Travel in Pula - Croatia - Europe - History

Pula - History

Pula is situated at the southeast end of the Istrian peninsula and has been in existence since 3 thousand years.

During the Roman reign, the colony was named "Pietas Iulia", and later Colonia Iulia Polentia Herculanea, under the protection of legendary Hercules. The town, situated on the main hill, started to expand around the bay and developed into a cultural and entertainment nucleus for Roman emperors, renaissance poets and painters, Venetian senators, French generals. Pula's history was influenced by the Roman Empire, the Eastern Goths, and later by Byzantium. The Franks, Venetians, Austrians, Hungarians, Italians and Slavs acclaimed the town.

In the 13^th century new political forces emerged. Over a century Venetians have gradually taken the western part of the Istrian peninsula.

Thus Pula remained bound to the Venetian economical and political aims for the next centuries. During the 14^th, 15^th and 16^th centuries Pula was being attacked and conquered by Genoa, Croatian-Hungarian and Habsburg armies, causing the devastation of numerous medieval villages and towns. Besides the war calamity, the population of Pula and Istria was reduced by the numerous plague, malaria, typhoid and chicken pox epidemics. In those past centuries, Pula became a typical medieval town, in Romanesque-Gothic style.

During World War II, under the fascist rule, Pula was known as an antifascist town that organized its battle for the future while experiencing bomb raids, devastation, as well as repressions over the defeated. After the War against the German occupation Pula came under the Anglo-American administration. In 1947 Pula finally turned to its natural hinterland - Croatia (according to the 1943 Resolution), and therefore Yugoslavia. This caused still another exodus of the malcontent Italian citizens. That was the beginning of a new period in the history of Pula that lasted till Croatia gained independence.

click to go back