Pula
Once the chief port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, PULA is an engaging combination of working port, naval base and brash riviera town. The Romans put the city squarely on the map when they arrived in 177 BC, transforming it into an important commercial centre. The most obvious relic of their rule is the first century BC Amphitheatre ( amfiteatar ; daily: June-Sept 8am-9pm; Oct-May 9am-5pm; 16kn) just north of the centre, a great grey elliptical skein of connecting arches, silhouetted against the skyline from wherever you stand in the city. It's the sixth largest in the world, and once had space for over 23,000 spectators. The outer shell is fairly complete, as is one of the towers, up which a slightly hair-raising climb gives a good sense of the enormity of the structure and a view of Pula's industrious harbour. You can also explore some of the cavernous rooms underneath, which would have been used for keeping wild animals and Christians before they met their death. They're now given over to piles of crusty amphora, and reconstructed olive presses.South of the amphitheatre, central Pula circles a pyramidal hill, scaled by secluded streets and topped with a star-shaped Venetian fortress. On the eastern side of the hill, Istarska (which subsequently becomes Giardini) leads down to the first-century BC Triumphal Arch of the Sergians (Slavoluk obitelja Sergijevaca), through which ul Sergijevaca, a lively pedestrianized thoroughfare, leads in turn to a square known as Forum - site of the ancient Roman forum and these days the centre of Pula's old quarter. On the far side of here, the slim form of the Temple of Augustus was built between 2 BC and 14 AD to celebrate the cult of the emperor; the high Corinthian columns of its frontage intact and imposing, this is one of the best examples of a Roman temple outside Italy.
Heading north from Forum along Kandlerova leads to Pula's Cathedral (daily 7am-noon & 4-6pm), a broad, simple and very spacious structure that is another mixture of periods and styles: a fifteenth-century renovation of a Romanesque basilica built on the foundations of a Roman temple. Inside, the high altar consists of a third-century marble Roman sarcophagus, said to have once contained the remains of the eleventh-century Hungarian King Solomon. From the cathedral, you can follow streets up to the top of the hill, the site of the original Roman Capitol and now the home of a mossy seventeenth-century fortress , built by the Venetians and now housing the pretty inessential Historical Museum of Istria (daily: summer 8am-7pm; winter 9am-6pm; 10kn). You're better off following tracks to the far side of the fortress where there are the remains of a small Roman Theatre , and the Archeological Museum (Arheoloski muzej; May-Sept Mon-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 10am-3pm; Oct-April Mon-Fri 9am-3pm; 12kn), which hides in the trees next to the second-century AD Porta Gemina. Inside the museum are pillars and toga-clad statues mingling haphazardly with ceramics, jewellery and trinkets from all over Istria, some dating back to prehistoric times.
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.
Copyright © 2006TravelPages
