On the 7th of December 2022, I drove about twenty kilometers north of the place where I live and took a walk around the old little town called Vodnjan.
Christmas wasn't far and you could see that practically everywhere in Vodnjan, especially in the main square shown in this opening photograph. The ornate, eye-catchy building with plenty of vivid red color ...
... is the town hall palace built in 1910. The current look of the square dates from 1808 when the old Venetian castle that was covering the area was demolished. Some stones from the castle were used to pave the streets around the square.
This cat was photographed in one of those narrow streets that are now covered with patches and layers of old asphalt from various periods between the eighties and ten years ago. Something like that.
Each time I visit a village or small town in Istra, I end up photographing at least one cat there. It's becoming almost like an unwritten rule. It happens regularly. After photographing the obligatory cat that was looking at something on the opposite end of the street ...
... I came across a bunch of old-fashioned jazz or blues musicians that ended up playing on the wall. The Grim Reaper behind them looked like a manager.
Late in the morning, when all the photographs in this post were taken, the band was silent. But at night, you can hear them play if you pass this way ... after getting drunk or stoned somewhere in Vodnjan. The title of the mural is Vodnjan Blues and the author is Attila Stark. I found him on the Internet by putting this photograph through a Google image search.
In this photograph, you can see more of the architecture around the artwork. Vodnjan has many small passages that connect the inner yards and blocks of old historic buildings.
Here you can see some windows on one of the nearby buildings, and in the following shot ...
... you can take a look at the small balcony ...
... on one of the facades along the main road that leads from the main square to the outskirts of town.
This little journey actually started there. On the outskirts of Vodnjan. I left the car in the large parking lot across the road from the bakery shown in this shot. One person was ready to enter while another one was slowly exiting when the photograph was taken.
I stayed there, on the edge of the parking lot, for a minute or two, and I took a few more shots ...
... while observing the scene in front of the bakery and the neighboring church.
Some minutes later, on the way to the center of Vodnjan, I came across two workers that were busy embellishing the town for the upcoming Christmas.
Before I took the shot, they asked if I plan to make them look good in the photograph. I answered - that's guaranteed. Later that day, when I saw the photograph on the PC screen, I was pleased to see that I delivered on that promise. They look pretty good in the pre - Christmas scenery.
Here you can see the lovely old doors and windows on one of the buildings in that area.
The next in that row of connected buildings had an interesting, old-fashioned advert for a small dry cleaning business that doesn't exist anymore. The advert was painted on the facade. Can't tell you when. The font is simple but fairly elegant.
Here I stopped to take another wide shot on the road to the main square. Some restoration work is going on in the foreground of this photograph.
Here you can see the entrance of an old, abandoned pharmacy ...
... that was turned into an art gallery a decade ago.
In the right half of this wide shot, you can see the entrance of the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel from the 17th century.
A minute or two later, when I passed the church, I stopped to photograph this colorful building that stood out among the neighboring ones.
I reached the main square here. The most colorful building in this photograph ...
... is older than the square and is called the Bradamante Palace.
Here you can take a look at the square from another angle, and see the narrow street that brought me there. From the square, I took the street between the Bradamante Palace and some other unnamed buildings ...
... and about fifty meters further, I ended up in front of the artwork shown in this photograph. The architectural element in the center of the shot is a real one. The surrounding stuff was painted on the facade. In the following photograph ...
... I zoomed out so you can see more. After taking this photograph, I continued zooming out.
Here you can see the cars parked in front of the real building decorated with an imaginary one.
Can't tell you the title of this mural. But I found the artist on the Internet. Is called Phlegm. Until this point the weather was cloudy. But the sky was changing while I was photographing the mural and the host building. From the following photograph onwards ...
... the walk continues in a sunnier atmosphere.
Here you can take a look up the street I took after leaving the mural behind.
A pigeon was watching me from one of the rooftops.
I'm entering another street here.
In this photograph, I zoomed in on the stuff at the end of that street.
This lovely barred window was photographed in another little street not far from there.
I visited that part of Vodnjan many times, but I don't remember noticing this interesting chimney before the 7th of December 2022.
Here you can see another chimney from the same neighborhood.
The windows, shown in this shot ...
... were photographed on the little square not far from the road that leads to the main square shown earlier in the post.
Here you can see the door and another window on the ground floor of the same building.
Here you can see a detail from another little street in that area. The succulents in one of the many ground-floor windows of Vodnjan.
In this photograph, the focus is on the old wooden door with a brand-new padlock.
Here you can admire another old door ...
... with some interesting decorative elements.
Here you can see the gate to the interior of another old palace. At this point, I was getting obsessed with doors. In the following photograph ...
... you can see two different doors very close to each other.
Here you can take a better, more up-close look at the lion-shaped knocker on the blue door from the previous photograph.
Here you can see an unusually ornate new building on the outskirts of town. When the following photograph was taken ...
... I was very close to the parking lot in which I left my car before starting this pedestrian journey.
The parking lot is situated between a road and a railroad. A train was passing by as I was entering the car ...
... so I took a couple of shots before drawing away. An hour later, after buying some stuff in the city of Pula, I was back in Medulin, my hometown.
AND THAT'S IT. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE TOUR. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
