Roman grandeur

The largest city in Istria and its main transport hub, Pula was once the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and retains key shipbuilding and port facilities. Well before that it was one of the biggest Roman settlements in the northeastern Adriatic, and has several important remains to show for it, including the magnificent 1st century-BC arena.

The forum

Pula’s classical heritage is evident on the main square (still called the Forum) where the serene colonnaded form of the Temple of Jupiter lords it over a handsome collection of renaissance buildings. A short walk east of here is The Arch of the Sergians, a relief-studded triumphal arch commissioned by noblewoman Salvia Postuma Sergia in around 30BC in honour of her husband, army officer Lucius Sergius Lepidus. Hiding in an off-street courtyard near here is a beautifully preserved second-century mosaic illustrating the legend of Dirce, in which the Queen of Thebes is dragged to her death after being tied to the horns of a bull.

Kaštel