Rovinj - Croatia’s St Tropez

Valda, our Airbnb host in Pula, had urged us to go to the resort of Rovinj (pronounced Rovene): ‘It’s Croatia’s St Tropez,’ she said. So we headed there for the afternoon, stopping on the Riva (seafront) for lunch. It was to be our last day of vacation before driving back to Zagreb so Carol was keen to savour Cuttlefish Black Risotto one last time, and I had one last chance to photo her black tongue!

Rovinj Riva

We found a restaurant and the waiter ushered us in. I’d watched him joking in Italian with patrons at a table by the door as we perused the menu. I needn’t have worried; he was just as fluent in English as he showed us our table, poking fun at us as if he’d known us for years, then he switched to German at the next table. These guys are amazing – not just ‘making do’ in three or four languages but genuinely functioning in them. The food was good too.

As we ate, a tractor pulled up at a stop sign in front of the restaurant. ‘That’s something you don’t see in St Tropez,’ we laughed.

The bay at Rovinj is full of small boats jostling in the waves. The Riva sweeps round in a curve and we walked around it in order to climb the steep, cobbled streets to the Cathedral of St Euphemia. As we puffed up the hill the buildings on either side seemed to crowd in on us until we got to the open grassed crest. All the way up we’d been beside four middle aged women complaining about the heat, their marriages and/or divorces, relatives and so on – they didn’t have a good word to say.

Mother Teresa Shrine

We entered the Cathedral, another attractive building hosting the relics of its Saint. Unusually, amid the statues of Jesus, Mary and the apostles, stood a statue of Mother Teresa (now St Teresa of Calcutta), wearing her distinctive white and blue robe.

Stair detail

As usual, my friend Marc and I headed for the bell tower; this one only accessible from within the Cathedral. We’d climbed many scary stairs over our time in Croatia but none compared to these, and at 200ft they are the second highest in Croatia. They were old, wooden and open, rotting and spongy at the edges; at times they were little more than rough-hewn squares. And, as you reached the top they turned into an ancient ladder, propped up against an opening no bigger than you’d find in the trap door to your loft. ‘This bell tower would have been shut down by Health & Safety Canada years ago,’ I said as, nevertheless, we climbed them. The Cathedral is at the very Western tip of a peninsula, jutting into the Adriatic: with a little imagination we could almost see Venice. Then, with quivering legs, I made my way back down through the hatch.

Staircase from Above

As if in anticipation of the sighs of relief and swearing that would accompany anyone getting back to the bottom of the stairs, a sign directing ‘Silence’ greeted you as you re-entered the Cathedral. Marc and I walked back down the aisle to meet the girls, when whom should we meet but the four women from the cobbled climb. I urged them to go up the staircase: ‘The views are wonderful,’ and they were. But, as I looked to my right I saw Mother Teresa and I swear I heard her tut-tutting…

View from St Euphemia Bell Tower Looking North

Porec - Euphrasian Basilica

Altar Backdrop Mosaics

Declared a World Heritage Site in 1997, the Euphrasian Basilica forms the centre of Porec (pronounced porredge). It’s a stunning Byzantine Cathedral built in the 6^th Century, most famous for its mosaics. As with many Croatian churches if you dig deep enough you find Roman remains. This one has lavish Roman mosaics, many just a few feet beneath the chapel floor, remains of a Roman house that stood here, as well as earlier churches, some built before the acceptance of Christianity. A mosaic fish, representing Christ, is a relic of this time.

We entered the main church to find a glowing, gold-inlaid, altar backdrop, a mosaic that dates from when the Cathedral was built, and a work that rivals Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. The highest part shows Jesus in the middle of the 12 apostles. Below him, in the centre of the arch, the Lamb of God centres portraits of 12 female martyrs. Below the Lamb, the hand of God is crowning the Virgin Mary, as she holds the baby Jesus; unnamed martyrs are depicted on either side of her, although they are likely local, recognisable by the objects they bear, including St Maurus bearing a martyr’s crown & St Eleutherius, both martyred by the Romans. Bishop Euphrasius, after whom the basilica is named, carries a model of the church. Below the arch, an ornate marble ciborium (canopy) stands over the altar.

Statuary in Bishop’s Palace

Reliquary

An octagonal baptistery forms a separate room within the walls. The font is set in the floor where converts descended to be baptised. A striking wooden-beamed roof covers this chamber. Stairs lead up from the baptistery to another feature common to Croatian religious sites; the bell tower with a questionable staircase. This one was rickety but after those we’d climbed earlier in our trip we took it in our stride. The views were worth the effort.

The Bishop’s Palace beside the Cathedral houses a museum featuring historic sacred carvings, religious paintings, Bishop’s cassocks and various Roman artefacts.

A sarcophagus holds the relics of Saints Maurus and Eleutherius, key figures in Porec’s Christian past, in a small, unadorned chapel to the side, having been here since the building was constructed. We didn’t go in…

Porec is a tourist town and despite showing all the elements of its Venetian era with its warm beige walls, red tiled roofs and the Lion of St Mark, hosts lots of trinkets for the sightseer: Croatian soccer shirts, decorative plates and more dubious wares. We bought gifts to take home although, typical of Croatia, there was a picture I really wanted; the store was open but no salesperson was there. I returned three times in an hour and no one had returned, so I gave up – I could have taken it and left the cash, but it just didn’t feel right…

Baptistery Ceiling

Basilica from the Atrium showing Four Martyrs killed with St. Maurus

Pula - Fights Ancient and Modern

As with so many Roman cities in Croatia, a wall surrounded Pula from Roman times into the Middle Ages. The Roman Arena I talked about last week sat outside that wall. Parts of the wall and some of its gates remain in a city that preserves many Roman artefacts.

Arch of the Sergii with (yellow) Joyce Berlitz Building

On our first morning we walked through the market to the Arch of the Sergii. Beside it, a wonderful breakfast of frittata on a sunny restaurant patio fortified us for the day ahead. Across from the patio an Irish pub commemorates the time James Joyce lived here as a 22-year-old English teacher for the Berlitz school. The Arch was built around 28 BCE with private funds and stood in front of the existing city gate. It boasts a number of carvings – the underside of the arch displays an eagle attacking an enemy of Rome, depicted by a snake.

Eagle versus Snake

Portions of the wall remain and a little to the north sit the Twin Gates providing a now modern entrance to the archaeological museum. By the time we got there it was hot and nearing midday so we headed to the site of the old Forum. This is the site of the Temple of Augustus, built during the his reign and considered one of the most complete Roman buildings outside of Italy. My friend and I set up for a photo of this building, in the harsh light of noon when a couple walked into frame and sat in the centre to devour their sandwiches. Other tourists are the bane of photographers everywhere and I usually ignore them, but these guys were almost posing… …and not in a good way.

The Twin Gates

So we retreated to the shade of a restaurant patio and ordered a litre of house wine and some lunch to go with it. Our sommelier friend Lili was impressed and asked the waiter where it was from.

‘It’s local.’

‘Well, it’s very good.’

With typical Croatian bluntness, he smiled: ‘I’ve got better.’

It was a lovely, long, slow lunch though.

Relief in the Temple

We rose and entered the Temple, now a museum, and found it surprisingly small: a Tardis in reverse, but housing some small Roman sculptures and reliefs.

I got up early the next morning to catch my Roman remains naked. One of the things that stood out on my early morning walk was the number of stores selling used goods, ‘second hand shops,’ and their quirky signs were written only in English. As I walked past the Cathedral I noticed a tombstone in the grass that commemorates the Vergarola Explosion of 1946 – the detonation of 9 tons of munitions on a nearby beach, being guarded by the British. Croatia had been governed by Fascist Italy during WWII and was in the process of transition to Communist Yugoslavia. At the time of the blast a swimming competition was underway: 70 or 80 were killed and more than 100 injured, many were young children. Beside the stone is a plaque remembering Dr. GeppinoMicheletti who, despite losing two sons in the explosion worked tirelessly treating the injured for long hours. No culprits were found but the explosion was considered to be an act of protest at the transition of Croatia.

Second Hand Store

In the evening there was a nationalist fight of a different kind: soccer (football) as Croatia met the Czech Republic in the UEFA Championship. Croatia had done well in the competition to that point and was expected to dominate this match. We walked down into the market and took our seats outside a bar. All of the streets leading off the market are pedestrianized and each bar had set up a flat screen display with seating in the street. We ordered our beers and settled in. The game went well for the first half with Croatia ahead 2 - 0. Then, inexplicably, the coach pulled Modric (pronounced Modrich), their star player who had controlled the play and things started to unravel. It turns out that management of the Croatian team is controversial and in a corner of the field a bunch of protesters suddenly threw flares onto the pitch. The pitch burned. The crowd we were amongst had been growing restless with the demise of Modric but now they were openly hostile. We ordered more beer.

Soccer in the Street

The action was stopped for 30 minutes or more, as the referee tried to sort it out, but the damage had been done and the Czech Republic tied the game. The fans plodded out of the bars and mumbled their way home…

All in all we’d watched many of the UEFA games during our time in Croatia; some in German, one in Italian, most in Croatian, but it didn’t seem to matter. Sports announcers all sound the same regardless of the words they use. And, for this game, it was as well we didn’t understand the Croatian colour commentary.

The Temple of Augustus

Pula’s Roman Amphitheatre

Back in 2013, we’d stood atop the coliseum in Jerash, Jordan with our Croatian hosts admiring the view and listening to an Arab bagpiper playing Fréré Jacques when Lili said: ‘We have an amphitheatre like this in Croatia, close to where my relatives live – we should all go there.’Brought to us through a remarkable tale of survival, this magnificent structure looks out across coast of Istria towards Venice. So, this structure is the reason we came to Croatia.

We’d arrived late in the day to another beautiful Airbnb lodging, the downstairs of a house with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a beautiful kitchen, a lounge and three verandas. As the girls unpacked Marc and I walked down into the town looking for bread and milk. We came upon a market – the only open shop was a bakery and we walked in: ‘Do you speak English?’ I said to the young woman behind the counter.

Interior Showing Modern Stage

‘Yes,’

As I examined the various loaves on display, I asked: ‘Do you sell milk?’

‘Ah… …this is a bakery, so what do you think? You can buy milk up the street and she gestured with her arm.’ I bought a loaf.

It took us a while but we found a small supermarket and bought meat, cheese, peppers and… …milk. It was time for a light supper!

Next morning we headed into town to the coliseum. The Pula Arena as it is known is one of the largest surviving Roman arenas and considered the best preserved ancient monument on Croatia – it retains its complete outer wall. Nowadays, it’s used as a theatre and site for rock concerts, opera and even (ice) hockey with a capacity of 7,000. In Roman times spectacles of gladiators fighting to the death, wild animals being hunted, and Christians being martyred, played to seated crowds of 23,000.

Death was this close!

Gladiators, animals, Christians, other victims and all of the props were kept in underground passages and brought into the ring through a series of cleverly engineered cantilevered elevators.

Sensuous Amphora (wine flasks)

The Arena was first constructed in the early first Century by Roman Emperor Claudius but soon enlarged by Vespasian and remained in use until the 7^th Century. By that time locals had started to plunder its stone for construction. But many local edicts limited the destruction. Perhaps the greatest threat came under Venetian rule when there was a movement to tear it down and rebuild it inside Venice city limits, although it’s not clear where they would have put it.  The Venetian Senator Gabriele Emo blocked this initiative and a stone inside the Arena commemorates his efforts, on behalf of Pula. There have been several restorations over the centuries, finally in 1932 the adaptation for modern entertainment.

Before we could go underground to the museum, and find our way out into the town, we were accosted by gladiators – of course, we had to pay them to photograph their aggression… The museum displays artefacts discovered within the site including a collection of amphora, winemaking apparatus. No wild animals or martyrs though.

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The Scampi of Opatija

Food is one of the true joys of Croatia, seafood in particular. So it was that we stopped in Opatija (Oh-pat-ee-ah) on the Kvarner Gulf of Istria as we made our way from Zadar to our next home in Pula. 

We’d followed the scenic coast road north paralleling some of Croatia’s larger islands; Pag, famous for its delicious sheep cheese, Krk (Kirk), the cradle of the Croatian language, and Rab, famous as the birthplace of naturist bathing in the country: in 1936, just months before he abdicated, Edward VIII convinced the Rab authorities to allow him and his future wife Wallis Simpson to swim naked there, starting a trend. Nudist beaches are now widespread in Croatia, but not for us - we hadn’t brought the right gear.

Lunch at the Elita

Opatija was once an illustrious seaside resort; grand hotels still tower above the seafront, ever hopeful. We’d come here specifically to savour the local delicacy, scampi. Restaurants all along the lungamare (promenade) advertise scampi as their primary offering. But, naturally, our guides had a specific restaurant in mind, the buffet Elita. We were ushered to a table on its veranda where we could look across the bay.

We ordered our scampi. Although the menu translation called them shrimp, the creatures that came looked more like miniature lobsters. And, the waiter insisted we could suck meat out of the legs, but good luck, they were like cribbage pins! For $70 (£40) a kilo, enough to feed two, we ate like kings; well Carol did!

And, of course, there was wine. I haven’t spoken much about wine on our travels, but Croatian wine is very good and inexpensive, even though you don’t see it much in wine stores at home. Many people don’t realize it but, although often thought to be Californian, Zinfandel originated in Croatia.

Maiden with the Seagull

After lunch we sauntered along the riva (seafront) and down to the statue for which Opatija has become famous – Maiden with the Seagull – standing on an outcrop. In the late 19^th century, the town was a winter retreat for royalty; Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I wintered here. In early 1891, Count Arthur Kesselstadt disappeared near this point while swimming. His distraught family erected a statue of the Madonna in his memory but this site is open to the worst of the elements and weatherworn it was eventually removed. The Maiden was erected in 1956 and, with her arm stretched out to guide the gull on its way, has become a landmark of lost love and hope.

 As the clouds gathered we left the seaside and headed northwest with a heavy heart. We were heading for the city of Pula with its famed Roman relics. Our few days there were to be our final days in Croatia.

Clouds gather over the Opatija Seafront

SIbenik Cathedral

On the way to Zadar, we took a side trip for lunch in Sibenik famous for its magnificent Cathedral of St James, a World Heritage Site that dominates the city. It’s considered the most important Renaissance building in Croatia and is the only Cathedral in Europe constructed entirely of stone – no wood was used in its construction – hard to believe when you look up at the dome. Commenced in the 15^th century, it took more than 100 years to build, this due to funding issues and resulting change of architects.

Sibenik Cathedral Heads

Its most unique features are the more than 70 heads that pop out of a frieze around the exterior. They are remarkably well-preserved, vibrant, portrayals of ordinary people, associates of the original architect George of Dalmatia (Juraj Dalmatinac in Croatian); peasants, fishermen, soldiers, even children. They made me think of the wall ornaments (Bossons Chalkware heads) that decorated my Auntie Queen’s walls in the 1960’s, but these have lasted more than 500 years. A good opportunity for fridge magnets, although a lot smaller…

The statues of Adam and Eve that frame the northern portal or Lion Gate court some controversy. Each standing above a lion, Adam is covering his chest while Eve is concealing her stomach, although not well enough to hide her superfluous belly button – the Bible says she was made from Adam’s rib, rather than born of woman.

Unfortunately, the cathedral was under renovation when we visited but the splendour of the interior shone through the scaffolding. Carol stopped to light a candle for her friend, as she often does, before we descended into the baptistery where I was struck, not by the font, but by the lacey carvings in the ceiling. Walking back down the aisle we stopped to look at the perfectly symmetrical stained glass rose window above the main entrance.

As we headed to lunch an ancient lion emerged from the ground, as if preparing a surprise attack. We stopped for lunch on the river, overlooking the luka (harbour). No surprise to anyone, but an emerging theme of our holiday, was the amount I drank. Marc always ordered a large Ojusko, while I ordered a small one. The surprise in Sibenik was we finally realized that my beer was almost the same price as Marc’s. From that point on we both ordered large and we shared mine.

Large or small, the beauty of Sibenik was well worth the detour.

Sibenik Cathedral - Baptistery Ceiling