As Morski writes, the City of Pula is reputed to be one of the ”most touristic” and most visited cities in all of Istria, however, it still doesn’t have a decent, properly run public toilet. Recently, the project of renovating the toilets on the city’s main promenade was supposed to start, but a storm arose over the cost of the renovation – Pula allocated around 1 million kuna for the works and the renovation. However, given the fact that the decision on public procurement hasn’t yet been made, it seems that the entire project has been abandoned for now.
Almost a hundred years ago, Pula definitely didn’t have thousands of tourists to carer to, but it still did have several public toilets which had been built by the Italians. It isn’t exactly practical for Pula or for Pula tourism to not have a proper, decent and well-functioning public toilet. It would be a bare faced lie to claim there aren’t any at all, as there is one inside the market, but it isn’t very easy to find, which kind of defeats the object.
”Tourists can hardly find this place. That’s why the city administration intended to restore the toilet on the main city promenade. That toilet has been closed for more than a year, it was supposed to be renovated for a value of around 1 million kuna, but as we’ve unofficially found out, that idea was abandoned,” said Damir Prhat of the the city administration.
Although many are already calling it the “million kuna toilet”, archaeologists note that it is a cultural asset located in the complex of the city walls, which could pose issues and delays.
”When you take into account the fact that the restoration of the staircase and the renovation of the tower are also being done, I assume that the price is skyrocketing because all work on the cultural property is performed by companies that specialise in work solely on such buildings,” said Darko Komso, the director of the Archaeological Museum of Istria.
Whether or not Pula will finally get its own public toilet by the next tourist season remains to be seen, but with Pula tourism on an upward trajectory, it will be a little more than embarrassing if this situation is still as it is this time next year.
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