VIII Pula (Pieta Iulia)

What3words  - unfair.divider.herring

Visited August 2017

Status – One of the Best

Capacity - 23,000

Construction Date - 27BC-68AD

It’s Only Rock & Roll

Given its incredible state of preservation, it’s hardly surprising that Pula has been hosting opera, classical and rock concerts for a number of years. David Gilmour - possibly the the godfather/grandfather of playing in Roman Amphitheatres, did it in 2015. But can you believe it? (Of course you can) ….Sting got there first… in 1997 and went back again in 2017. The summer of 2024 offers Dua Lipa, Avril Lavigne, Simple Minds, Duran Duran, Lenny Kravitz and Jason Derulo. More good reasons to visit (maybe).

(An Englishman in Croatia)

This is a very special place. A surviving tribute to engineering and architectural genius. Acknowledged as one of the best preserved Roman Amphitheatres in existence, it miraculously escaped destruction and plunder over twenty centuries and we are truly fortunate to be able to see it today. It is the only Roman arena with a complete outer wall containing all three rows of openings, and four surviving external towers. It has intact underground passages and stores filled with wine jars. If you are privileged enough to walk around a corner and see it for the first time, bathed in bright sunlight, it will be hard to forget. It could seat 23,000 spectators.

Its survival is all the more remarkable given the shifting political and geographical sands which have surrounded it. It lies in the region of Istria on the Adriatic coast to the south-east of Venice. Istria was an area with the right climate and location to provide wine and olive oil on an industrial scale for export back to Italy.

After Neolithic and Bronze age occupation, The ancient Greeks spent some time trading in Istria. When the Romans came to call in 177 BC the local tribe were known as the Histri. It became part of the Roman colony of Venetia et Histria, a region of  Roman Italy. The great Amphitheatre was built between 27 BC and 68 AD. As in many cases it used the natural landscape to provide part of its structure so the external wall on the ‘land’ side has only two rows of arches and the seating on that side is founded on the rock beneath.

The next bit is in danger of reading like one of those mind-numbingly tedious history lessons with a series of dates so I’ll be  brief. With the fall of the Roman Empire the Ostragoths came to call and stayed until the mid-6th Century when it became part of the Byzantine Empire. From 788 it was controlled by the Franks as part of The Kingdom of Italy. In 1148 The Venetians took it over and, give or take a few struggles with the Pisans and the Genoese, had it until 1291 when it came under the control of Patriarch Raimundo della Torre of Aquileia as a result of the ‘Peace of Treviso’. Whatever his reasons, the Patriarch forbade the further removal of stone from the Pula Amphitheatre so it is to him, more than any other individual, that we owe its survival in its present form.

The Venetians got Istria back in 1331 and held it until their own Empire ended in 1797. From then until Napoleon showed up in 1805, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the Hapsburgs who got it back again in 1813 and retained control, making Pula their main Naval base, until their defeat at the end of World War I.

From then until the end of World War II it was part of Italy before passing through Allied hands to become part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which eventually collapsed in 1991. Since then it has been part of the Republic of Croatia.

The last time anyone quarried stone from the Amphitheatre was in the 18th Century to provide foundations for the Cathedral. It’s been patched up and repaired on occasions and is now used as a cultural and concert venue. It is truly incredible that it has managed to stand there, relatively unscathed through successive wars and convoluted political intrigues.

If you only visit one Roman Amphitheatre in your life, I’d say make it this one.