Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• From the amphitheater, it's a few minutes' walk to Pula's Old Town, where more Roman
sights await. Exit the amphitheater, cross the street, turn left, and walk one long block along
the small wall up the busy road (Amfiteatarska ulica). When you reach the big park on your
right, look for the little, car-sized...
Town Model
Use this handy model of Pula to get oriented. Next to the amphitheater, the little water can-
non spouting into the air marks the pale-blue house nearby, the site of a freshwater spring
(which makes this location even more strategic). The big star-shaped fortress on the hill is
Fort Kaštel, designed by a French architect during the Venetian era (1630). Read the street
plan of the Roman town into this model: At the center (on the hill) was the
castrum,
or mil-
itarybase.Atthebaseofthehill(thefarsidefromtheamphitheater)wastheforum,ortown
square. During Pula's Roman glory days, the hillsides around the
castrum
were blanketed
with the villas of rich merchants. The Old Town, which clusters around the base of the
fortress-topped hill, still features many fragments of the Roman period, as well as Pula's
lateroccupiers.We'lltakeacounterclockwisestrollaroundthefortifiedoldhillthroughthis
ancient zone.
The huge anchor across the street from the model celebrates Pula's number-one employ-
er—its shipyards.
• Continue along the street. At the fork, bear right (on Kandlerova ulica—level, not uphill).
Notice the
Roman ruins
on your right. Just about any time someone wants to put up a new
building, they find ruins like these. Work screeches to a halt while the valuable remains are
excavated. In this case, they've discovered three Roman houses, two churches, and 2,117
amphorae—the largest stash found anywhere in the world. (The harbor is just behind, which
suggests this might have been a storehouse for off-loaded amphorae.) I guess the new park-
ing garage has to wait.
After about three more blocks strolling through gritty, slice-of-life Pula, on your right-
hand side, you'll see Pula's...
