Mutvoran is a village in the southeastern part of Istra, the peninsula on which I live.
It's a small village, not much is going on there these days ...
... but its past is deep and interesting ...
... and some fragments of that past are still visible.
Today I drove twenty kilometers (approximately) and parked my car on the outskirts of the neighboring village that goes by the name of Tzokuni.
This shot was taken while walking the road that leads to Mutvoran.
Here I zoomed in to take a better look at what was in front of me.
My grandfather lived near the village called Marchana, only five or six kilometers from here. I spent quite a few summer holidays as a kid there, but I never visited Mutvoran, didn't even know how it looks, so today - I was a real tourist. The rusted cistern in the picture above was photographed along the road.
A bit later I used the zoom of my camera to take a better look at some distant property in the valley below.
When this photograph was taken, I reached Mutvoran. Here you can see some stones and a stone bench ...
... in front of this building outside the compact center of the village. I'm not sure about its function, but by the shape and size, it looks like something that was once a school.
This village was once a small medieval town, and here you can see the remains of its entrance. The building in the right corner of the picture ...
... is the town's logia from the 17th century. When I stepped inside ...
... I saw some interesting exhibits displayed on the wall. These imaginative artworks carved into the rock are known as the Mutvoran's bestiary. They were found in the remains of a small church here in town and were made in the second half of the 11th century. Most of them at least. Some new studies suggest that some were made in the 15th century. The thing was inspired by lines from the Old Testament that used animals to tell an allegory. These are only replicas, of course. The originals are displayed in a safer place in the city of Pula.
Here you can find a bit of information written in Croatian. The lines from the Bible that probably inspired the bestiary are also written in the text.
Logia was an important element of the old town's urbanism. It was a public place, used for meetings and business. A place in which important decisions of the city administration were announced to the population. And sometimes, court affairs were also performed there. Public hearings, conciliations, judgments, stuff like that.
After half an hour spent in the shade of the logia, I was ready to enter the town.
The protective walls that are still partially standing ...
... were erected in the 14th century ...
... by the Venetian Republic.
The medieval walls were built on the remains of the Roman and pre-Roman fortifications.
The first archeological findings and signs of a fortified settlement date from the Bronze Age.
This peninsula, Istra or Histria, was named after people called Histri. During the Iron Age and until the Roman conquest in 177 BC, this was the land of the tribes that shared a unified culture, and in the last centuries before the fall there was a King at the top of the hierarchy. In those times, Mutvoran was probably Faveria, one of the towns of the Histri. Nesactium, the capital of that pre-Roman culture was situated a little less than ten kilometers from here.
I photographed some cool plants, here on the wall. This fern, the Asplenium trichomanes ...
... and the Parietaria judaica.
In this wide shot, you can take a look at the entrance from the inside.
This line of houses is attached to the old wall.
From here ...
... I walked to the only church in town.
In written sources, The Parish Church of St. Mary Magdalene is first mentioned in the year 490.
It was surely changed on a couple of occasions in the following centuries.
The current look probably dates from the 13th century.
These Violets (Viola odorata) ...
... and Hyacinth flowers (Hyacinthus orientalis) ...
... were growing on the lawn around the church.
Daisies (Bellis perennis) were also there ...
... and some insects were buzzing around. Here you can see a fly. The Bombylius major from the Bombyliidae family. Flies from this family are commonly known as Bee-flies.
In this photograph, you can take an up-close look at the leaves of the Oxalis articulate plant.
While standing in front of the church, I photographed these houses across the small square, and then ...
... continued exploring that part of Mutvoran.
I can't tell you much about these houses ...
... so, I won't. 😀 On the gate that can be seen in the lower part of this photograph ...
... I found a lovely & well - made ship-shaped decoration.
This window was photographed on one of the neighboring houses, a bit further down the path.
When this photograph was taken ...
... I was walking back towards the portal that leads out of Mutvoran. At this point, I noticed that the door of an old house is broken ...
... so I stopped to take a look at its decaying interior.
These Sonchus oleraceus flowers grew near the wall of that house.
From this photograph on, the walk continues outside the core of the old town.
Here you can take a look at the path before me.
In this photograph, you can take one last look at the ivy-covered stretch of the medieval wall.
A bit further, I stopped and used the zoom of my camera to take a good look at the distant mountains.
This is Krnitza. Another village. Seven or eight kilometers from Mutvoran.
Here you can see the area closer to the place where I stood, a couple of kilometers only.
In this, and the following photograph ...
... you can take a better look at the nice property in the center of the scene.
Here you can see some old houses in between Mutvoran and Krnitza. Four or six kilometers from where I stood when the photograph was taken.
This old. drystone wall was about a hundred meters in front of me.
The gray stones were covered with many colorful lichens.
With this photograph, the walk continues ...
... along the wall that surrounds the village.
Here I stopped again ...
... to photograph the stony landscape ...
... visible from that side of the hill.
Here you can see the small, yellow flowers ...
... of the Cornus mas shrub. These are some of the earliest springtime flowers in this area.
I passed by this dead tree ...
... and continued along the wall.
Here you can take a look at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene from a different angle. The church is considerably older than the church tower that was built in 1622.
Here you can see an old rural house and the almond tree in bloom.
A bit further I encountered a group of local chickens, and then ...
... I said hello to this red tractor.
The green tractor was parked behind the homestead's wall. At this point, I almost finished the full circle.
One last look at the church tower ...
... and the story ends.
THE WALK IS OVER. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE SCENERY. AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
