Istria

ISTRIA. - I. HISTORY. - The characteristic inhabited sites in prehistoric Istria are the castellieri, which appear in the Bronze Age; they are rings of walls generally on the summits of hills, the work of an Illyrian inhumation population, arrived from the Dalmatian coasts in the middle of the 2nd millennium (the site of Monte Orsino is typical). In the Iron Age the castricoli become inhumers and have peculiar Veneto-Illyrian features, in connection with the civilization of Este (Pola, Nesazio).

These are the Histri, warriors and navigators, who come into contact with the Romans when Aquileia is founded. Against them Rome fights with alternating fortune and defeats them with the fall of Nesazio (177 B.C.).

Augustus includes Istria in the X region Venetia et Histria, bringing the border of Italy to the Arsa (between 18 and 12 B.C.) and gives the peninsula vigorous Roman life in the works of culture and labor, polarized around the three colonies Pola, Tergeste and Parentium, but pushed widely into the interior. Marcus Aurelius includes in Roman Italy also the eastern coast as far as the Eneo.

After the fall of the Empire, under the dominion of the exarchate Istria preserved notable agricultural, commercial and artistic vitality; but with the Frankish conquest and with feudal institutions it saw the Roman structure broken, while the first Slavic infiltrations appeared, to which the placitum of Risano (804) sought to react. With Otto I (952) Istria was detached from the Italian nexus and from then on - subjected first to weak and distant feudatories (which thus allowed, moreover, from the middle of the 11th century the constitution of the Communes), then to the arrogance of the patriarchs of Aquileia and, in the central zone, to the counts of Gorizia - the region declined ever more, preserving vitality and culture in the coastal cities, especially in the northern ones, which gave themselves to Venice or were occupied by her from the middle of the 10th century to the end of the 14th.

The fall of the Serenissima led Istria several times under the dominion of France and Austria, which in 1815 occupied it for more than a century, without succeeding in dispersing Istrian aspirations for national unity. This unity, achieved in 1918 and marked by a lively fervor of public works (aqueduct, roads, land reclamation), did not suffice to defend it from Slavic aspirations, which had the predominance in the Treaty of 1947, determining the painful exodus of the Istrians.

Christian life in Istria is related to the clear pre-eminence that Aquileia has always had in the region. The most ancient known bishop is Mauro, martyr at Parenzo under Diocletian (293); the most ancient martyr, however, seems to be Germano of Pola (284), followed by Giusto of Trieste (289). Monumental remains attest from the early 4th century a lively activity in the churches of Parenzo, Pola and Trieste, which are the most ancient dioceses, alongside those of Cissa, Pèdena, Sipar and Ossero, to be attributed to the 5th-6th century. These were then followed by those of Emonia (Cittanova) and Capodistria, the first suppressed in 1828, when the second was united to Trieste and Pola was united to Parenzo. All the episcopal sees are suffragans of Gorizia, heir of Aquileia from 1751. From 1947 in Istria there exists an apostolic administrator. Ecclesiastical figures of note are St. Maximian of Vistro, archbishop of Ravenna (346-52), Pier Paolo Vergerio, bishop of Capodistria (1536-49), who died in heresy, Giacomo Filippo Tommasini, bishop of Cittanova (1641-55), a historian of broad views.

II. ART

Istria gives one of the rarest contributions to primitive art with the reliefs of the supposed sanctuary of Eia at Nesactium, attributed to the 6th century B.C. From the second half of the 1st century B.C. the documents of Roman art begin with the Porta d'Ercole at Pola, the city in which ancient architecture has left marks of the very first importance (Temple of Augustus, Arch of the Sergii, Arena), not absent either in other centers (Trieste, Parenzo): proof that the region was fully linked to the currents of metropolitan art. The Christian age at Parenzo and at Pola yields basilical complexes, modeled on the rectangular halls of Aquileia, in various stratifications, which go back to the beginning of the 4th century and culminate in the forms of Ravenna architecture. Especially notable is the richness of the decoration mosaic, wall (Parenzo) and floor (Parenzo, Orsera, Trieste, Pola), the latter truly typical in the region, and the series of marble plutei of the 6th century at Parenzo and Pola. Appreciable contributions of barbarian art are given by the ciboria of Pola and Cittanova, while only with the 11th century does building activity resume with various religious edifices, such as the Assunta of Trieste (now St. Justus), St. Clement and St. Stephen of Pola, St. Sophia of Due Castelli, St. Mary of Muggia Vecchia, St. Martin of S. Lorenzo del Pasenatico, of the 11th century, is the last echo of Ravenna, with the chapel of St. Justus in Trieste and the heptagonal Holy Trinity of Rovigno.

Various castles mark the dominion of the feudal nobility (Pietrapelosa, Momiano), while the Communes animate the civic Palaces (that of Pola, 1296, partly surviving). S. Lorenzo del Pasenatico has its walls intact (10th-15th centuries) and beautiful later walled enclosures belong to Muggia, Cittanova, Cherso, Pirano. Lombard echoes appear at the dawn of the 13th century in the baptistery of Capodistria, while Marche-style manners mark St. Francis of Pola, risen at the dawn of the 14th century. The chapel of the Bishops of Gallignana is the only example of pure Gothic, of which the honeycomb ceilings of many presbyteries of churches or chapels are an echo (characteristic in Istria are the rustic little churches spread throughout every age). The Most Serene Republic brings its trefoil ogees into the civic buildings of Capodistria, Parenzo, Pirano, Dignano and into the limpid facade of the cathedral of Muggia. A somewhat harsh but graceful Renaissance is shown by the churches of Ossero, Cherso, Sanvincenti, with their beautiful three-cusped fronts on the lines of the Cathedral of Sebenico.

Stone sculpture has no great examples; more widespread is that in wood in the carved altars, which have Friulian echoes. Painting, which has notable aspects for the 11th-12th centuries at S. Lorenzo del Pasenatico and at Sanvincenti, and counts the admirable mosaics of Trieste and the frescoes of Muggia Vecchia of the 13th century, leaves clear marks through the Venetian coloring of Paolo in Trieste, of the Vivarini, of Vittore Carpaccio, of Cima, of Gaspare della Vecchia, of Tiepolo. Two Istrian painters have left a good reputation for themselves: Bernardo Parentino at the turn of the 1500s and Francesco Trevisani, who worked in Rome in the early 18th century.

Very solid 16th-century forms have the gates of Pinguente, of Cherso, of Albona, while the bell towers of Rovigno and of Pirano are born and those of Capodistria and of Buie are made elegant, on the example of St. Mark's and of Aquileia. The 18th century has noble buildings in Trieste (St. Mary Major) and at Isola (Palazzo Besenghi) and the neoclassical imprints its character on the architecture of Trieste; the painting of the 19th century, also in Trieste, has appreciable aspects on the Venetian line and in sculpture the present time gives national fame to Marcello Mascherini. - See pl. XXI.

Mario Mirabella Roberti