Istria

Istria

(ĭs`trēə), Croatian Istra, mountainous peninsula c.1,500 sq mi (3,900 sq km), in Slovenia and Croatia, projecting into the N Adriatic between the gulfs of Trieste and Fiume. A section of the northwestern portion, including the city of Trieste, belongs to Italy. The area is thickly forested and is predominantly agricultural. Pula is the chief city and a shipbuilding center. The population is about two thirds Croatian. Istria was inhabited by Illyrian tribes when it passed (2d cent. B.C.) to Rome. It remained under nominal Byzantine rule until the 8th cent. A.D. By that time, Slavs had settled in the rural areas and Italians in the cities. By the 15th cent. Austria and Venice had absorbed, respectively, the northeastern and southwestern parts of the region. The Treaty of Campo Formio (1797) and the Congress of Vienna (1815) added the Venetian part to Austria. In 1919 all Istria passed to Italy, but the Italian peace treaty of 1947 gave most of it to Yugoslavia. The northwestern section passed to Italy in 1954; under the 1975 Osimo Treaty, Italy gave up claims to coastal lands south of Trieste.

Istria

 

an ancient Greek city on the western shore of the Black Sea, in what is now Rumania. Istria was founded by the Milesians in the second half of the seventh century B.C. The inhabitants were farmers, fishermen, and craftsmen and engaged in trading with the neighboring Getae-Thracian and Scythian tribes. It achieved its greatest development in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. Archaeological finds bear witness to the developed trade relations with the cities of the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions. In the middle of the first century B.C., Istria was ravaged by the Getae, and in 27 B.C. it became part of the Roman Empire. Destroyed by the Goths in the third century A.D., Istria was again restored and existed until the seventh century. By this time, as a result of sand alluvium, the city no longer had an outlet to the sea and thus lost its significance as a trade center. It gradually became deserted.

Excavations have been carried out with interruptions since 1914. Remains of defense walls (fourth century B.C.), temples, particularly the Temple of Aphrodite (fifth century B.C.), thermae (third-fourth century), and dwellings have been uncovered. Istria is an archaeological preserve.

REFERENCES

Konduraki, E. Istriia. Bucharest, 1962.
Blavatskaia, T.V. Zapadnopontiiskie goroda v 7–1 vv. do n.e. Moscow, 1952.

I. T. KRUGLIKOVA

Istria

a peninsula in the N Adriatic Sea: passed from Italy to Yugoslavia (except for Trieste) in 1947 and to Croatia in 1991