May 25, 2020 — It survived several empires, wars and an epidemic or two in its 2,000 years of existence. Pula’s Roman Arena has now seen through the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as well, reopening to visitors every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Archaeological Museum of Istria announced on Monday.
The museum, which manages Pula’s arena and other monuments, closed the Roman relic and other facilities to visitors on March 13 in accordance with measures to combat the spread of coronavirus enacted by the City of Pula.
The amphitheater technically did open once, allowing local cellist Stjepan Hauser to stream a concert from the arena.
Visitors will have to adopt epidemiological measures, and working hours will be extended if there is more interest in visits.
According to the Museum Documentation Center (MDC), Croatian museums had more than 5.2 million visitors last year. The Archaeological Museum of Istria had more than 575,000 visitors.
The arena is the most spectacular monument that Pula offers, and thanks to it, the Archaeological Museum of Istria generates large revenues.
In the first eight months of last year alone, the Arena was visited by 373,583 tourists. Revenue from tickets was HRK14.6 million, which is 2.6 percent or about HRK370,000 more than in 2018. And there were about two percent more visitors.
