of great importance to Groznjan and the surrounding settlements because, aside from timber transportation, it provided an opportunity for barter and trade of all kinds of goods.
On the left bank, about 1 km seaward from the bridge, there is a little church of Madonna of Bastija. It has a square ground-plan, a little distaff on the façade, and a dome supported by columns. It is a simple edifice, decorated with a painting of Madonna behind the altar. In the past the church was an important place of worship for both the passing seamen and the local population and their processions, wedding ceremonies, etc.
It was completely renovated in 1999. After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, the canals were abandoned, and meadows turned to swamps. Malaria reigned. Only in 1930 the Kingdom of Italy reclaimed the swamps, thus eradicating malaria and enabling cultivation of the fertile land. River traffic was replaced by road transportation.
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