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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