Hidden Treasures
More about Sites
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PULA
The Roman Amphitheatre (commonly called Arena), from the 1st and 2nd centuries, occupies a dominant position above the harbour.
It has an elliptic ground-plan (132.45 x 105.10 m); the walls are 30.45 m high; it could seat 23,000 spectators. It is the world's sixth largest preserved amphitheatre.
Through the Triumphal Arch of the Sergi one enters Sergi Street, the busiest street in the old part of the town.
Clerisseau Street leads to the Dante Square, where a 15th-century Gothic church, reconstructed on several occasions, stands. Flacius Street leads to the Byzantine memorial chapel from the 6th century, which was a part of the collapsed, grandiose basilica Santa Maria Formosa (Canneto; the marble ornamentation and columns of the basilica were used in the construction of the San Marco Basilica in Venice.The first tourist excursions to Pula were recorded at the beginning of the 19th century. Giovanni Carrara, a conservator of antiquities in Pula, guided the sightseeing tours for distinguished personalities and organized groups in 1828.
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POREČ
Even today the ground plan of Porec reveals the typical geometric pattern of a Roman castrum; the decumanus ("main road") has preserved the character of the main road even today.
In the 6th century the complex of St. Euphrasius Basilica was built. In the following centuries the town suffered a decline; it was renovated at the end of the 12th century; in the 13th century the town walls were reinforced, and in the 15th century, facing the Turkish threat, the town erected a new fortification system. In the 18th century the town walls, having lost their function, gradually decayed.
A narrow passage leads west of the Canon's Residence to the complex of Euphrasius Basilica (mid-6th c.), consisting of the church, atrium, baptistery and the former palace of the diocese. Being richly decorated and well preserved, the whole complex represents one of the most important monuments of the Byzantine art.
The first sacral object erected on this location was the so-called Maurus Oratory built in the second half of the 3rd century (fragments of the mosaic have been preserved). After the Edict of Milan in 313, a public church was built on this location, with its area doubled in the 4th century; one of the rooms was used for the service and the other represented a martyrium (where the relics of the Porec martyr, St. Maurus, were kept).
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BLED
The fertile land, the protective shelter of the castle hill and the island, have always invited the settlement of the Bled area. The first, and still rare traces of humans in Bled date back to the Stone Age. In the Iron Age, when the mining of iron was began in the Alpine regions, settlement increased.
It is quite probable that in 1004, when the German Emperor Henrik II gave the Bled estate to Bishop Albuin of Brixen as a gift, only a Romanesque tower stood in the place of the present day castle, protected by walls facing the gentle slope of the castle hill. In the late Middle Ages more towers were built and the fortifications were improved.
The castle is now arranged as an exhibition area. The display rooms near the chapel, a most interesting building, present the ancient history of Bled from the first excavations, and the castle in individual stages of its historical development with furniture, characteristic of those times.
Although these pieces are not originally from Bled Castle, they are important as an illustration of the style of living in the historical periods presented.
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OPATIJA
Opatija, often called the Nice of the Adriatic, is one of the most popular tourist resorts in Croatia and a place with the longest tourist tradition on the eastern coast of the Adriatic.
Named after the Benedictine abbey of St. James first mentioned in 1449. Between 1560 and 1723 owned by the Augustinians from Rijeka, and since 1774 a property of the chapter of Rijeka.
The architecture of hotels, boarding houses and villas has historicist neo-style features, with occasional examples of Art Nouveau; structured fronts, the size and type of the openings (balconies, loggias) and the ornamentation on the fronts render the buildings a Mediterranean aspect.
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ZAGREB
Ban Josip Jelacic Square, with the equestrian statue of Ban Jelacic, is the usual starting point for sightseeing tours through the three historical parts of Zagreb: the Upper Town (Gornji Grad), Kaptol and the Lower Town (Donji Grad).
Gornji Grad is a more recent name for the mediaeval town which was chartered in 1242. and thus obtained the status of "the free royal town on Gradec Hill of Zagreb". It lies on a slope between the walls constructed around the mid-13th century. The town used to have four gates.
The Stone Gate (Kamenita Vrata), the only preserved city gate, represents the entrance to the Upper Town. It was first mentioned in the Middle Ages, when the Baroque chapel of the Mother of God was constructed around the old painting by a local master, which survived the fire of 1731.
St. Mark Square is the centre of the Upper Town. The town parish church of St. Mark was built in the mid-13th century.
The Gothic Cathedral, built from the 13th to the end of the 15th century, was renovated after the earthquake of 1880, when the neo-Gothic façade with two high bell towers (105 m), which have become the symbol of Zagreb, was built.
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PLITVICE NATIONAL PARK
Morning departure for Plitvice National Park, inscribed on the List of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Tour of the 16 crystal - blue lakes cascading into 92 spectacular waterfalls. Walk on the wooden promenades to view majestic waters where every turn leads to a breathtaking scenery and yet another waterfall. Surrounded by dense woods Plitvice lakes are a natural phenomenon of rare and unique beauty. Departure to Zadar.
Dinner and overnight in Zadar.
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