PORTRAITS OF ISTRA - Episode 5 - PULA : IN THE OLD TOWN, part 1
It's early morning ... the fresh start of another cloudy autumn day ...
... and I'm entering the old sector of the city of Pula ... on the south end of the Istra peninsula ... northern Adriatic ... In Croatia ..
... it's a pretty small city ... about sixty thousand inhabitants ... but is still the biggest on the peninsula ... and a capital of some sort ... not the official one though ... much smaller town Pazin in the central part holds that title ...
... once upon a time ... Pula was an impressive place for its time, I mean, that time :D once upon a time ... in the first centuries AD in the time of the Roman Empire ... because it was an important base for the conquests all along the northeastern Mediterranean ... that's how Pula got its Arena, the beautifully preserved amphitheater on the following photograph that holds the big part of the town's identity ... along with some other architectural beauties of that era ... like The Temple of Augustus on the upper picture
The amphitheater was built in between last decades of the first century BC and the first decades of the first century AD ... is made from big limestone blocks and is preserved in its original shape, all the important architectonic and decorative elements are still there, and is a great time capsule ... it was situated outside the city walls, on a hill near the spring of water and the main road, Via Flavia, that was one of those all roads leading to Rome ... and hosted the usual Gladiator fights, dangerous wild animals and all that bloody entertaining stuff ... later, during the Middle Ages, this was the place for knight tournaments and christian festivities ... and on the following photograph ...
... is the Arch of the Sergii, a Roman triumphal arch ... locally called also The Golden Door ... originally this was the main gate to the ancient city ... is estimated that was built in between 29 and 27 BC ...
... and now ... after this little ancient historical digression ... let's continue this story in another direction ... on the first photograph, I was just entering the old town ... and a twenty or so steps later ... I'm near the open market area ... which has also a closed market area ... the building on the upper photograph ... and on the following one too ...
... is the covered market built in 1903, in for that time very modern architecture made of glass and iron, a very fine example of the secession art and craftsmanship ... today the building has the same shape and purpose as back then, when Pula was an important military port for the Austro - Hungarian empire ... and here we can start to notice the pattern spreading through the centuries ... empire after empire, because of her strategic placement in the northern Adriatic, has built and used this city as a tough naval fortress for conquests and defense ... some time later ... in Yugoslavia, the fortification of this area continued in the Cold War setting and Pula was still a military oriented city, one of the biggest recruiting center in that state, and Tito's most important residence was on the nearby Islands of Brijuni...
... if we pass the open market ...
... with its collection of fresh fruits & vegetables ... and some other stuff ... like mushrooms in this period ... olive oil ... various types of home made cheese ... honey ... etc ...
... to approach the lovely, aforementioned market building from the Austro - Hungarian period, according to many, the golden era of the city ...
... we'll have two options ...
... pass through the ground level passage, surrounded by the fish market and a series of small meat, milk, cheese, eggs, & delicatessen related shops ...
... to continue ...
... through the city ... or ...
... we can continue up this stairway ...
... pass this falcon ...
... and arrive at the upper floor ... here we can stop for a moment take a nice bird look at the open market ...
... and all those human shopping activities there ...
... then we can go through the upper hall, where some nice little bars and street food things are ...
... and exit on the other side ...
(Enlargeable)
... greeted by a very cool view of that part of the city ...
... after a good panoramic look and maybe some photographs ... we can go down the same type of stairway we did to climb up, only this time watched by a bunch of pigeons instead of a falcon ...
... and continue through the city ... on this little GIF you can see a wider look at that area near the market ...
... and now ...
... before we jump to another part of the old center ...
... it's time for another little digression ...
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... since I made all the photographs you saw till now yesterday, during one cloudy morning after the rainy night ... the post has this pretty dark atmosphere ... that I really like ... but prolonged exposure to that ambiance maybe can induce the depression in some viewers ... so I decided to occasionally put some more colorful pictures from now on ... on the upper one, another urban detail with an old building ... and on the following ...
... is a night shot of one of the streets not far from the market ...
... this church ...
... the Saint Antony ...
... and the accompanying monastery ...
... are a relatively new addition ...
... built in 1931 ...
... on the hill ...
... slightly above the Arena ...
... it has some nice neoclassical elements incorporated in its shape ...
... that, from some angles, melt nicely with the ancient surroundings ... especially through photography, that can put disconnected elements in interesting relations to create a new slice of world ... or at least the illusion of one ...
... like in this picture ... made of real architectural elements ...
... reflected on a bulletin board with some simple prints of paintings reproductions and various notifications ... and on the following picture ...
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... is a little candle in the night ... for a bit of warmth and spirituality in the atmosphere, hallelujah ... he he, it looks like a candle isn't? ... but here the flame is made of water instead of fire ... this is actually a small fountain near the market ...
... in a little, a bit secluded angle of the church's back yard ... I found ...
... this interesting ... and a bit surreal ...
... little collection of madonnas ...
... behind the bars ...
... this beheaded one was particulary cool ... also there, in the little yard ...
... I met this cool cat ... '' I actually own this place '' she said '' And you are welcome '' ...
... and then I left the church, feeling kind of blessed ... in the following GIF ...
... you can take a wide look at the area above the amphiteater and near the church ... and now ...
... let's walk away from there ...
... through some more secular details ...
... in the long and narow street ...
... that goes from the Triumphal arch ...
... through ...
... the antique Forum ...
... still today reguarded as the main square of Pula ...
... and like a semicircular petrified river ... flows around the whole seaside part of the old town ...
... in one of the small capilar sidestreets ...
... little dog is waiting and staring at the closed door ...
... then the doors opens :D ...
... a bit further ... near the square ... you can see these to facades ... one of those,made of rusted metal, looks lik some building from the Fallout video games series ... and the other is relatively elegant, with a nice balkony ... it's a cool, photogenic scene ...
... if we zoom out the picture ... we'll see that the ''postapocalyptic'' building is part of the big ship under construction in the nearby ship yard ... and on the folowing photograph ... to add a bit of color and sunny weather ...
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... is one of those buildings, photographed ten or so, years ago ...
... some of the narrow sidestreets ...
... are leading uphill to the big old fortress, the point where the first signs of a city were found, but this is a theme to large for this post so I will talk about it in the Part 2 ...
... this picture looks like a view at some small traditional wilage somwhere in Istra... but this is in the city ... some of these old town sidestreets have this very cool rural atmosphere ...
... in one of the larger and relatively modern of those streets ... that leads downhill to the port ...
... :D an interesting little scene by the window of some administrative building that has to do something with urbanistics ...
... and then ...
... fifty meters further ... my favorite place in the city ...
... the public library ... a few years ago while working on some pipes or something like that undernith the street,the important part of the antique city was discovered, a large storage area was also there, with one of the biggest collection of amphoras found in Europe ... and now a little chunk of that past is sprouting from the graound in the park in front of the library
... I particulary like this lovely reddish grass that grows there ... very photogenic plant ... and now ...
(Enlargeable)
... something completely different !!! :D ... hehe, a storefront window in the night, somwhere near the market ... again, to add a bit of bright coloring to the post ...
... and then ...
... back to the dark and gothic atmosphere ... although :D this is the romanesque arhitecture ...
... the old Chatedral from the 5 century ...
... is situated on the place where a Temple of Jupiter once was ...
... and remains of the Roman thermae were found near ...
... on this photograph ... is a view on a bit hiden part of the city near the Chatedral ...
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... and here ... in the sunny weather ... a chapell from the 6 century ... this building was a part of much bigger monastery ...
... and then ... back in gray ... a view on some old rooftops in that area ... and on the folowing two pictures ... photographs I made more then ten years ago ...
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... when some big infrastructural works were in progress in that area ... is a peek at the beautiful, well preserved mosaic in a cellar, that now can't be seen ...
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... I made the shot through a small, half burried rectangular window, there wasn't much place to manouver ... but at least the morning light comming through another hole from a favorable direction was warm and beautiful ... and there was enough light in that dark cellar... on the following picture ...
... another look at the neighborhood not far from the amphiteater ...
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... this is in the same area, but more uphill ...
... than a shot made while going downhill ... on a cloudy yesterday's morning ... through one of the paralel streets ...
... a look at one little neighborhood along the way ...
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... fountain from 1929. ...
... a look at the cranes of the shipyard ...
... and the fallen leaves there on the street ...
... while the car is aproaching ...
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... small Casino in the market area ... in a shot that looks a bit like something out of the Fallout : New Vegas video game :D ... and now ...
(Enlargeable)
... with this shot of older apartament buildings that have seen better days, reflected in the more modern mirrors of a big bank, taken while exiting the market area and the old town in general ... is time to end this first part of the excursion through the old Pula ... hope you enjoyed the walk ... as always in these posts on Steemit, all the photographs, and GIFs made from some of those photographs, are my work ... THE END ... but the series continues ...
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Pula is beautiful. It´s been ages since I was there last time but I remember I loved it :) Interesting to see it with cloudy sky though, looks different :)
True :) is much different with clouds, especially now in late autumn when the sky gets really dark and there is a lot of rain, very different from the summer city with many tourists.
Well, what can be said about such a post? Amazing photographs. Amazing history. Delightful commentary on the (to-most-people) invisible animals, who view everything, as you do, from a removed perspective.
Thanks for the tour. I'll be back to visit this blog again--as I often do with your photo essays.
Thanks :) glad that you find this presentation interesting ... I had great time walking through the city like tourist :) for this post ... and I noticed many things that I never saw before because I'm to used to this city after all the time I spent there through the years ... it was a nice change of perspective and I will surely go more often to photograph the city ... I think there will bi a sequel to this post, the part 2, during this month ...
:)