Пула: История и древности города в Истрии

City in Istria County, Croatia

Pula , also known as Pola (ˈpɔːla; ; ; ; Póla), is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the seventh largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula in northwestern Croatia, with a population of 52,220 in 2021. Pottery from the Neolithic period (6000–2000 BC), indicating human settlement, has been found around Pula. In the Bronze Age (1800–1000 BC), a new type of settlement appeared in Istria, called 'gradine', or hill top fortifications. Many late Bronze Age bone objects, such as tools for smoothing and drilling, sewing needles, as well as spiral bronze pendants, have been found in the area around Pula. The type of materials found in Bronze Age sites in Istria connects these with sites along the Danube. Greek tradition attributed the foundation of Polai to the Colchians, mentioned in the context of the story of Jason and Medea, who had stolen the golden fleece. The Colchians, who had chased Jason into the northern Adriatic, were unable to catch him and ended up settling in a place they called Polai, signifying "city of refuge".

In classical antiquity, it was inhabited by the Histri, a Venetic or Illyrian tribe. Strabo, Pomponius Mela and Lycophron wrote that it was inhabited by Colchians. The Istrian peninsula was conquered by the Romans in 177 BC, During that time the town grew and had at its zenith a population of about 30,000. It became a significant Roman port with a large surrounding area under its jurisdiction. During the civil war of 42 BC of the triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus against Caesar's assassins Brutus and Cassius, the town took the side of Cassius, since the town had been founded by Cassius Longinus, brother of Cassius. After Octavian's victory, the town was demolished. It was soon rebuilt at the request of Octavian's daughter Iulia and was then called Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola Pollentia Herculanea. The colony was part of Venetia et Histria, a region of Roman Italy. Great classical constructions were built of which a few remain. A great amphitheatre, Pula Arena, was constructed between 27 BC and 68 AD, much of it still standing to this day. The Romans also supplied the city with a water supply and sewage systems. They fortified the city with a wall with ten gates. A few of these gates remain: the triumphal Arch of the Sergii, the Gate of Hercules (in which the names of the founders of the city are engraved), and the Twin Gates. During the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus the name of the town was changed to "Res Publica Polensis". The town was the site of Crispus Caesar's execution in 326 AD and Gallus Caesar's execution in 354 AD. In 425 AD the town became the centre of a bishopric, attested by the remains of foundations of a few religious buildings. The town was ruled by the Ostrogoths from 493 to 538 AD. The Basilica of Saint Mary Formosa was built in the 6th century. Under the Franks it was part of the Kingdom of Italy. Pula became the seat of the elective counts of Istria until 1077. The town was taken in 1148 by the Venetians and in 1150 Pula swore allegiance to the Republic of Venice, thus becoming a Venetian possession. For centuries thereafter, the city's fate and fortunes were tied to those of Venetian power. It was conquered by the Pisans in 1192 but soon reconquered by the Venetians. In 1238 Pope Gregory IX formed an alliance between Genoa and Venice against the Empire, and consequently against Pisa too. As Pula had sided with the Pisans, the city was sacked by the Venetians in 1243. It was destroyed again in 1267 and again in 1397 when the Genoese defeated the Venetians in a naval battle. Pula then slowly went into decline. This decay was accelerated by the infighting of local families: the ancient Roman Sergi family and the Ionotasi (1258–1271) and the clash between Venice and Genoa for the control of the city and its harbour (late 13th and 14th centuries). In 1291, by the Peace of Treviso, Patriarch Raimondo della Torre gained the city as part of the secular realm of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, only to lose it to Venice in 1331, which then held it until its downfall in 1797. Pula is quoted by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, who had visited Pula, in the Divine Comedy: "Sì come a Pola, presso del Carnaro, ch'Italia chiude e i suoi termini bagna" or "As Pola, along the Quarnero, that marks the end of Italy and bathes its boundaries".

The Venetians took over Pula in 1331 and would rule the city until 1797. During the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, Pula was attacked and occupied by the Genoese, the Hungarian army and the Habsburgs; several outlying medieval settlements and towns were destroyed. In addition to war, the plague, malaria and typhoid ravaged the city. By the 1750s there were only 3,000 inhabitants left in ancient city, an area now covered with weeds and ivy. With the collapse of the Venetian Republic in 1797 following Napoleon's Treaty of Campo Formio, the city became part of the Habsburg monarchy. It was invaded again in 1805 after the French had defeated the Austrians. It was included in the French Empire of Napoleon as part of the Kingdom of Italy, then placed directly under the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces.

In 1813, Pola (with Istria) came back to the Austrian Empire. Under the compromise of 1867, the town – under the original Italian name, Pola – remained in Austria Hungary until the latter's defeat and dissolution in 1918. Under Austrian rule, Pola regained prosperity. Its large natural harbour became Austria's main naval base and a major shipbuilding centre. During this period many inhabitants were Italian speaking. The 1910 Austrian census recorded a city population of 58,562 (45.8% Italian speaking; 15.2% Croatian, the rest were mostly German speaking military). Following the collapse of Austria Hungary in 1918, Pola and the whole of Istria – except the territory of Castua Kastav – went to Italy. Pola became the capital of the Province of Pola. The decline in population after World War I was mainly due to economic difficulties caused by the withdrawal of Austro Hungarian military and bureaucratic facilities and the dismissal of workers from the shipyard. Under the Italian Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, non Italians, especially Croatian residents who came to Pola under Austro Hungarian rule, faced stringent political and cultural repression because they had now to integrate themselves into the Kingdom of Italy and learn the Italian language. Many left the city and went back to the newly created Yugoslavia. After the collapse of Fascist Italy in 1943, the city was occupied by the German Wehrmacht and remained a base for U boats. Consequently, the city was subjected to repeated Allied bombing from 1942 to 1944. In the last phase of the war, Pola saw the arrest, deportation, and execution of people suspected of aiding the Axis, by the partisans who together with the Yugoslav communists killed many soldiers and civilians, in the first episodes of what would have been named, later on, the Foibe massacres.

After World War II, the Istrian Italians of Pula left Yugoslavia towards Italy (Istrian Dalmatian exodus). For two years after 1945, Pola was administered by the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories (AMG). Pola formed an enclave within south Istria that was occupied by Yugoslavia since 1945 with the help of Churchill. The AMG was occupied by a company of the United States 351st Infantry and a British battalion of the 24th Guards Brigade. Istria was partitioned into occupation zones until the region became officially united with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia) on 15 September 1947, under terms of the Paris Peace Treaties. The city became part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, a federal state within SFR Yugoslavia, upon the ratification of the Paris Peace Treaties on 15 September 1947 – which also created the Free Territory of Trieste. Initially, Pola's population of 45,000 was largely made up of ethnic Italians. However, between December 1946 and September 1947, the vast majority of Italians fled to Italy. Subsequently, the city's Croatian name, Pula, became the official name. Today the city of Pola or Pula is officially bilingual, Croatian and Italian, hence both Pula and Pola are official names. Since the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991, Pula has been part of the Republic of Croatia.

The city is best known for its many surviving ancient Roman buildings, the most famous of which is its 1st century amphitheatre, which is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world. is an ancient hill fort settlement, which is considered to be the oldest urban settlement in Istria. The town is settled about 10 km north of Pula, next to Valtura and Pula Airport. The site itself is located above Bay of Budava, and it is well protected by its steep hills. Nesactium is first mentioned as the main settlement of the Histri, the oldest people on the peninsula, which were the eponym for Istria. Livy was the first who mentioned Nesactium, and the altar dedicated to Emperor Gordian from the 3rd century, where "Res Republica Nesactiensium" is mentioned, confirmed the actual existence of this city. The search for the city has begun in 1900, when Pietro Kandler first put together the toponym Vizače with ancient Nesactium. As a result of its rich political history, Pula is a city with a cultural mixture of people and languages from the Mediterranean and Central Europe, ancient and contemporary. Pula's architecture reflects these layers of history. Residents are commonly fluent in both Croatian and Italian but also in foreign languages like German and English. From 30 October 1904 to March 1905 Irish writer James Joyce taught English at the Berlitz School; his students were mainly Austro Hungarian naval officers who were stationed at the Naval Shipyard. While he was in Pola he organised the local printing of his broadsheet The Holy Office, which satirised both William Butler Yeats and George William Russell.

Pula's surrounding natural environment, countryside and the turquoise water of the Adriatic have made the city popular summer holiday destination. The pearl nearby is Brioni island or Brijuni national park visited by numerous world leaders since it was the summer residence of Josip Broz Tito. Roman villas and temples still lie buried among farm fields and along the shoreline of the dozens of surrounding fishing and farming villages. The coastal waters offer beaches, fishing, wreck dives to ancient Roman galleys and World War I warships, cliff diving, and sailing to unspoiled coves and islands large and small. Pula is the end point of the EuroVelo 9 cycle route that runs from Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea through Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. It is possible to track dinosaur footprints on the nearby seashores; certain more important finds have been made at an undisclosed location near Bale.

Pula had an electric tramway system in the early 20th century. It was built in 1904 as a part of Pula's economic crescendo during the Austro Hungarian rule. After World War I, during the Fascist rule, the need for tram transportation declined and it was finally dismantled in 1934. Pula Airport is located north east of Pula, and serves both domestic and international destinations. Similarly to nearby Rijeka Airport, it is not a major international destination. However, this has changed over recent years as low cost airline Ryanair started scheduled flights to Pula in November 2006. Easyjet offers many flights to UK airports. Jet2 also offers flights from Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Belfast, Manchester, and East Midlands Airports. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) operates scheduled flights from Stockholm and Copenhagen during summertime. Nearby international airports include Trieste in Italy, Zagreb, Croatia's capital and Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital. There are direct flights into Pula airport from London during the whole year and several other large airports in Western Europe during summer. On 9 April 2015 European Coastal Airlines established a daily seaplane service from the downtown seaplane terminal at the city's main waterfront. Destinations as of April 2015 are Rijeka, the island of Rab and Mali Lošinj. The airline ceased operation in 2016. A train service operates north from Pula through to Slovenia, however, the line remains disconnected from the rest of the Croatian Railways network. Plans to tunnel the 'missing link' between this line and from Rijeka have existed for many years, and despite work commencing on this project previously, have never seen completion. People traveling to Rijeka or Zagreb by train must get off in Lupoglav and take a bus to Rijeka. Pula Bus Terminus/Terminal is the main hub for Istria and is located on the edge of town just west of the Amphitheatre. From there, excellent service to a wide range of local, domestic, and international locations is available throughout the year. Several bus companies operate from this Terminus including the local service run by Pulapromet. There is also a guaranteed direct line from Pula to Trieste/Venice, especially into spring/summertime. Passenger ferries also operate from the port area to nearby islands, and also to Venice and Trieste in Italy from June to September.