Gems of the old town core

“Batana” is a small boat with distinctive features, one of the symbols of Istrian and Dalmatian fishing. “Batana” is an old traditional boat, usually 4 – 5.5 meters long. Its main characteristic is that it is a shallow draft boat, flat bottomed with a sloping side shell. “Batana” is square-sterned without a keel. It once had a triangular sail and the mast passed through the thwart. The sails were characteristically painted and each family had its own symbol at the top of the sail so people on the coast could see whose “batana” was returning from sea. Today, many fishermen still have a “batana” and in summer organize contests to test their rowing skills. The wooden corvette “Fasana” was a training vessel of the Austro-Hungarian navy. It had a flat deck and characteristic raked bow. In the period from 1871 to 1873 it sailed in the Asian seas. From 1889 to 1893 the corvette “Fasana” sailed twice around the world, and so promoted the name of our little town. During its first voyage around the world its task was to find the missing captain Johan Orth in South America.

In the year of our Lord 1379, on the fifth day of May, in the Fažana Channel a great sea battle took place. It was the fourth war between Venice and Genoa, known as the “WAR FOR CHIOGGIA”. In the struggle between Genoa and Venice for supremacy over Levant, in 1376 the “SERRENISSIMA” occupied the island Tenedos at the entrance to Dardanelles. Genoa decided to attack St. Mark’s Republic and sent Admiral Luciano Doria to the northern Adriatic. The Venetian fleet composed of 21 galleys (16 triremes), commanded by Vettoro Pisano left the port of Pula and clashed with 22 Genoese galleys that sailed from Veruda bay. Doria died as a hero but his fleet imprisoned as many as 15 galleys with more than 2 000 people. In battles or at sea more than 1 700 people were killed. Pisano made his escape with the remaining 6 galleys by fleeing to Poreč and Venice. The Genoese afterwards plundered Rovinj, Dvigrad, Umag and Grado, and temporarily besieged Chioggia. From the south thus, they directly threatened the Venetian lagoon where dodge Andrea Contarini kept court. The following year the Genoese plundered Pula too, where they burnt the city archives, taking away the most valuable relics together with the bronze gate of the cathedral and put in chains about 1300 galley slaves. Having finally exiled the Genoese, Pisano succumbed to wounds. He was replaced by Carlo Zeno, who had previously occupied the Tyrrhenian and Aegean Sea with another fleet. Genoa surrendered at last and signed a peace treaty in Turin in 1381.

Villa “Oceana” does not exist in Fažana anymore… It once stood between Fažana harbor and pine wood Pineta, with a lovely view of the sea. The famous composer Antonio Smareglia (1854-1929) spent his vacation there together with his family and was inspired to compose the opera “Oceana” which had its premiere at Milan’s La Scala in 1903 conducted by the great Toscanini. Fažana together with its waterfront still remembers the visits of various heads of state and politicians, as well as famous people from the world of art and sport, business and science, fashion, jet-set. And so to mention some of them: Emperor Franz Joseph I, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Douglas Fairbanks, Guglielmo Marconi, Josip Broz Tito, Nehru, Naser, Indira Ghandi, Ho Chi Minh, Henry Kissinger, Queen Elizabeth II… Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Mario del Monaco, Naomi Campbell, Placido Domingo…

Fažana together with its waterfront still remembers the visits of various heads of state and politicians, as well as famous people from the world of art and sport, business and science, fashion, jet-set. And so to mention some of them: Emperor Franz Joseph I, James Joyce, Thomas Mann, Douglas Fairbanks, Guglielmo Marconi, Josip Broz Tito, Nehru, Naser, Indira Ghandi, Ho Chi Minh, Henry Kissinger, Queen Elizabeth II… Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Mario del Monaco, Naomi Campbell, Placido Domingo…

Historic core of Fažana, with its simple contours and closeness of two-storey houses displays an integrated unity, where each structure has its own architecture: door facing the sea, door facing the neighbor’s house and back door…. In normal conditions, such a composition of houses enabled a proper family life, but in times of peril and enemy attacks, such structures were transformed into a fortification. By opening side doors, which enabled internal communication, defenders in the houses had a better chance of defending. The inhabitants of Fažana used such possibilities of multi-purpose organization and protection during Uskok and pirate attacks. The lintel on one of the buildings in front of this defensive complex boasts an inscription: the year 1495, as the time of its construction.

La rondinella was the shortest and narrowest street in Fažana named after the swallow (italian: la rondinella), because according to the stories of old townspeople it was so narrow that only swallows could fly through it.

The church of SS. Cosmas and Damian stands at the lowest height above sea level in Istria: only one meter above sea level.