Island - Peninsula

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Rovinj’s life started on what used to be the island of Mons Albanus. The first archeological traces of life date back to the Bronze Age, and the old city started developing in the 3rd century.

The historic core of Rovinj is shaped as a unique urban silhouette with clear lines of Venetian architectural models, which is why the town is often dubbed “little Venice”. Still, the geomorphological features of Rovinj’s island hill and the already built late antique and medieval base prevented the development of a typical Venetian town with public buildings built around the main square. The town’s most valuable architectural and urban structures suggest that, thanks to the significant economic growth in the 17th and 18th centuries, the bourgeois class had the means to invest in urban construction. The most obvious example of this architectural and urban upswing is the reconstruction of the new bell tower and the construction of a new and larger Baroque parish church. Just as any other urban centre, Rovinj used to be encircled by walls.

Initially, there was only a small fortified area at the very top of the island around the first parish church, while the first modest early medieval town walls were reconstructed in the 12th century, and reinforced at the end of the 16th century during the Uskok threat. Today, the walls can be seen around the town gate (dating from the 12th century), at certain locations in Vladimir Švalba and St. Cross streets, and on both sides of the Belvedere (one of the towers that protected the town's defence line to the north, which is still preserved today).

The walls used to have six town gates. Today, the old town core can be entered through the Balbi's Arch (formerly the Old Fish Market Gate), the Under the Wall Gate, the St. Benedict Gate, the St. Cross Gate, and the Behind the Fortress Gate. At the beginning of the 18th century, as a result of the need for more residential space, the town began to expand beyond the town walls onto the mainland, and the channel between the island and the mainland was filled in 1763. The old city bears witness to the times gone by and the diligence of local masters.

Construction was conditioned by the very limited space, which resulted in narrow houses, narrow streets and small squares built very close together. Rovinj’s town core is also special for its characteristically built chimneys, as well as the numerous external staircases and street steps (skalinade), covered terraces (baladuri), porches, internal courtyards, blind alleys, wells, roof terraces, mansard-style structures, and also the numerous chiaroscuro effects and "plastic" portal, window, balcony and roof cornice decorations. Thanks to the above-mentioned special features, the old city was proclaimed a monument of culture in 1963.