Get in
Pula has its own international airport with direct services from many European cities including Amsterdam, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Oslo and Zurich. Ryanair operates direct flights from Dublin and London three times a week. Many flights to Pula are charter rather than scheduled, while other flights are seasonal (summer only). A taxi from the bus station to the city should be around 85 kuna in the low season and much higher in the summer.
There are buses from Rijeka, Trieste, and Venice. There is also a train station and a harbor.
If you are coming from Italy there are two buses daily from Venice leaving at 11am and 1:45pm going to Istria, with a final stop in Pula. They are operated by two different bus companies, but you can by tickets for both buses at the A.T.V.O bus office at the Venice bus station. The Venice office is around outside on the ground level across from where all the buses park. Both buses pick up at spot b15. It is roughtly a 5 hour bus ride, with stops in Trieste and Rovinj. You can also pick up the bus at the bus station in Mestre, fifteen minutes after the scheduled bus leaves Venice.
Hitchhiking from Zagreb works very well. In Zagreb start from the petrol station after the "Billa" supermarket on the southside of the Sava river. In Rijeka ask people to drop you off at the little SOS stop after a pretty sharp right bend of the motor way around Rijeka.
Get around
For local transport the cheap taxis from CityTax (25/30 Kuna) can be a good alternative for the public buses (10 Kuna per person). (This taxi service my no longer be available.)
If you want to take a small backpack with you on an AUTOTRANS bus, first ask the driver if this is OK before buying the ticket. Otherwise you might be refused entry on the bus and your ticket will not be refunded, even if you have bought it off the driver just 2 minutes earlier. (The Brioni company seems OK - onboard small backpacks are allowed, but you have to insist.)
All buses have a luggage area. The service is charged separately from the ticket and it usually costs 7kn. Every ticket can be refunded at the ticket office (a fee will be charged).
There should be no problem taking a small backpack or a small suitcase on the bus as long as you can fit it in the overhead compartment (which is rather small) or under your seat/legs.
See
Buy
Eat
Sleep
Tourist information can provide you with a list of accommodation in Pula, although they will not make reservations for you.
Get out
Pula (Croatian Pula, Italian Pola; the city has an official Croatian-Italian bilingualism - in Istriot Pula, German Polei, Slovenian Pulj) is the largest city in Istria, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the peninsula, with a population of 62,080 (2006). Its geographical location is .
From the 19th century through World War I, Pula was the headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, tame sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing, shipbuilding, and tourism. Pula has also been Istria's administrative center since ancient Roman times.
Population
Pula is the largest city in Istria county, with a metropolitan area of 90,000 people. The city itself has 62,080 residents (2005), while the metropolitan area includes Barban (2,802 residents), Fažana (3,050 residents), Ližnjan (2,945 residents), Marčana (3,903 residents), Medulin (6,004 residents), Svetvinčenat (2,218 residents) and Vodnjan (5,651 residents).
Its population density is 1,093.27 residents/km², ranking Pula fifth in Croatia.
Its birth rate is 1.795 per cent and its mortality rate is 1.014 per cent (in 2001 466 people were born and 594 deceased), with a natural population increase of -0.219 per cent and vital index of 78.45.
The majority of its citizens are Croats representing 71.65% of the population (2001 census). Ethnic minorities and their composition is as follows: 3,415 Serbs (5.83 per cent), 2,824 Italians (4.82 per cent), 980 Bosniaks (1.67 per cent), 731 Slovenians (1.25 per cent) and the rest belong to other minor ethnic communities .
Geography
The city lies on and beneath seven hills (Kaštel, Zaro, Arena, Sv. Martin, Opatija sv. Mihovila, Mondipola, and Pra Grande), on the inner part of a wide gulf and a naturally well-protected port (depth up to 38 m) open to the northwest with two entrances: from the sea and through Fažana channel.
Today, Pula's geographical area amounts to 5,165 ha, 4,150 ha on land and 1,015 ha at sea, bounded from the north by islands Sv. Jerolim and Kozada, city areas Štinjan, Veli Vrh and Šijanic forest; from the east area Monteserpo, Valmade, Busoler and Valdebek; from the south with the old gas works, commercial port Veruda and island Veruda; and from the west Verudela, Lungomare and Musil.
Like the rest of the region it is known for its mild climate, tame sea, and unspoiled nature with an average insolation of 2,316 hours per year or 6.3 hours a day, with an average air temperature of 13.2° C (6.1° C in February to 26.4° C in July and August) and sea oscillation from 7 to 26°C.
Sights
The city is best known for its many surviving ancient Roman buildings, the most famous of which is its first century amphitheatre, sixth largest in the world and locally known as the Arena. This is one of the best preserved amphitheatres from antiquity and is still in use today during summer film festivals. During the World War II Italian fascist administration, there were attempts to disassemble the arena and move it to mainland Italy, which were quickly abandoned due to the costs involved.
Two other notable and well-preserved ancient Roman structures are the 1st century AD triumphal arch, the Arch of the Sergii and the co-eval temple of Rome and Augustus, built in the 1st century AD by the Roman emperor Augustus.
The city's old quarter of narrow streets, lined with Medieval and Renaissance buildings, are still surfaced with ancient Roman paving stones.
History
The city's earliest recorded permanent habitation dates back to the 10th century BC. It was founded by the Illyrian tribe of the Histri, an ancient people that lived in Istria.
Significant Roman settlement (Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola) began in the first century BC. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the city and region were ruled in succession by Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Franks, and the Venetians. The first arrival of the Slavs in the environs of the town dates to the 7th century, but they never really settled the city, which always kept its Italian soul. The history of the city continued to reflect its location and significance, like that of the region, in the redrawing of borders between European powers.
Pula is quoted by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedy: "come a Pola, presso del Carnaro ch'Italia chiude e i suoi termini bagna" or "as Pula, along the Quarnero, that marks the end of Italy and bathes its boundaries".
In 1150 Pula swore allegiance to the Republic of Venice, thus becoming a Venetian possession. For centuries thereafter, the city's fate and fortunes were tied to those of Venetian power. During the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, Pula was attacked and occupied by the Genoese, a Croatian-Hungarian army and the Habsburgs; several outlying medieval settlements and towns were destroyed. In addition to war, the plague, malaria and typhoid ravaged the city.
With the collapse of the Venetian Republic in 1797, the city became first a part of the Habsburg Monarchy. It was then included in the French Empire's puppet Kingdom of Italy in 1805, then placed directly under the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces. In 1813, Pula and Istria came under the rule of the new Austrian Empire, later the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was assigned to the Austrian Littoral crown land. During this period, Pula's large natural harbour became Austria's main naval base and a major shipbuilding centre. The island of Lussino (Lošinj) to the south of Pula became the summer vacation resort of Austria's Habsburg royal family.
Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Pula and the whole of Istria became part of Italy. Italian rule lasted until the end of World War II. In this period governed by Benito Mussolini's fascist government non-Italian especially Slavic residents faced huge political and cultural repression and many fled the city and Istria altogether.
For several years after the war, Pula was administered by the United Nations, whose presence included U.S. military forces. Istria was partitioned into occupation zones until the region became largely united with the rest of Croatia within the Communist Yugoslavia.
When the city was ceded to Yugoslavia, its population was largely made up of ethnic Italians — up to 90 per cent by some accounts, but with the signing of the peace treaty in 1947, most of those who had not already fled after 1945 left. Between December 1946 and September 1947, the city was abandoned by most of its Italian residents.
On August 18 1946 it was the site of the Vergarolla explosion.
In 1931 Pula had 41,439 residents, and in 1948 there were only 19,595 residents.
Subsequently, the city's Croatian name of Pula became official. Since the collapse of Yugoslavia, Pula and Istria have remained part of the modern Republic of Croatia.
Culture
As a result of its rich political history, Pula is a city with a cultural mixture of people and languages from the Mediterranean and Central Europe, ancient and contemporary. Pula's architecture reflects these layers of history. Residents are commonly fluent in foreign languages, especially Italian, often also German and English. From October 30, 1904 to March 1905 Irish writer James Joyce taught English at the Berlitz School; his students were mainly Austro-Hungarian naval officers who were stationed at the Naval Shipyard. While he was in Pula he organized the local printing of his broadsheet The Holy Office, which satirized both William Butler Yeats and George Russell .
Opera composer Antonio Smareglia was born in Pula and returned to live there.
Physician Robert Koch worked on the nearby Brijuni islands.
Herman Potočnik (pseudonym Hermann Noordung) a rocket engineer and pioneer of cosmonautics (astronautics) was also born in Pula.
Georg Ritter von Trapp - Austrian naval hero and head of the famous singing family immortalized in the musical The Sound of Music lived in Pula.
Among the "polesani" (Italian natives of the city) is Sergio Endrigo, one of the most famous Italian singer-songwriters.
Among other famous residents of Pola is Maja Vasić from Sijana.
Economy
Major industries include shipbuilding, processing industry, tourism, traffic, food industies, construction industries and other non-metal industries.
Major companies located in Pula:
Sport
Football-NK Pula (second Croatian league) and NK Istra (third Croatian league)
Volleyball-OK OTP Banka Pula (first Croatian league)
Handball-RK Arena
Basketball-KK Stoja and KK Istra
Tourism
The natural beauty of Pula's surrounding countryside and turquoise water of the Adriatic have made the city an internationally popular summer vacation destination. The pearl nearby is Brijuni national park visited by numerous world leaders since it was the summer residence of Josip Broz Tito. Roman villas and temples still lie buried among farm fields and along the shoreline of the dozens of surrounding fishing and farming villages. The coastal waters offer beaches, fishing, wreck dives to ancient Roman galleys and World War I warships, cliff diving, and sailing to unspoiled coves and islands large and small.
Pula is the end point of the EuroVelo 9 cycle route that runs from Gdansk on the Baltic Sea through Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.
It is possible to track dinosaur footprints on the nearby sea shores; certain more important finds have been made at an undisclosed location near Bale.
Transport
There is the local Pula Airport, but similarly to the nearby Rijeka Airport it is not a major international destination. However, this is likely to change as low-cost airline, Ryanair has started scheduled flights to Pula since November 2006. Nearby international airports include Trieste in Italy, Zagreb, Croatia's capital and Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital.
There are direct flights into Pula airport from London and Dublin during whole year and several other large airports in Western Europe during summer.
Nearby towns and villages
Twin towns and partner towns
Twin towns:
Other forms of partnership:
Strong friendly relationships and continuous contacts are maintained with these towns:
External links
