Age-old traditions run deep on the Istrian coast in Croatia, with unique music, language and dance still in evidence today and its people proudly working to ensure their survival far into the future.
The roar of the crowd echoes against the 2,000-year-old arches of Pula’s Roman amphitheatre, cut through by the metallic screech of sword on shield. Two gladiators circle one another in the arena, kicking up dust with sandalled feet, sweat dripping onto the dry earth. They each take a few tentative swipes before one fighter connects with the crucial blow; his adversary staggers, clutching his side, then crumples in a heap of leather and steel on the floor.
The Istrian peninsula is the largest in the Adriatic Sea, spanning Croatian, Italian and Slovenian territory, with a Croatian county, also called Istria, making up 90% of its landmass. It came under control of the Austrian Empire in the 19th century, and Italy between 1918 and 1947. It was then part of Yugoslavia before becoming absorbed into the newly minted country of Croatia in 1991.
Today, the islands are a national park, where peacocks wander wild and the rocky coastline is imprinted with the 130-million-year-old footprints of their ancestors, the dinosaurs. Vesna takes me for lunch at the Amifteatar Restaurant — she wants me to try Istrian olive oil. “Pliny the Elder said it was the second-best in the Roman Empire,” she says, with a hint of pride. It’s aromatic and grassy, and, like all the finest olive oil, leaves a warming sensation in the throat.
When Dario was asked to formally describe Istrian folk music for its inclusion on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009, he settled on ‘two-part polyphony in narrow intervals’. “It’s a mouthful, but it needs to be to describe it!” he says with a chuckle. “The polyphony refers to the two singing voices, characteristic of our music.”
I step outside into Vodnjan’s main plaza, the People’s Square, where another traditional music and dance performance is taking place, courtesy of the folklore group of the Italian Community of Vodnjan-Dignano.
As luck would have it, my visit to Rovinj coincides with the annual town festival — the feast day of St Euphemia — when traditional Istrian culture is at its most alive. Euphemia was a martyr from Asia Minor who was killed for her Christian faith in 303 CE.
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