| Once the chief port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, PULA
is an engaging combination of working port, naval base and
brash riviera town. The Romans put the city squarely on the
map when they arrived in 177 BC, transforming it into an
important commercial centre. The most obvious relic of their
rule is the first century BC Amphitheatre ( amfiteatar ;
daily: June-Sept 8am-9pm; Oct-May 9am-5pm; 16kn) just north
of the centre, a great grey elliptical skein of connecting
arches, silhouetted against the skyline from wherever you
stand in the city. It's the sixth largest in the world, and
once had space for over 23,000 spectators. The outer shell
is fairly complete, as is one of the towers, up which a
slightly hair-raising climb gives a good sense of the
enormity of the structure and a view of Pula's industrious
harbour. You can also explore some of the cavernous rooms
underneath, which would have been used for keeping wild
animals and Christians before they met their death. They're
now given over to piles of crusty amphora, and reconstructed
olive presses.
South of the amphitheatre, central Pula circles a pyramidal
hill, scaled by secluded streets and topped with a star-shaped
Venetian fortress. On the eastern side of the hill, Istarska
(which subsequently becomes Giardini) leads down to the
first-century BC Triumphal Arch of the Sergians (Slavoluk
obitelja Sergijevaca), through which ul Sergijevaca, a
lively pedestrianized thoroughfare, leads in turn to a
square known as Forum - site of the ancient Roman forum and
these days the centre of Pula's old quarter. On the far side
of here, the slim form of the Temple of Augustus was built
between 2 BC and 14 AD to celebrate the cult of the emperor;
the high Corinthian columns of its frontage intact and
imposing, this is one of the best examples of a Roman temple
outside Italy.
Heading north from Forum along Kandlerova leads to Pula's
Cathedral (daily 7am-noon & 4-6pm), a broad, simple and very
spacious structure that is another mixture of periods and
styles: a fifteenth-century renovation of a Romanesque
basilica built on the foundations of a Roman temple. Inside,
the high altar consists of a third-century marble Roman
sarcophagus, said to have once contained the remains of the
eleventh-century Hungarian King Solomon. From the cathedral,
you can follow streets up to the top of the hill, the site
of the original Roman Capitol and now the home of a mossy
seventeenth-century fortress , built by the Venetians and
now housing the pretty inessential Historical Museum of
Istria (daily: summer 8am-7pm; winter 9am-6pm; 10kn). You're
better off following tracks to the far side of the fortress
where there are the remains of a small Roman Theatre , and
the Archeological Museum (Arheoloski muzej; May-Sept Mon-Sat
9am-8pm, Sun 10am-3pm; Oct-April Mon-Fri 9am-3pm; 12kn),
which hides in the trees next to the second-century AD Porta
Gemina. Inside the museum are pillars and toga-clad statues
mingling haphazardly with ceramics, jewellery and trinkets
from all over Istria, some dating back to prehistoric times.
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from $105.26
USD