Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cost and Hours:
Free, generally open daily 10:00-18:00 in summer, less off-season.
• Keep walking through the main pedestrian zone, past all the tacky souvenir shops and
Albanian-run fast-food and ice-cream joints. After a few more blocks, you emerge into the...
Forum
Every Roman town had a forum, or main square. Twenty centuries later, Pula's Forum not
only serves the same function but has kept the old Roman name.
Two important buildings front the north end of the square, where you enter. The smaller
building(ontheleft,withthecolumns)isthefirst-century
A.D.
Roman
Temple of Augustus
(Augustov Hram). Built during the reign of, and dedicated to, Augustus Caesar, this temple
took a direct hit from an Allied bomb in World War II. After the war, the Allied occupiers
rebuiltitasasortofmeaculpa—noticethepatchworkrepairjob.It'stheonlyoneremaining
of three such temples that once lined this side of the square. Inside the temple is a single
room with fragments of ancient sculptures (10 kn, May-Sept Mon-Sat 9:00-20:00, Sun
10:00-15:00, often closed Oct-April, sparse English labels). The surviving torso from a
statue of Augustus, which likely stood on or near this spot, dates from the time of Christ.
Other evocative chips and bits of Roman Pula include the feet of a powerful commander
with a pathetic little vanquished barbarian obediently at his knee (perhaps one of the His-
tri—the indigenous Istrians that the Romans conquered in 177
B.C.
).
