As beautiful as the Croatian coast is today, can you imagine what it must have looked 500 – or even 1000 – years ago?
An era long before mass tourism and the apartmanisation of the Adriatic, leaving the magnificent historic cities and stone buildings which comprise major tourist attractions today.
A coast which is dominated by historic Dubrovnik in the south, the walls of Ston, great island settlements such as the towns of Korcula, Hvar and Stari Grad. Diocletian’s Palace in Split, Salona in Solin, the old town of Trogir, and the magnificence of Zadar and Sibenik.
And not forgetting Istria.
A cursory walk around the city of Pula indicates the sense of history and heritage that exists in the Istrian capital, and it was a great civilsation in the Roman era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbEtuuesYTs
The most obvious remnant of those golden days is the Roman amphitheatre, the Pula Arena, which dominates the waterfront of the city, and which we visited 2000 years ago yesterday in the form of Stipan Ujgur’s excellent 3D animated construction, which you can see above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY_ciWoXP2o
The amphitheatre was the seat of entertainment for the Roman city, but the seat of power was a short walk away in the Pula Forum, where today’s authorities continue that tradition. The local administration and mayor’s office are located in Forum, and it is one of the city’s most popular squares.
It was also very vibrant many years ago, as one can see from the latest 3D animation from Stipan Ujgur in our series.
life in Dubrovnik before the 1667 earthquake.
