1/3/20 -- Explore Pula

We started the day with a presentation about Pula and Croatia, both ancient and recent history. Pula sits at the southwestern tip of the Istrian Peninsula, which looks like a strawberry jutting into the Adriatic from the intersection of Italy and Croatia. It is at the end of a 2-mile long protected bay. The area has changed hands several times, from Roman to Venitian to Holy Roman Empire to Italian to Yugoslavian to Croatian. Until recently, it had a shipbuilding industry that started in 1850 but went into bankruptcy in May, 2019, in theory due to various levels of corruption.

It is also famous for its Roman amphitheater, which we visited. It is one of the largest in both size and capacity and has a well maintained outer wall. Unfortunately, the interior was plundered by the Venetians for building materials - what a quarry it was: long lasting Istrian limestone already cut and ready to use. The white stones in the Venice photos were Istrian  limestone and the gray paving stones came from Padua. There have been a couple of attempted restorations, to the point that it is now used for outdoor concerts, but UNESCO rejected it as a preservation site because of the lack of quality in the restorations. We visited an underground area as well as exploring the more visible section.

They discovered the original Roman road under other paving

 

Heading under the coliseum look at artifacts

Amphorae were everywhere

Old olive oil mill

 

Very rare example of how the Romans held the stones together -- the
vertical thing on the right is a lead bolt.

The whiter stones in the wall are just as old as the rest, but have been micro-
scopically cleaned at great expense and time. It was more to prove it could
be done than a plan to clean the whole thing

Old and newer -- the dead shipyard in the background

From this angle, it is easier to see it is oval

Then we walked into the center of Pula to  look at some additional old constructions and at the markets, which were mostly about to close.

The fountain is a relief map of the city.

An old set of town gates.

In the process of doing archeological digging, more old stuff is discovered.

Notice the shaped stone pieces above. They were recycled from an older
cemetery to build this old wall.

Interesting town gate built and paid for by a woman
(still married) at a time when women only had control
of their money when they were widows.

After lunch on the ship, we returned to Pula with Alessandro to explore a fort on the main hill and other older Roman artifacts before returning to the ship at sundown before it got REALLY cold again.

We approach the fort. There were some art installtions inside too.

Views from the fort

Photo of the fort

My version of a selfie.., the shadow on the wall is me.

The yellow building used to be a 5 star hotel long ago. Now sadly neglected,
it is not in use.

When folks fix up their homes, they intentionally leave evidence of the
great age of the home by leaving parts uncovered.

Mosaic floor a couple feet below the level of the current city.

Remnants of an old building next to a new house. Below, the house was
designed to incorporate part of the old walls.

 

Main square with a public Christmas tree and interesting light fixture.

 On our way back to the ship, we caught the sunset. After dinner, we were treated to some traditional local musicians.

Our home for a week

Croatian musicians