City Pula

Pula is a port city on the south west coast of the Istrian peninsula, located on the coastal plain, and surrounded by seven hills (Kaštel, Zaro, Arena, St Martin, Opatija Sv. Mihovila, Mondipola and kontrada St. Ivan), at the end of a well protected and deep bay. It has a population of about 60,000.  Pula is well connected with the interior of the country and foreign countries by road, rail and air routes, and by sea with all the major Adriatic ports. The city has room for about 10,000 guests, and the surroundings (Medulin, Puntižela, Fažana, Brijuni and Premantura) can take another 20,000 or so. Most of the tourist facilities are to be found in the quarters called Verudela and Zlatne stijene.

The holiday village of Verudela is located on the peninsula of the same name, right next to the city. Here there are four hotels, a complex of flatlets, villages and a pavilion quarter. Alongside them there are four outdoor pools, beaches with recreational facilities, restaurants, galleries, shops with food, souvenirs and fashions.

There is a sports park in the area with a large number of tennis courts. Zlatne stijene (Golden Cliffs) is located alongside the coast, the open sea of the Adriatic stretching out in front of it. In the village there is a hotel, a complex of apartments, two complexes of pavilions. Alongside them there is a sports park with a lot of tennis courts and  a disco club inside a great pyramidal structure.

These were on the whole knocked down at the beginning of the 19th century, only a few of the entrances begin preserved. The Sergijevaca triumphal arch is at the end of the street (Via Sergia) that goes from the Forum eastwards. It was hard on the city gate called Porta Aurea, and thus it had richly sculpted ornaments only on the western, visible, side. It was erected, as her own expense, by Salvia Postuma Sergi, in honour of three relatives who were senior officials of the Empire in Pula in the first century BC. This impressive monument of ancient culture has for centuries been a motif for many of the greatest artists, especially Italians, including Michelangelo. To the north there are still two more ancient city gates, the Hercules and the Double. Outside the walls there were necropolises, many fragments of which are preserved in the Archaeological Museum.

Not far from the Double Gate traces have been found of funerary building, of an octagonal mausoleum built in the 1st or 2nd century AD. The Forum, the central square of classical and medieval Pula, was once surrounded by arcades with statues and reliefs, while on the northern side there were temples.

The Temple of Augustus has been completely preserved; it was built between 2 BC and 14 AD. On the eastern slopes of the hill Kaštel, inside the city walls, are the remains of the foundations of the Roman theatre, including parts of the auditorium. This was the smaller theatre; the bigger one was built outside the walls and nothing important of it remains, just a few pieces of the relief being kept in the Archaeological Museum. This museum is near the theatre; it contains monuments from the prehistoric periods and the medieval period, as well as a great many classical finds from the area of Pula and Istria in general.

The Orthodox Church of St Nicholas is located on the northern slopes of Kaštel. This is another example of Byzantine architecture in Pula. It was built in the second half of the 6th century. With its polygonal apse it is an example of typical Ravenna style architecture. There is an iconostasis of the 18th century, the work of the Greek master Tomios Batos. The Franciscan Church of St. Francis of Assisi and the monastery in it are to be found on the south west slope of Kaštel; they were built in the 14th century.

The Church dates back to 1314, and has all the characteristics of the transitional Romanesque-Gothic style. Its shape is severe and simple, as befits a mendicant order’s church. On the main altar there is a great wooden, gilded polyptych of the mid-15th century. In the central field is a tall relief of the Madonna with Child, and to the side, in a line above the relief, there are in all 12 pictures of saints. The polyptych was finished with carved Gothic finials. The monastery has a cloister with early Renaissance pillars, built in the 15th century. The City Hall, located in the Forum, is a remarkable mixture of styles, from the walls of the ancient Temple of Diana built into the rear wall, via Romanesque and Gothic elements (it was completely rebuilt in 1296) to Renaissance elements.