The land called Istria is a region of Europe across the bay from Venice at the head of the Adriatic Sea and gently tucked between the Gulf of Trieste and Bay of Kvarner. It consists of the largest peninsula in the Adriatic and a collection of islands caressing it.

When did modern civilization begin in this misty and mysterious land that is nestled at the foothills of the Julian Alps and cradled by the azure waters of the Adriatic Sea? In Šandalja, near Pula, osteological finds of a fossil man possibly dating back to the 12-20th century B.C. were discovered! Some writers claim that Pola (now Pula), considered to be its most ancient city, was founded by the Colchians, and others believe it was founded by Greek colonists from Istrus or Istropolis at the southern mouth of the Ister (now known as the Danube) River, and who conferred on this territory the name of their native country, Istria. Was this the same Histria/Istria, a Greek colony or polis (πολις, city) on the Black Sea coast in what is now the country of Romania and which, around 30 A.D., became a Roman town ahead of the Adriatic Istria? An invasion of the Avars and the Slavs in the 7th century A.D. almost entirely destroyed the fortress of the Black Sea Istria, and those Istrians dispersed, but to where? In the Istria of the Adriatic Sea, there are still peoples who speak an ancient Roman[ian] tongue and whose origins are uncertain and continue being widely speculated...

What little is known for certain of Istria's early history is that the Histri, an Indo-European people who were kindred to the Veneti and Liburni, founded a colony here around the 11th century B.C. They were mentioned for the first time in the 6th century B.C. by Hecataeus of Miletus (560-490) in his Tour Round the World where he described them as "a people in the Ionic Bay" (i.e. the Adriatic). The Romans started the first war with the Histri 221 B.C., the Roman consul C.Clodius Pulcher subjugated them in 177 B.C. after a two-year seige, and a Roman colony was established in their place around 45 B.C. The Romans were then followed by the Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Avars, Langobards, Slavs, Franks, Venetians, Genoese, Romanians, Magyars and Austrians, and in the last century Italians, Serbs and Croats. Even Attila's Huns passed through and Napoleon Bonaparte's French monarchy briefly ruled, their subjects thereby blending into the complex fabric of this uniquely historic and beautiful place. 

After being subjected to five different rulers in the 20th century, Istria is today undemocratically subdivided by three countries: Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. Despite this, abundant traces of her past civilizations remain, including the fabric left behind by people who lived in Istria for centuries but who have been scattered all over the world by a series of conflicts and tragic events in the 20th century resulting from two world wars and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Multi-ethnic and multi-lingual, the Istrian people are part of a rich and colorful tapestry which some would further tear apart by pulling out and segregating its individual silken threads - that is, analyze Istrians in two-dimensional and mono-ethnic "scientific" or "clinical" ways that are neither an accurate nor comprehensive representation of the Istrian people, those living in Istria or those who are dispersed around the world. Our internet domain does not subscribe to the polarization of our Istrian family in such ways and treats all Istrians as equals, irrespective of their real or proclaimed ethnicity, the language(s) they speak, where they live, their socio-economic background, or their spiritual and political philosophies.

Perhaps it is ironic as well as symbolic that a large portion of Istria's soil is a rich red that evokes the color of the human blood that soaked into it through the millennia; another is a stark gray-white that is arid like the ashes of its scattered dead; while the balance is allegorically black like the souls of the many plunderers and conquerors who have stripped this land of its most precious resource, its mosaic of sturdy people. A land mass will take millions of years to evolve while a cultural heritage requires only centuries. Tragically, either or both can be instantaneously destroyed by a flash of lightning, an earthquake, the plagues, or repeated human invasions!

Indeed, some people came to Istria to plunder or rule, some to hide or flee from oppressors, and still others were there simply to enjoy the pastoral settings. In his memoirs, the notorious Venetian Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725-1798) describes two visits that he made to Istria and how he made love in Vrsar (Orsera). In contrast, philosophers, saints, and hermits spawned in Istria a sanctuary from the mundane - even a false messiah! - while Roman poets and Renaissance troubadours praised Istria in their verses. One of them, Marcus Valerius Martialis (c. 43-117 B.C.), was a Spaniard who later gained fame as a Roman poet, satirist, and master of the epigram. Better known as Martial (Italian: Marziale), he wrote: "Uncto Corduba laetior Venafro / Histra nec minus absolute testa." (English: Oh, city of Còrdoba, you who are more fertile than the city of Venafro famous for its oil, and as perfect as an Istrian amphora; Italiano: O città di Cordova, tu che sei più ricca della città di Venefro famosa per il suo olio, e non sie meno perfetta di un'anfora istriana; and Hrvatski: Kordobo, koja si plodnija od Vinafre poznatoj po ulju, a nisi ni manje savrsena od istrarske amfore".)