Istria - History, Ethnicity, Gallery

area 3160 km²/1220 sq mi. Peninsula at the N end of the Adriatic Sea, Croatia; occupied by Croats, Slovenes, and Italians; formerly part of the Italian province of Venezia Giulia; ceded to Yugoslavia, 1947 (apart from Trieste); chief town, Pula; tourist area.

Istria (Croatian and Slovenian: Istra, Italian: Istria) is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea.

The region lies mostly in Istria county of western Croatia. Important towns in Croatian Istria include Pula (Pola), Poreč (Parenzo), Rovinj (Rovigno), Pazin (Pisino), Labin (Albona), Motovun (Montona), Buzet (Pinguente) and Buje (Buie), as well as smaller towns of Višnjan (Visignano), Roč (Rozzo), and Hum (Colmo).

The larger geographical features of Istria include the Učka mountain range (Monte Maggiore) in the east, the rivers Dragonja, Mirna, Pazinčica and Raša, and the Lim bay.

Famous people like Dante, Jules Verne, James Joyce and Robert Koch worked, wrote, visited or were simply told about 'Terra Magica'.

History

The name is derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Histri, which Strabo refers to as living in the region.

Some scholars speculate that the names Histri and Istria are related to the Latin name Hister, or Danube.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was pillaged by the Goths, the Lombards, annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pippin III in 789, and then successively controlled by the dukes of Carinthia, Merano, Bavaria and by the patriarch of Aquileia, before it became the territory of the Republic of Venice in 1267.

The region has traditionally been ethnically mixed. According to the Austrian census results, out of 404,309 inhabitants in Istria, 168,116 (41.6%) spoke Croatian, 147,416 (36.5%) spoke Italian, 55,365 (13.7%) spoke Slovenian, 13,279 (3.3%) spoke German, 882 (0.2%) spoke Romanian, 2,116 (0.5%) spoke other languages and 17,135 (4.2%) were non-citizens, which had not been asked for their language of communication.

In the second half of the 19th century a clash of new ideological movements, Italian irredentism (which aimed to reunite former Venetian territories) and Slovenian and Croatian nationalism (developing individual identities in some quarters whilst seeking to unite in a South Slav bid in others), resulted in growing ethnic conflict between Italians one side and Slovenes and Croats in opposition. This was intertwined with the class conflict, as inhabitants of Istrian towns were mostly Italian and people who lived in the country were mostly Croats or Slovenes.

After World War I, Istria passed from Austrian Habsburg rule to that of Italy.

After the end of World War II, Istria was assigned to Yugoslavia, except for a small part in the northwest corner that formed Zone B of the formally independent Free Territory of Trieste;

In the new federal republic of Yugoslavia, Istria was divided between the republics of Croatia and Slovenia, following ethnical division lines. Since Croatia's first multi-party elections in 1990, the regional party Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS-DDI, Istarski demokratski sabor or Dieta democratica istriana) has consistently received a majority of the vote and maintained through 1990s a position often contrary to the government in Zagreb, led by then nationalistic and rightist party Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ, Hrvatska demokratska zajednica) with regards to decentralization in Croatia and certain regional autonomy. After reformed HDZ won Croatian parliamentary elections in late 2003 and formed minority government, IDS has been cooperating with state government on many projects, both local (in Istria County) and national.

There is a long tradition of tolerance between the people who live there, regardless of their nationality, and although many Istrians today are ethnic Croats, a strong regional identity has existed over the years. Today the Italian minority is small, but the Istrian county in Croatia is bilingual, as are large parts of Slovenian Istria.

Ethnicity

As with many other regions in the former Yugoslavia, common concepts about ethnicity and nationality fail when applied to Istria. Discussions about Istrian ethnicities often use the words "Italian," "Croatian" and "Slovenian" to describe the character of Istrian people.

In Istrian contexts, for example, the word "Italian" can just as easily refer to a descendant of immigrants from Sicily during the Mussolini period as it can refer to autochthonous speakers of the Venetian or Istriot language whose antecedents in the region extend back to the inception of the Venetian Republic.

Similarly, national powers claim Istrian Slavs according to local language, so that speakers of Čakavian and Štokavian dialects of Croatian language are considered to be Croatians (or Serbs depending on personal affiliation, these numbers are none the less small), while speakers of Kajkavian may be considered to be Slovenians.

Many Istrians consider themselves simply to be Istrians, with no additional national affiliation (by 2001. Croatian census 8,865 (4.3%) people in Istria county declared themselves "Istrian").

Gallery

Aerial picture of Pula/Pola	Forum in Pula/Pola	The promenade (riva) of Poreč/Parenzo	Rovinj/Rovigno, seen from Campanile of Sv. Eufemija church
Motovun/Montona	Lim canal	Piran/Pirano city core	Praetorian Palace in Koper/Capodistria