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- This article is about the Adriatic peninsula. For information on the asteroid, see 183 Istria.
Istria (pron. IS-tree-ë) (Istra (pron. IS-trah) in Croatian and Slovenian, Istria (pron. IS-tryah) in Italian), is the biggest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner. The northernmost section makes up part of southwestern Slovenia while everything else lies in northwestern Croatia.
Important towns in Istria include Koper/Capodistria ("head of Istria"), Pula/Pola, Poreč/Parenzo, Rovinj/Rovigno, Pazin/Pisino, Labin/Albona, Motovun/Montona, Buzet/Pinguente and Buje/Buie. Of special mention are the smaller towns of Višnjan, Roč, and Hum.
Famous people like Dante, Jules Verne, James Joyce and Robert Koch worked, wrote, visited or were simply inspired by 'Terra Magica'.
History
The name is derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Histri, which Strabo refers to as living in the region. The Romans described the Histri as a fierce tribe of Illyrian pirates, protected by the difficult navigation of their rocky coasts. It took two military campaigns for the Romans to finally subdue them in 177 BCE.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was pillaged by the Goths, the Longobardi, annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pippin III in 789, and then successively controlled by the dukes of Carinthia, Meran, Bavaria and by the patriarch of Aquileia, before it became the territory of the Republic of Venice. It passed to the Habsburgs in 1797, (reverting temporarily to Napoleon in 1805- 1813).
The region has traditionally been rather ethnically mixed. Under Austrian rule in the 19th century, it included a large population of Italians, Croats, Slovenes and some Istro-Romanians. In 1910, the ethnic composition was completely mixed with 170,000 Croats (43%), 150,000 Italians (38%) and 55,000 Slovenes (14%).
After World War I, Istria passed from Habsburg to the rule of Italy. During these few decades, the Slavs complained of being forced to Italianize their names under the policy of forced Italianisation. Some Croats allege further that the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini colonized Istria with up to 50,000 more Italians (from Calabria, Sicily). The subsequent Nazi occupation during World War II further worsened the traditionally tolerant ethnic relations.
After the end of World War II, Istria was assigned to Yugoslavia. In the process, (1945-1947), an estimated 15,000 Italian-speakers were killed and 300,000 left reportedly fearing the Communist oppression (300,000 was the number in a speech made by Tito). Some well-known postwar exiles from Istria include race driver Mario Andretti, singer Sergio Endrigo and boxer Nino Benvenuti. Following the expulsions which ended by 1954, the areas were settled with Croats, Slovenians and a minute number of other Yugoslav nationalities like Serbs or Montenegrins.
Today, most of Istria lies in Croatia, in Istria county, seated in Pazin. A small section, including the coastal towns of Piran (Pirano), Portorož (Portorose) and Koper lies in Slovenia.
There is a long tradition of tolerance between the people who live there, regardless of their nationality, and although most Istrians today are ethnic Croats, a strong regional identity has developed over the years. The Croatian word for the Istrians is Istrani, or Istrijani, the latter being in the local čakavian dialect. The Italian minority is small, but the Istrian county is bilingual.
Since the first multi-party elections in 1990, the regional party Istrian Democratic Assembly (Istarski Demokratski Sabor or Dieta Democratica Istriana) has consistently received an absolute majority of the vote and maintained a position often contrary to the government in Zagreb with regards to their regional autonomy.
External links
de:Istrien
it:Istria
nl:Istrië
pl:Istria
sl:Istra
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