Istria
Istria (IS-tree-ë), Istra (IS-trah) in Croatian and Slovenian, Istria (IS-tryah) Italian is biggest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, part of southern Slovenia and northwestern Croatia.Important towns include Koper/Capodistria ("head of Istria"), Pula/Pola, Poreč/Parenzo, Rovinj/Rovigno, Pazin/Pisino, Labin/Albona, Motovun/Montona, Buzet/Pinguente and Buje/Buie. Of special mention are Višnjan;, (višnja=sour cherry in Croatian language), Roč and Hum knon as the smallest city in the world.
The name is derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Histri, which Strabo mentioned to livein this region. The Romans described them as a fierce tribe of Illyrian pirates, protected by the difficult navigation of their rocky coasts. It took two military campaigns for the Romans to finally subdue them in 177 BCE.
After the fall of the Western Roman empire, regio was pillaged by the Goths, Longobardi, annexed to the Frankish kingdom by Pippin III in 789, successively controlled by the dukes of Carinthia, Meran, Bavaria and the patriarch of Aquileia, before it became territory of the republic of Venice. It passed to the Habsburgs in 1797, (reverting temporarily to Napoleon in 1805- 1813).
Later, for a fe decades it became part of Italy whose policy of forced italianisation and the Nazi occupation during World War II worsened the traditionally tolerant ethnic relations.
After the end of World war II, Istria was assigned to Yugoslavia. In the process, (1945-1947), an estimated 15,000 Italian-speakers were killed and 300 000 left. Some well-known postwar exiles from Istria include individuals like Mario Andretti,Sergio Endrigo,Nino Benvenuti. Famous people like Robert Koch, James Joyce, Jules Verne, Dante Alghieri were working, writing, visiting or were just inspired by Terra Magica.
Today, most of Istria lies in Croatia, in the Istria county seated in Pazin. A small section, including the coastal towns of Portorož (Portorose) and Koper lies in Slovenia. It has a long tradition of tolerance between the people who live there, be it Croats, Italians, Slovenians, Istroromanians, Albanians,the Serbs or else. The residents of Istrians are somewhat skeptical of official Zagreb and like their cultural autonomy.