Why spring is the best time to visit Istria

Yes, I'm back after my trip to India, and happy to be home. I had lovely spring weather to welcome me back and provide a soft landing after leaving the intense heat of India.

Autumn used to be my favourite season but since moving to Istria almost four years ago, spring is my favourite time of year. Why? Because in South India where I spent close to seven years, the weather was summer-like all the time and apart from the monsoon season, the seasons were not as marked as in northern climes. After spending my first winter in Istria, the arrival of spring was so welcome and so sweet: there's nothing like that first spring day when you can go outside without a coat, and sit in the sun and feel its rays warming your face.

Here's why – thanks to Istria – spring has become my favourite season and why it's the best time of the year to visit:

Everything is lush and green. Spring is when trees sprout new leaves and flowers bloom, so greenery is everywhere. But when Istria's spectacular landscapes are painted a brilliant spring green, it seems like the most beautiful place in the world.

Asparagus. A sure sign of spring is the wild asparagus that shoots out of the ground in Istria's forests. There's nothing like the taste of fresh asparagus and its burst of anti-oxidants. One of the first things I did was scavenge for wild asparagus in the forest on the edge of the village. And in Pula's market, I saw thick bunches of beautiful purple and green shoots on sale for next to nothing.

Outdoor cafes. There's nothing like the first day you can finally sit outside and enjoy a coffee or even a meal in the sun and fresh air. In spring, cafes and restaurants open their terraces and patios, and as soon as the sun comes out, they're crowded with people enjoying the good weather.

Fewer crowds. Spring is when tourists start to show up. Sometime around Easter I spot new faces wandering around the village, and foreign cars on the roads. But the usual tourist spots are far from crowded and this is when I like to explore them: when they're almost empty and before the mad rush of July and August.

Flower markets. Spring is all about flowers and planting. People are busy in their fields planting vegetables: onions, lettuce, and spinach are the first to appear, and very quickly there are strawberries and cherries to pick. People also love to decorate their homes and gardens with flowers and plants, and flower markets pop up in every town.

What's your spring ritual?

An old postcard of Gračišće

Last week a neighbour lent me his collection of 300 postcards of towns and villages across Istria photographed in the early 1900s. I've been looking through this fascinating collection of images and scanning the ones I find interesting. 

I've decided to start a new series on old postcards and will be sharing a few of them here.

I'm starting with the village I live in first, but the old postcards I'm including in this post do not come from my neighbour's collection, but from a book!

The postcard above is of Gračišće's Salamon Palace, with a greeting written in Italian: un saluto de Gallignana (Gallignana being the name for Gračišće in Italian). This Gothic-style building was built almost 450 years ago, and always gets noticed by visitors to the village. Unfortunately, this historic building is crumbling away with time -- I told its story in this post. This is what it looks like today:

The date on the postcard below is 1900, and this time 'greetings from Gračišće' is written in Croatian. 

The photographer who took the top photo was standing in front of St. Mary's Church on the village square (famous for its 15th century frescoes), and looking south. In the centre of the photograph is a house that no longer exists. This is what the same view looks like today:

Meanwhile the bottom image in the postcard was taken next to St. Anthony's chapel and is looking towards the church of St. Euphemia. This is the same view today:

I hope you enjoyed this step back in time!

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A village with a view

One of the highlights of our little village is the fabulous view we have. Gračišće is perched on a hilltop at an elevation of 457 metres, and one of the best spots to enjoy a panoramic view is behind St. Vitus Church, the largest church in the village.

This is the view in the summer...

And this is the same landscape painted in Autumn colours (taken today)...

From this vantage point in the churchyard, we can see the Učka, Istria’s highest mountain at 1402 metres, towards the east. We see the village of Gologorica towards the north, and the neighbouring village of Pićan towards the south-east. Further south-east we see the town of Labin, perched on its own hilltop, and the power station at Plomin – where we also see, on clear days, a sliver of the sea.

In the winter, we can see the Julian Alps in Slovenia towards the north, and the Dolomite Mountains in Italy towards the north-west. This happens on clear, sunny days, when the sun reflects off the snow-topped mountains, and the sight is breathtaking. Sorry I don't have a photo of this! But here's one of the sun rising behind the Učka:

Another great spot for spectacular views is from the village’s bell tower. Climb up and take a look.

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Autumn colours

Long hot summer

Finally we had a thunderstorm last night. We were eagerly waiting for the rain after weeks of sweltering temperatures in the high 30s. I felt like I was back in India! Except that in India we were used to have ceiling fans to keep cool. So to cope with the heat we bought a portable pedestal fan which ran constantly day and night. We then decided it would be good to have a second fan, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, and headed back to the same shop in Pazin where we had bought the first one. But they were already sold out! So were all the other shops.

On Thursday there were hints of a storm approaching, announced by the rumbling sound of thunder coming from a distance. Again, I felt like I was back in India waiting for the first anticipated drops of the monsoon rains to arrive and bring relief from the heat. A few big drops fell, but not enough to completely soak the ground. Then a few hours later, the distinct smell of something burning was in the air. We quickly found out that there were forest fires burning nearby in Kršan and Plomin, where the lightning from the aborted storm had set trees on fire. This was devastating news because there were already fires burning in other parts of Croatia which had decimated hectares and hectares of forests and agricultural land, and just the week before there had been other fires in Istria.

From the village, the view east towards Kršan and Plomin was very hazy because of the smoke in the air and the wind even carried ashes from the fires all the way to our courtyard. By nightfall the fires were still burning in Plomin and we could see the glow of the flames on the hillside.

Then when things finally seemed to be under control, the fire in Kršan suddenly reignited and another fire was announced near Tinjan in central Istria. We heard the Canadair planes whizzing overhead on their way to drop seawater onto the flames.

Forest fires are very common during very hot and dry summers like the one we’re experiencing. And unfortunately they are not always started by natural phenomena like lightning but also purposely by arsonists.

So the thunderstorm last night and the intermittent showers we’ve been having all morning have been very welcome. The forecast for the next few days is a more comfortable 30/31 degrees and hopefully all the fires have been extinguished and the risk of fire is diminished. The fire-fighters can finally take a rest and so can our trusty fan!

Crumbling elegance: Gračišće’s Salamon Palace

Many of the houses and buildings here in Gračišće are unfortunately abandoned and in a derelict state. This is the fate of many villages in Istria because many owners of these neglected properties live abroad, or a property is divided among several heirs, or simply because people do not see the value of an old property and do not want to spend money maintaining it.

Many visitors to Gračišće are intrigued by a derelict building on its main square, just opposite the 15^th century church of St Mary and Konoba Marino. Despite its dilapidated state, the Salamon Palace (also often spelled 'Salomon' Palace) is still one of the village’s most striking buildings.

Buildings often have interesting stories behind them. I’ve done a bit of searching through guidebooks and have spoken to the older villagers living here to learn more about the history of this intriguing building and try to understand why it’s been left to slowly decay.

The Salamon Palace is part of the external fortifications of the village, a row of imposing three-storied buildings with thick walls and entrances on both the exterior and interior of the village. With its grey stone façade and Venetian-Gothic features, this building looks like it would belong in Venice. Its architectural features reveal a mix of styles. On the 1^st floor, the windows are Gothic in style: they have pointed arches and a biforium – a double-arched window with a column separating them. The windows on the second floor are Romanesque in style with rounded arches and the cornice of the building was in Baroque style but this is not visible today.

A small guidebook I have on Gračišće published by the municipality reveals that the construction of the Salamon Palace was completed 444 years ago, in 1570. Up to the first half of the 19^th century, it belonged to the Italian noble family Montecúccoli, who had bought the county of Pazin (of which Gračišće was a part) from the Habsburgs in 1766. There’s no information on who its previous owners were. The palace takes its name however, from its most recent residents, the Salamon family who moved here in 1848 when Lieutenant Francesco Salamon became a national guard commander stationed at Gračišće. Its new owners renovated the palace in 1853 – the date which is seen above the imposing doors on the exterior side of the village.

My father remembers the last generation of the Salamon family to live here. He had been inside their grand home (which must have contrasted sharply with the village’s other modest dwellings) as a young electrician to install an electricity meter. He had also learned French from Mrs Salamon, who taught at the village school. Tragically Mr Salamon had died during the Second World War at Dachau concentration camp, where he had been a prisoner of war (along with my grandfather, who luckily survived). Their son became a doctor and moved away to Pula, while Mrs Salamon remained in the family home. There was a grocery stone on the ground floor of the building, while the family lived on the upper floors.

Today this lovely building, one of the most noteworthy in Gračišće, is a sight for sore eyes. It has stood empty for decades and is slowly crumbling. A patch of the beautifully painting ceiling is visible through the open windows of the first floor, but most of it has collapsed. Under the ledge of the biforium were three sculpted lions which I had captured with my camera in 2004 – 10 years ago – but only one remains today. I was told two of the stone sculptures were shattered when a delivery truck was backing up and accidentally hit them!

Only one lion left today!

The three lions are visible in this photo from 2004.

The sorry state of the Salamon Palace brings up questions. The village of Gračišće has ‘protected status’ as a place of important national heritage, so how can it be that its buildings are left to crumble away? Wouldn’t the restoration work on such an important historical building located in a village under ‘monumental protection’ be the responsibility of the state, or the regional or local government? It’s difficult to find answers. 

When the roof collapsed a few years ago, people started to take notice. The Conservation Committee had ordered the owner to take action and repair the roof and cornice because of safety concerns. The owner at the time was the proprietor of a real estate agency who had put it back up for sale. (The ad is still visible at this link with a few photos of the interior.) Some people say that he had defaulted on a bank loan and that the palace has been repossessed by a bank, but this is hearsay. In any case, the roof was repaired about five years ago (it's not clear at whose cost) but it seems that until this decaying palace once again presents a risk to public safety, there are no on-going efforts to preserve it and restore it to its former glory.

The Salamon Palace featured on an old postcard

In the meantime, the Salamon Palace continues to slowly crumble away under the eyes of the patrons of Konoba Marino who sit at the wooden tables with a glass of Malvazija and admire its fading elegance.

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Windows of Istria

Following a previous post on the doors of Istria, today I'm showing you a few windows of Istria...

1st day of Summer

Welcome Summer!

Today is the longest day of the year. The sun came up this morning at 5:14 and will go down at 20:54.

This is what summer looks like…

The Istrian kažun

One of my favourite cycling routes is along the road which runs from Križ Lindarski to Žminj. I like it because it’s quiet and scenic – and not too hilly. It passes through patches of forest and along freshly tilled fields.

Along the way I pass a kažun, a small stone structure which is typical to Istria. Found on the edges of fields, kažuns used to be used for shelter during rainstorms when people were out working their land.

This kažun I photographed is found close to the road in the village of Katun Lindarski, on the road to Žminj.

Kažuns are typically cylinder-shaped with low open doorways and are made of dry stone walls, which means no mortar was used to hold the stones together. This technique was also used to build dry stone walls which separate fields – sometimes kažuns are built into stone walls.

Apparently these small stone shelters date back to the Roman Empire, and similar structures can be found in other parts of southern Europe. There are many examples of kažun still found scattered around Istria and they’re a common sight on country roads. The fact that many are still standing is proof that they were remarkably well-built.

Miniature kažuns are a popular souvenir.

Waiting for the Bura

In Istria, winds have names, just like in Italy, France, and other Mediterranean countries. So locals never refer to the ‘wind’, they always mention the name of the wind they’re talking about, which would be either the Bura or the Yugo.

So I’ve overheard people say things like:

“The Bura blew over all my flower pots!”

“Go close the window upstairs - the Yugo is banging it!”

Since these winds which blow over the Adriatic Sea have a very strong influence on the weather, the Bura and Yugo are always mentioned in weather reports.

I’m getting to know these two temperamental winds better. Before, wind was just wind for me, but now I know that each has its own very specific characteristics.

“Is this the Bura blowing today?” I would ask, only to be contradicted: “Noooo! This is the Yugo!”

So I’ve been asking people what the differences are and this is what I’ve been able to gather:

The Bura is cold and brings sunny weather and clear skies.

It comes from the North.

It blows in strong gusts.

The Bura makes a lot of noise and blows roof tiles off houses and uproots trees.

The Bura can be very dangerous on the seas.

The Bura (Bora in Italian) is very, very strong in Trieste.

It lasts for a few days only.

The Yugo is a warm wind which brings clouds and rain, and damp, humid air.

It blows from the South (jug means ‘South’).

It blows continuously.

The springtime floods in Venice are blamed on the Yugo (called Sirocco in Italian).

It can last for a week and even longer.

Lately we’ve had too much Yugo. Most of January has been cloudy and damp, but relatively warm, with many long spells of Yugo and rainy weather. As a result, I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints about the Yugo. The dampness brought by the Yugo has been blamed for all sorts of things... Our neighbour told me his knees hurt when there’s too much Yugo. My aunt complained that her cukerančići (a type of sugar-coated biscuit) are too soft because of the Yugo. The mold appearing around doorways is also blamed on – you guessed it – the Yugo. Winter is the season when locals cure meats like pršut – which won’t happen with the humid air of the Yugo. We’ve also been inconvenienced by the Yugo. The newly plastered walls of the house we’re waiting to move into are not drying!

As a result, everyone has been anxiously waiting for the Bura to blow through town so that all will be well again. So after an extended period of Yugo, the first strong gusts of the Bura finally arrived last night. I was sure this was the Bura – because I could hear its fury as it whistled past the windows and rattled the shutters. This morning we woke up to clear blue skies and a bright sunny day. The Bura had worked its magic and blew away the clouds and damp air, bringing a noticeably colder but crisp winter day.

Welcome Bura! May our neighbour get relief from his knee pain and the mold stop growing around doorways! My aunt’s cukerančići will turn out just perfect, and hopefully the plaster on our walls will dry quickly!

The last day of Christmas

Yesterday, the 6th of January, was Epiphany, the last day of Christmas. Also known as Three Kings Day, this is a national holiday in Croatia. I liked the fact that the Christmas holidays here extend to January 6th – I had always hated going back to work on January 2nd – here Christmas lasts for the full twelve days, which seems very civilized!

I remember my mother observing the Epiphany holiday and telling me that when she was a child they would call it ‘little Christmas’. In Belgium and Northern France, a special cake is eaten on this day called the galette des rois. Children love it because a small ceramic token is hidden in the cake, and the person who finds it gets to be ‘king’ for the day and wear the paper crown which comes with these cakes sold in bakeries for this occasion.

Here in Gračišće, the holiday was celebrated with a ‘live’ manger scene where the village’s residents dressed up and enacted the nativity story. This was a repeat of the same event which took place on December 26th but unfortunately had become a ‘non-event’ because of the bad weather. So everyone was hoping that the rain would stay away on Epiphany day, and indeed it did.

A stable had been built next to the church’s bell tower where the manger scene was set up (which included several sheep and donkeys!), and along the lanes leading from the village square to the church, there were small stands with people dressed up in period costumes - or as close to ‘Roman’ dress as their imaginations would take them!.

Some were enacting traditional trades and crafts – and many were skilled craftsmen who used to work at these traditional trades: there was a basket weaver, a blacksmith, a barrel-maker, as well as millers and carpenters. It was fun to see our neighbours dressed up in this way.

Scenes from the nativity story were sung by a small choir as a young couple (who had recently had a baby!) dressed as Mary and Joseph made their way through the village, looking for a place to spend the night but being turned away. Finally an innkeeper made some space for them in the stable. Baby Jesus was actually a baby girl, but this didn’t matter, and she managed to somehow sleep peacefully as people crowded into the stable to have a closer look at the live nativity scene. The Three Wise Men of course soon arrived bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, with the village mayor as Balthazar.

Now that the twelve days of Christmas are over, life goes back to normal. For many people today was the first working day of the year, and this morning I saw the Christmas lights being taken down. In keeping with tradition, I’m also taking down the decorations I had put up on this blog!