: ''This article is about a geographical region bordering the Adriatic Sea. For information on the asteroid, see
183 Istria. For the commune in Romania, see
Istria, Constanţa.''
'Istria' (
Croatian and
Slovenian: ''Istra'',
Venetian and
Italian: ''Istria''), formerly ''Histria'' (Latin), is the largest
peninsula in the
Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the
Gulf of Trieste and the
Bay of Kvarner.
The geographical features of Istria include
UÄka mountain (''Monte Maggiore'') which is the highest point in the Ciceria (now called Cicarija) mountain range, the rivers
Dragonja,
Mirna,
PazinÄica and
Raša, and the
Lim bay. Istria has been subdivided by three countries:
Croatia,
Slovenia and
Italy. The largest portion, ''Croatian Istria'', is further divided into two counties. The largest portion is
Istria county in western
Croatia. Important towns in Istria county include
Pula (Pola),
PoreÄ (Parenzo),
Rovinj (Rovigno),
Pazin (Pisino),
Labin (Albona),
Umag (Umago),
Motovun (Montona),
Buzet (Pinguente) and
Buje (Buie), as well as smaller towns of
Višnjan (Visignano),
RoÄ (Rozzo), and
Hum (Colmo). A small slice in the north, including the coastal towns of
Izola (Isola),
Piran (Pirano),
Portorož (Portorose) and
Koper (Capodistria) became part of
Slovenia after the breakeup of Yugoslavia, and is commonly known as ''Slovenian Istria'' (Slovenska Istra), while a tiny region encompassing the town of
Muggia (Slovenian ''Milje'') belongs to
Italy and is known as ''Italian Istria''.
The small town of
Peroj, although not large by size, has had a unique history which exemplifies the multi-ethnic complexity of the history of the region, as also do some towns on both sides of the Cicerija mountains that are still identified with the Istro-Romanian people which the UNESCO Redbook of Endangered Languages calls "the smallest ethnic group in Europe".
History
Early history
Map of the Venetian Republic, circa
1000. The republic is in dark red, borders in light red.
One theory is that the name is derived from the
Illyrian
tribe of the 'Histri', which
Strabo refers to as living in the region. They Histri might as well be a venetian tribe from the northern adriatic area. The
Romans described the Histri as a fierce tribe of pirates, protected by the difficult navigation of their rocky coasts. It took two military campaigns for the Romans to finally subdue them in
177 BCE. The region was then called toegether with the ventian part the X. roman region of "Venetia et Histria". Per ancient definition the north-eastern border of Italy. Dante Alighieri refers to it as well.
Some scholars speculate that the names Histri and Istria are related to the Latin name Hister, or
Danube. Ancient folktales reported—inaccurately—that the Danube split in two or "bifurcated" and came to the sea near
Trieste as well as at the
Black Sea. The story of the "Bifurcation of the Danube" is part of the Argonaut legend.
After the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, the region was pillaged by the
Goths, the
Lombards, annexed to the Frankish kingdom by
Pippin III in
789, and then successively controlled by the dukes of
Carinthia,
Merano,
Bavaria and by the patriarch of
Aquileia, before it became the territory of the Republic of
Venice in
1267.
Istria in the Republic of Venice and the Holy Roman Empire (Austria)
The coastal areas and cities of Istria came under Venetian Influence in the IX century, It became definetly the territory of the
Republic of Venice in
1267. The Inner Istrian part around Mitterburg-Pisino (today
Pazin), was held for centuries by the
Holy Roman Empire, more specifically, the Austrians.
Istria in the Austrian Empire (1797-1918)
Venetian rule left a strong mark on the region, one that can still be seen today. The Inner Istrian part around Mitterburg-Pisino, today
Pazin, was held for centuries by the
Holy Roman Empire. The venetian part of the peninsula passed to it in
1797 with the
Treaty of Campo Formio. The Holy Roman Empire ended with the period of
Napoleonic rule from
1805 to
1813 when Istria became part of the Italian Kingdom and of the Illyrian provinces of the Napoleonic Empire. After this short period the newly established
Austrian Empire ruled Istria as the so called "
Küstenland" which included the city of Trieste and
Gorizia in Friuli until
1918. At that time the borders of Istria included a part of what is now Italian Venezia-Giulia and parts of modern-day Slovenia and Croatia, but not the city of Trieste. Today, Istria's borders are defined differently.
Interwar period and World War II: Istria in the Kingdom of Italy
Istria under Italian rule.
After
World War I and the dissolution of
Austria-Hungary, Istria was given to the
Kingdom of Italy. After the advent of
Fascism, Slavs were exposed to a policy of forced
Italianization and
cultural suppression. They lost their right to education and religious practice in their maternal language.
During
World War II many Slovenes and Croats ended up in prisons and
concentration camps, such as the
Rab concentration camp. In general the fascist authorities (First Kingdom of Italy then
Italian Social Republic) engaged in war crimes against the civilian Slavic population suspected of supporting the
Yugoslav Partisan movement, as well as Jews (later on) and other
holocaust victims.
Istria in the SFR Yugoslavia
After the end of
World War II, Istria was assigned to the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, except for a small part in the northwest corner that formed Zone B of the formally independent
Free Territory of Trieste (Trst); however Zone B was under Yugoslav administration and after the
de facto dissolution of the Free Territory in
1954 it was also incorporated into Yugoslavia. Only the small town of
Muggia (Milje), near
Trieste, being part of Zone A remained with
Italy. During and shortly after
World War II, Italians were killed in the so-called
foibe massacres, both in Istria and in the
Kras/Carso area surrounding Trieste. In the postwar years fear of communism and strong post-war ethnic tension resulted in almost all Italians leaving Istria. By
1956 the last migrations were coming to an end, Istria had lost a significant segment of its population and part of its social and cultural identity. The events of that period are most visible in
Pula (Pola), a city located on the southernmost tip of the Istrian peninsula. Between December 1946 and September 1947, the city was abandoned by nearly all its Italian inhabitants. Most of them left in the immediate aftermath of the signing of the
Paris Peace Treaty on
February 10,
1947, which ceded Pula to Yugoslavia. In a display of desperation, some exiles took with them not only their belongings but also their dead. The exodus from Pula received wide international press coverage. Some well-known postwar exiles from Istria include race driver
Mario Andretti, actress
Alida Valli, singer
Sergio Endrigo and boxer
Nino Benvenuti. Following the exodus, the areas were settled with additional
Croats,
Slovenians and a minute number of other Yugoslav nationalities like
Serbs and
Montenegrins.
Istria after the breakup of Yugoslavia
In the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, Istria was divided between the republics of
Croatia and
Slovenia, following ethnic division lines. After the breakup of Yugoslavia in
1991 this administrative subdivision became a border between independent states. Since
Croatia's first multi-party elections in
1990, the regional party
Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS-DDI, ''Istarski demokratski sabor'' or ''Dieta democratica istriana'') has consistently received a majority of the vote and maintained through 1990s a position often contrary to the government in
Zagreb, led by then nationalistic party
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ, ''Hrvatska demokratska zajednica'') with regards to decentralization in Croatia and certain
regional
autonomy. However, that changed in 2000, when IDS formed with five other parties left-centre coalition government, led by
Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP, ''Socijaldemokratska Partija Hrvatske''). After reformed HDZ won Croatian parliamentary elections in late 2003 and formed minority government, IDS has been cooperating with state government on many projects, both local (in
Istria County) and national.
Demographic history
Ethnic distribution in Istria in 1910:
Italians in Istria in 1910.
The region has traditionally been ethnically mixed. Under
Austrian rule in the
19th century, it included a large population of
Italians,
Croats,
Slovenes and some
Vlachs/
Istro-Romanians and
Serbs. In
1910, the ethnic and linguistic composition was completely mixed. According to the Austrian census results, out of 404,309 inhabitants in Istria, 168,116 (41.6%) spoke
Croatian, 147,416 (36.5%) spoke
Italian, 55,365 (13.7%) spoke
Slovenian, 13,279 (3.3%) spoke
German, 882 (0.2%) spoke
Romanian, 2,116 (0.5%) spoke other languages and 17,135 (4.2%) were non-citizens, which had not been asked for their language of communication. During the last decades of
Habsburg dynasty the coast of Istria profited from the tourism within the Empire. Generally speaking, Italians lived on coast, while Croats and Slovenians lived inland.
In the second half of the
19th century a clash of new
ideological movements, Italian
irredentism (which claimed Trieste and Istria) and Slovenian and Croatian
nationalism (developing individual identities in some quarters whilst seeking to unite in a South Slav bid in others), resulted in growing ethnic conflict between Italians one side and Slovenes and Croats in opposition. This was intertwined with the class conflict, as inhabitants of Istrian towns were mostly Italian, whilst
Croats or
Slovenes largely lived out in the country.
There is a long tradition of tolerance between the people who live there, regardless of their nationality, and although many Istrians today are ethnic Croats, a strong regional identity has existed over the years. The Croatian word for the Istrians is ''Istrani'', or ''Istrijani'', the latter being in the local
Chakavian dialect. The term ''Istrani'' is also used in Slovenia. Today the Italian minority is small, but the Istrian county in Croatia is bilingual, as are large parts of Slovenian Istria. Every citizen has the right to speak either Italian or Croatian (Slovenian in Slovenian Istria) in public administration or in court. Furthemore, Istria is a supranational European Region that includes Italian, Slovenian and Croatian Istria.
Ethnicity
As with many other regions in the former Yugoslavia, common concepts about ethnicity and nationality fail when applied to Istria. Discussions about Istrian ethnicity often use the words "Italian," "Croatian" and "Slovenian" to describe the character of Istrian people. However, these terms are best understood as "national affiliations" that may exist in combination with or independently of linguistic, cultural and historical attributes.
In Istrian contexts, for example, the word "Italian" can just as easily refer it can refer to
autochthonous speakers of the
Venetian whose antecedents in the region extend before the inception of the
Venetian Republic or
Istriot language the oldest spoken language in Istria dated back to the Romans, today spoken in the south west of Istria, but also to a descendant of immigrated during the
Mussolini period. It can also refer to Istrian Slavs who adopted the veneer of
Italian culture as they moved from rural to urban areas, or from the farms into the bourgeoisie. In fact most of the families in Inner Istria are mixed descendants.
Similarly, national powers claim Istrian Slavs according to local language, so that speakers of
ÄŒakavian and
Å tokavian dialects of
Croatian language are considered to be Croatians, while speakers of other dialects may be considered to be Slovenians. Those Croatian dialect speakers are descendants of the first Slavic immigrants which settled in the region in the 7th and the 8th centuries as well as the refugees of the turkish invasion and the
Ottoman Empire from
Bosnia and
Dalmatia from the 16 century. Often they were slavizised
Vlachs, the so called
Morlacchi -
Morlachs (vlachi mori). The Venetian Republic settled them down in Inner Istria, devastated by wars and plague. Many villages have the Morlchian name like
Cattuni-Katun. Like with all other regions, the local dialects of the Slavic communities are very slight across close distances. The Istrian Slavic and Italian vernaculars had both developed for many generations before being divided as they are today. This meant that Croats/Slovenes on one side and Venetians/other Italians on the other will have yielded towards each other culturally whilst distancing themselves from members of their ethnic groups living farther away. There is still the Romanian community to mention, the Istro-romanians in east and north of Istria (
Cicceria) and parts of neighbouring
Liburnia (the east coast of the peninsula which s not part of Istria)
Some Istrians consider themselves simply to be Istrians, with no additional national affiliation (in the 2001 Croatian census 8,865 (4.3%) people in
Istria county declared themselves "Istrian"
[1]). Nevertheless, most residents of Croatian Istria declare themselves as Croatian, while most residents of Slovenian Istria declare themselves as Slovenian.
Gallery
See also
★
Bay of Piran
Notes
1. Population according to ethnicity by towns/municipalities
External links
★
Istria on the Internet
★
Istria Travel Guide
★
Istria picture gallery
★
Croatian Istria's official tourist website
★
Virtual panoramas from Istra
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