Istria County


Istria County is the westernmost county of Croatia which includes the majority of the Istrian peninsula.
Administrative centers in the county are Pazin, Pula and Poreč. Istria County has the largest Italian-speaking population in Croatia. It borders Slovenia on the north.

History

The caves near Pula, Lim bay, Šandalja, and Roumald's cave, house Stone Age archaeological remains. Less ancient Stone Age sites, from the period between 6000 and 2000 BC can also be found in the area. More than 400 locations are classified as Bronze Age which are from the earlier iron era around the beginning of common era.
The Istrian peninsula was known to Romans as the terra magica. Its name is derived from the Histri, an Illyrian tribe who as accounted by the geographer Strabo lived in the region. Romans described them as pirates who were hard to conquer due to the difficulty of navigating the territory. After two military campaigns, Roman legions finally subdued them in 177 BC.
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Istria was conquered by the Goths and then by the Byzantines. During Byzantine rule, it was shortly ruled by Avars. Istria was annexed by the Lombards in 751, by the Avars in 774, by the Franks during the reign of Charlemagne in 789, and successively controlled by various dukes,. Later it was run by the patriarchs of Aquileia.
In 1267 the Republic of Venice annexed the western and southern coast of the Istrian peninsula because of the strong presence of the autochthonous Italian community; during this period the region prospered. The major Istrian cities were reborn under Venetian government; it was in this half millennium that they developed architecturally and culturally. The eastern half of Istria was administered by the Habsburgs, and was referred to as "Imperial Istria" with its capital at Pisino.
In 1797, with the Treaty of Campo Formio written by Napoleon, the peninsula with the whole Republic of Venice passed to the Habsburgs of Austria. The Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 handed Istria to the Kingdom of Italy. The Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809 transferred Istria to France. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna confirmed Austria's possession on the Northern Adriatic Sea along with Istria. Regional guvernative units were formed in Gorizia, Trieste, and Rijeka. From 1849 they were united in Austrian Littoral. The free port of Trieste presented an individual guvernative unit outside of other guvernative areas.
Starting in 1861 until 1918/1920 the seat to a regional Parliament in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in Parenzo.
After World War I, according to the peace treaty of Rapallo Istria became part of Italy in 1920. Fascism and later Nazi occupation spoiled otherwise tolerant ethnic relations in the area. After World War II Istria was assigned to Yugoslavia and many ethnic Italians left in the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus. With the collapse of Communist Yugoslavia Istria became part of an independent Croatia and the region saw no fighting in the ensuing war. Today it is one of the most economically developed parts of Croatia. Currently, some people ask for a higher degree of autonomy for the county. This is part of the Istrian regionalist movement.
Personalities like Robert Koch and writer James Joyce lived and worked in Istria. Writer Jules Verne was inspired to write his novel Mathias Sandorf after hearing of the quarry and cave in Pazin and the poet Dante Alighieri visited and wrote a few lines about Istria. Racing drivers Mario Andretti and Aldo Andretti were born in Montona in Istria.

Geography

Its coastline is long with islands making up. A smaller part of Istria also belongs to the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County of Croatia. Mirroring the bay of Venice across the Adriatic and the Quarnaro Gulf, the region is not far from the Julian Alps. The westernmost point is at Savudrija while the southernmost is near Premantura, on the local promontory of Kamenjak.
The terrain consists of a limestone plateau much of which lacks water owing to its karst topography. The northeastern section is an extension of the Dinaric Alps. The highest point is Vojak on Učka mountain above sea level and there is another range of mountains, the Ćićarija.
There are so called "bijela", "siva", and "crvena" Istra. White Istria is around the mountain peaks, Grey Istria is the fertile inner lands while Red Istria is the blood-red painted lands of terra rossa or "crljenica" near the coastline.
Sites such as the Grotto of Baredine near Poreč, the underground river Pazinčica, and the karst Pazin pit near Pazin are geologic attractions. The Limski Kanal is the only structure resembling a fjord in continental Europe outside of Scandinavia. The quarry near Rovinj has been designed for studying geology. The longest river, the Mirna is only long and its mouth is near Novigrad. Other rivers that pass through Istria include the Dragonja River and the Raša River.
The continental plains and valleys are primarily utilized for agriculture, such as growing cereals and vegetables. Closer to the sea, red lands are used for cultivation of grapes, vine, olives, and figs. Agriculture and the production of ecological food, the olive gardens, and the production of quality wines is the focus of Istria's agriculture sector. The coastline and nearby islands are rich in the maquis shrubland. Woods, mostly oak and pine trees, cover a third of the territory.
The Brijuni national park and the Učka nature park are well-known natural reservations and legally protected landscapes. This mountain range feeds the rivers and lakes from eastern Istria to the Raša river in the Labinština peninsula. Other interesting localities are Lim Bay, the wood near Motovun, park woods Zlatni Rt and Šijana near Pula, the protected landscape of Kamenjak in the extreme south of Istria, and the reservation Palud with an ornithology near Rovinj. The Brijuni archipelago is an interesting habitat of about 680 plant species and also decorated by the most diverse vegetation and olive groves.

Climate

Protected from the north by the mountain chain of Alps as well the inner highland, the climate is borderline Mediterranean and humid subtropical with wetter winters and drier summers, but not completely dry. Overall a very pleasant climate with the highest air temperature averaging 24 °C during August, and the lowest air temperature averaging 5 °C in January. Summers are usually warm during the day and cooler near the evening, although strange heat wave patterns are common. The weather ranges from humid to dry with over 10 hours of sunshine daily. Primarily, there is a lot of moisture in the air especially in the coastal towns of Istra such as Poreč, Vrsar, Rovinj, Pula, and others. Temperatures above 10 °C last for more than 240 days a year. Excessive heat lasts for three weeks at the most. Despite air temperatures being lower than those in Dalmatia, the Adriatic Sea is warmer reaching up to 26 °C in August, coldest in March,, while the freezing even in small, shallow bays is quite rare. There are two kinds of winds - the bora is bringing cold and clear weather from the north in winters, and the southern jugo bringing rain in summer. The maestral is a summer breeze blowing from the inland to the sea. The salinity of the sea water is 0.37%.

Demographics

According to the 2021 census the total population of Istria County is 195,794 which amounts to approximately 4.8% of Croatia's entire population. The county's population density is approximately 70 inhabitants per km2 with an average age of 45 years.
Istria county is administratively subdivided into 41 local units of government - 10 of these are officially designated as cities/towns and 31 are largely rural municipalities. More than 70 percent of the county's population lives in these ten urban areas:
  • Pula / Pola
  • Poreč / Parenzo
  • Rovinj / Rovigno
  • Umag / Umago
  • Labin / Albona
  • Pazin / Pisino
  • Buzet / Pinguente
  • Vodnjan / Dignano
  • Buje / Buie
  • Novigrad / Cittanova
There are also 31 municipalities:
Italian is recognized in the county as an official language, alongside the official Croatian, and the Chakavian dialect of Croatian is often in use, as in most coastal counties.
In 2021 the population was 195,237 and the main ethnic groups were as follows:
Before World War I and until World War II, Istria contained a large autochthonous Romance language speaking community consisting of Venetian dialects, Istriot and Istro-Romanian along with Italian, plus various local Slavic dialects, some of which were likewise unique to Istria. Today, apart from the local dialects and official Croatian, one still finds in this region a small community of people, the Istro-Romanians, who speak Istro-Romanian, closely related to Romanian, other districts where Venetian dialects and Istriot are still spoken.
Due to its traditional bond with Europe and its level of international integration, in 1994 Istria County was the first Croatian region to become a member of the Assembly of European Regions.