ISTRIA. -
I. HISTORY
The characteristic settlements inhabited in prehistoric times in Istria are the hill-forts, which appear in the Bronze Age; these are generally circular walls on hilltops, the work of an Illyrian population that had settled there, arriving from the Dalmatian coast in the middle of the second millennium (typical is the settlement of Monte Orsino). In the Iron Age, the hill-forts become more numerous and take on distinctive Veneto-Illyrian aspects, in connection with the Este culture (Pola, Nesazio).These are the Histri, warriors and seafarers, who came into contact with the Romans when Aquileia was founded. Rome fought against them with varying fortunes and defeated them with the fall of Nesazio (177 BC).
Augustus included Istria in the Tenth Region, Venetia et Histria, extending the border of Italy to the Arsa River (between 18 and 12 BC) and gave the peninsula a vigorous Roman life in works of culture and labor, centered around the three colonies of Pola, Tergeste, and Parentium, but extending widely into the interior. Marcus Aurelius included in Roman Italy even the eastern coast as far as the Eneo.
After the fall of the Empire, under the rule of the Exarchate, Istria retained notable agricultural, commercial, and artistic vitality; but with the Frankish conquest and feudal institutions, the Roman structure was shattered, while the first Slavic infiltrations appeared, against which the Placitum of Risano (804) sought to react. With Otto I (952), Istria was detached from the Italian context and from then on—subjected first to weak and distant feudal lords (who, however, allowed the formation of the communes from the mid-11th century onward), then to the power of the Patriarchs of Aquileia and, in the central area, to the Counts of Gorizia—the region steadily declined, preserving its vitality and culture in the coastal cities, especially in the northern ones, which either became subject to Venice or were occupied by her from the mid-10th to the end of the 14th century.
The fall of the Most Serene Republic led Istria to pass repeatedly under French and Austrian rule, which in 1815 occupied it for more than a century, without managing to disperse the Istrian aspirations for national unity. This was achieved in 1918 and marked by a lively fervor of public works (aqueduct, roads, land reclamation), but it did not suffice to protect it from Slavic aspirations, which gained predominance in the Treaty of 1947, determining the painful exodus of the Istrians.
Christian life in Istria is linked to the clear preeminence that Aquileia has always held in the region. The earliest known bishop is Maurus, martyred at Parenzo under Diocletian (293); the earliest martyr, however, seems to be Germanus of Pola (284), followed by Justus of Trieste (289). Monumental remains attest from the early 4th century onward a lively activity in the churches of Parenzo, Pola, and Trieste, which are the oldest dioceses, alongside those of Cissa, Pódena, Sipar, and Ossero, dating to the 5th–6th centuries. These were later followed by those of Emonia (Cittanova) and Capodistria, the first suppressed in 1828, when the second was united with Trieste, and Pola was united with Parenzo. All episcopal sees are suffragans of Gorizia, heir of Aquileia since 1751. Since 1947, there has been an Apostolic Administrator in Istria. Notable ecclesiastical figures include St. Maximian of Vistro, Archbishop of Ravenna (546–552), Pier Paolo Vergerio, Bishop of Capodistria (1536–49), who died in heresy, and Giacomo Filippo Tommasini, Bishop of Cittanova (1641–55), a historian of broad outlook.
II. ART
Istria makes one of the rarest contributions to primitive art with the reliefs of the supposed sanctuary of Eia at Nesazio, attributed to the 6th century BC. From the second half of the 1st century BC, Roman art documents begin to appear, such as the Gate of Hercules in Pola, a city in which ancient architecture has left signs of the greatest importance (Temple of Augustus, Arch of the Sergii, Arena), not absent elsewhere (Trieste, Parenzo): proof that the region was fully tied to the currents of metropolitan art. The Christian era at Parenzo and Pola produced basilican complexes, exemplary in their rectangular halls inspired by Aquileian models, in various stratifications dating back to the beginning of the 4th century and culminating in the forms of Ravenna’s architecture. Particularly noteworthy is the richness of the decoration.The Istrian school of painting is represented by such masters as Vittore Carpaccio, Cima, Gaspare della Vecchia, and Tiepolo. Two Istrian painters left a good reputation: Bernardo Parentino at the turn of the 16th century and Francesco Trevisani, who worked in Rome at the beginning of the 18th century. The 16th century is strongly represented in the doors of Pinguente, Cherso, and Albona, while the bell towers of Rovigno and Pirano were built, and those of Capodistria and Buie took on elegant forms, following the example of St. Mark’s and Aquileia. The 18th century produced noble buildings in Trieste (Santa Maria Maggiore) and Isola (Palazzo Besenghi), and Neoclassicism imprinted its character on the architecture of Trieste; 19th-century painting in Trieste also shows appreciable aspects in the Venetian line, and in sculpture the present age has given national fame to Marcello Mascherini. - See pl. XXI.