Piran

Piran Pirano
Town
Panorama of Piran
Piran Location of Piran in Slovenia
Coordinates: 45°31′42.31″N 13°34′06.42″E / 45.5284194°N 13.5684500°E / 45.5284194; 13.5684500Coordinates: 45°31′42.31″N 13°34′06.42″E / 45.5284194°N 13.5684500°E / 45.5284194; 13.5684500
Country	Slovenia
Region	Primorska
Municipality	Piran
Government
• Mayor	Peter Bossman (SD)
Area
• Total	0.7 km2 (0.3 sq mi)
Population (2012)[1]
• Total	4,092
• Density	5,875/km2 (15,220/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+01)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+02)
[1]

Piran (Italian: Pirano) is a town in the Municipality of Piran in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. The town has much medieval architecture, with narrow streets and compact houses. Piran is the administrative centre of the local area and one of Slovenia's major tourist attractions. Until the mid-twentieth-century Italian was the dominant language, but was replaced by Slovene as populations moved.

History

In the pre-Roman era, the hills in the Piran area were inhabited by Illyrian Histri tribes who were farmers, hunters and fishermen. They were also pirates who disrupted Roman trade in the north Adriatic Sea.^[2] The Piran peninsula was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 178 and 177 BC and settled in the following years with rural homes (villae rusticae).

The decline of the Empire, from the 5th century AD onwards, and incursions by the Avars and Slavs at the end of the 6th century, prompted the Roman population to withdraw into easily defensible locations such as islands or peninsulas. This started local urbanisation and by the 7th century, under Byzantine rule, Piran had become heavily fortified. Despite the defences, the Franks conquered Istria in 788 and Slavs settled in the region. By 952, Piran had become a part of the Holy Roman Empire.^[2] The earliest reliable records of the area are in the 7th century work Cosmographia by an anonymous cleric of Ravenna. The name of the town most probably originates from the Greek "pyrranos", which means "red", because of the reddish flysch stones commonly found in the town's area.^[3]

On 22 February 1812, the Battle of Pirano was fought between a British and a French ship of the line in the vicinity of Piran. This was a minor battle of the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Rivoli had been recently completed at Venice. The French naval authorities intended her to bolster French forces in the Adriatic, following a succession of defeats in the preceding year. Captain John Talbot of HMS Victorious arrived off Venice in mid-February and blockaded the port. When Rivoli attempted to escape under the cover of fog, Talbot chased her and forced her to surrender in a five-hour battle, Rivoli lost over half her crew as either wounded or dead. This was the only battle ever fought in the sea nowadays belonging to Slovenia.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Piran was an Austro-Hungarian city with over 12,000 inhabitants, larger than the nearby Koper. It was a flourishing market and spa town with good transport connections. The first trolleybus line in the Balkans was introduced to public service on 24 October 1909 in Piran. In 1912, it was replaced by a tram that operated on the same route till 1953.

On 24 October 2010, Slovenia became the first country of former communist Europe to elect a black mayor. The physician Peter Bossman, who came from Ghana in the late 1970s, was elected mayor of Piran. He officially took office at the first constitutional meeting of the municipal council on 12 November 2010, succeeding Tomaž Gantar.^[4] He represents the Social Democrats.^[5][6]

Culture and education

Piran is the birthplace of composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini, who played an important role in shaping its cultural heritage. The town's main square, Tartini Square (Slovene: Tartinijev trg, Italian: Piazza Tartini), is named after him. In 1892, the 200th anniversary of his birth, a monument to Tartini was erected in Piran. Venetian artist Antonio dal Zotto was commissioned to create a larger-than-life bronze statue, which was mounted on its pedestal in 1896. The statue dominates the square, overlooked by the Cathedral of Saint George.

Piran is the seat of the Euro-Mediterranean University of Slovenia (EMUNI), founded in 2008 as one of the cultural projects of the Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean. The Piran Coastal Galleries, a public institution encompassing a group of six public contemporary art galleries, is based in Piran.^[7]

Cultural events

Musical Evenings of Piran have taken place for decades in Greyfriars Franciscan monastery's atrium, one of the most beautiful cloister atriums in the Slovenian Littoral, which has a very good acoustics.^[8] The municipality's festival is on October 15, which celebrates the foundation of the first Slovenian partisan naval detachment, named Koper, in 1944. This was the first Slovenian naval unit.

Geography and climate

Piran is situated at the tip of the Piran peninsula on the Gulf of Piran. It borders Croatia to the south, and the municipalities of Izola and Koper to the east and faces Italy across the Gulf of Trieste and the Adriatic Sea. The highest point, Baretovec pri Padni, is 289 metres high.^[9]

To the east of the town, along the northern coastline (in the direction to Strunjan) there is a small tourist settlement named Fiesa. Piran and Fiesa are connected by a promenade along the beach.

Piran has a humid subtropical climate with warm summers and cool rainy winters. Snow is rare (usually 3 days per year, almost always in traces). There are 22 days a year with maximum temperatures of 30 °C (86 °F) or higher; on one day a year the temperature does not exceed 0 °C (32 °F). Fog appears about 4 days per year, mainly in winter. Rain is frequent.

Demographics

The municipality had 16,758 inhabitants in 2002 (4,576 per square kilometre), and covers an area of 46.6 square kilometres (18.0 sq mi). The municipality is bilingual, both Slovene and Italian are official languages.^[10] According to the Austrian language census of 1910, there were 7,379 inhabitants in the town proper, 95.97% Italians and 0.09% Slovenes. In the surrounding countryside, which is now included within the town limits, the population was mixed, both Italian and Slovene, with some villages (such as Sveti Peter and Padna) which were almost entirely Slovene, and others (such as Sečovlje and Seča) that were almost exclusively Italian-speaking. In 1945, there were 5,035 citizens, 91.32% Italian-speakers and 8.54% Slovene. In 1956 there were 3.574 inhabitants, 67.6% Slovene and 15.5% Italian. After 1947, the ethnic composition changed radically due to the exodus of Italians to Italy and their replacement by Slovene settlers, both from other areas of Slovenian Istria and from interior areas of the country.

Monuments

Piran was heavily influenced by the Venetian Republic and Austria-Hungary, therefore the monuments differ greatly from those in inner parts of Slovenia. The Piran town walls were constructed to protect the town from Ottoman incursions; many parts of the town walls from different eras remain, and are of interest to tourists. In the middle of the town is the Tartini Square, with a monument in memory of Giuseppe Tartini. Nearby are located various important buildings, such as Tartini’s house, first mentioned in 1384 and one of the oldest in town, the Municipal Palace, Loggia and Benečanka, among others. On the hill above the town is the biggest and most important church, the Church of Saint George, with a Franciscan monastery nearby.

Communications and transport

There is an international airport^[11] and a marina in the vicinity of the town.^[12] The medium-wave transmitter of Radio Koper is in Piran. It transmits on 1170 kHz and has a 123.6-metre-tall guyed mast with cage antenna. The town is connected with Koper, Izola, Portorož (the location of the airport), Sečovlje and Lucija by a cheap bus line. The lines of other coastal settlements operate mostly during the tourist season.^[13]

The first trolleybus line in the Balkans entered public service on 24 October 1909 in Piran, then part of Austria-Hungary. It ran from Tartini Square along the coast and the shipyard to Portorož and Lucija. The town authorities bought five trolleybuses manufactured by Austrian company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft.^[14][15] In 1912, It was replaced by the a tram system that operated until 1953, when it was superseded by buses.

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Piran is twinned with:

Acqualagna, Italy (since 2003) Aquileia, Italy (since 1977) Bjugn, Norway (since 1985) Castel Goffredo, Italy (since 1993)

Indianapolis, Indiana, United States (since 2001) Łańcut, Poland [16] Keszthely, Hungary (since 1998) Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia (since 1981)

Valletta, Malta (since 2002) Venice, Italy (since 2001) Vis, Croatia (since 1973) Mangalia, Romania (since 2012)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piran.

• Municipality of Piran
• Information Portal of Piran
• Multimedia Center of Piran
• Piran on Geopedia
• Piran travel guide from Wikivoyage

v t e Municipality of Piran Settlements Administrative centre: Piran Dragonja Lucija Nova Vas Padna Parecag Portorož Seča Sečovlje Strunjan Sveti Peter Landmarks Franciscan Monastery Judicial Palace Kempinski Palace Portorož Loggia Lucija Parish Church Municipal Palace Piran Aquarium Piran Parish Church Piran town walls Portorož Airport Portorož Auditorium Portorož Parish Church Sečovlje Parish Church Sečovlje Salina Landscape Park Sečovlje Saltworks St. Peter's Church in Piran Strunjan Parish Church Tartini House Tartini Square People Peter Bossman Branko Lenart Giuseppe Tartini

v t e Municipalities of Slovenia City municipalities Celje Koper Kranj Ljubljana Maribor Murska Sobota Nova Gorica Novo Mesto Ptuj Slovenj Gradec Velenje Non-city municipalities Ajdovščina Apače Beltinci Benedikt Bistrica ob Sotli Bled Bloke Bohinj Borovnica Bovec Braslovče Brda Brežice Brezovica Cankova Cerklje na Gorenjskem Cerknica Cerkno Cerkvenjak Cirkulane Črenšovci Črna na Koroškem Črnomelj Destrnik Divača Dobje Dobrepolje Dobrna Dobrova–Polhov Gradec Dobrovnik Dol pri Ljubljani Dolenjske Toplice Domžale Dornava Dravograd Duplek Gorenja Vas–Poljane Gorišnica Gorje Gornja Radgona Gornji Grad Gornji Petrovci Grad Grosuplje Hajdina Hoče–Slivnica Hodoš Horjul Hrastnik Hrpelje–Kozina Idrija Ig Ilirska Bistrica Ivančna Gorica Izola Jesenice Jezersko Juršinci Kamnik Kanal ob Soči Kidričevo Kobarid Kobilje Kočevje Komen Komenda Kostanjevica na Krki Kostel Kozje Kranjska Gora Križevci Krško Kungota Kuzma Laško Lenart Lendava Litija Ljubno Ljutomer Log–Dragomer Logatec Loška Dolina Loški Potok Lovrenc na Pohorju Luče Lukovica Majšperk Makole Markovci Medvode Mengeš Metlika Mežica Miklavž na Dravskem Polju Miren–Kostanjevica Mirna Mirna Peč Mislinja Mokronog–Trebelno Moravče Moravske Toplice Mozirje Muta Naklo Nazarje Odranci Oplotnica Ormož Osilnica Pesnica Piran Pivka Podčetrtek Podlehnik Podvelka Poljčane Polzela Postojna Prebold Preddvor Prevalje Puconci Rače–Fram Radeče Radenci Radlje ob Dravi Radovljica Ravne na Koroškem Razkrižje Rečica ob Savinji Renče–Vogrsko Ribnica Ribnica na Pohorju Rogaška Slatina Rogašovci Rogatec Ruše Šalovci Selnica ob Dravi Semič Šempeter–Vrtojba Šenčur Šentilj Šentjernej Šentjur Šentrupert Sevnica Sežana Škocjan Škofja Loka Škofljica Slovenska Bistrica Slovenske Konjice Šmarje pri Jelšah Šmarješke Toplice Šmartno pri Litiji Šmartno ob Paki Sodražica Solčava Šoštanj Središče ob Dravi Starše Štore Straža Sveta Ana Sveta Trojica v Slovenskih goricah Sveti Andraž v Slovenskih Goricah Sveti Jurij ob Ščavnici Sveti Jurij v Slovenskih Goricah Sveti Tomaž Tabor Tišina Tolmin Trbovlje Trebnje Trnovska Vas Tržič Trzin Turnišče Velika Polana Velike Lašče Veržej Videm Vipava Vitanje Vodice Vojnik Vransko Vrhnika Vuzenica Zagorje ob Savi Žalec Zavrč Železniki Žetale Žiri Žirovnica Zreče Žužemberk

v t e Municipalities, settlements and landforms of the Slovenian Riviera Debeli Rtič Ankaran Bertoki Koper (Gulf) Izola Jagodje Dobrava Fiesa Strunjan Piran (Gulf) Portorož Lucija Seča Parecag Sečovlje