A couple of weeks ago, on the 30th of January, I visited Tar. For the first time, I think. I mean, maybe I've been there as a kid, and I surely must have seen some of the Tar's buildings from a certain distance while driving northwards to Slovenia and Italy. Maybe I even passed through Tar regularly on my way to Trieste some decades ago when I drove to Trieste quite often, and often used the side roads and country lanes along the western coast of Istra to get there. I don't know. Could be. But even if it was, I have no clear memory of it only a vague sensation that it could have happened.
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This time, I mean, when it comes to the 30th of January this year, my memory is clear and also supported by a bunch of photographs that will help me produce a post about that visit. Here, in the opening shot, you can see some architectural elements on the rugged front facade...
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... of the most interesting, and in my opinion, the most beautiful building in the village that quite obviously stands out from the rest.
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Can't tell you much about this palace, the only palace in Tar. In the stone above one of the entrances, which can't be seen in this photograph because is on the opposite side of the building, the year 1784 is engraved. The first building in that place was probably built back then, but was changed and enlarged during the 19th century.
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In this photograph, I zoomed in on two of the many windows. One of those is open. The other is closed. That gives a bit of dynamic between them and a bit of character to the otherwise very ordinary shot.
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The entrance underneath them is kinda half buried and the door looks stuck in an absurd position.
Here you can take a good look at one of the chimneys.
The main entrance on the opposite side of the palace is open and functional.
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The café bar and the butcher shop situated in one corner of the building aren't visible from the other side. If you enlarge this photograph by clicking on it, you may notice a traffic mirror near the palace. In the following shot ...
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... the focus is on that mirror and the neighborhood reflected in it.
I parked the car on the plateau in front of the other side of the building. There is something that can be described as a canal between the parking place and the palace. Like one of those canals built around medieval castles, but not a complete one nor very deep, large, or impressive by any means. Here you can see a photograph of the weird half-buried entrance taken from that elevated point.
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Here you can see the ordinary rural houses near the palace. I will return to the village soon and show you more, but now ...
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... I would like to take you to a meadow behind the last houses of tar, near the road that leads northwards to the city of Umag or south to the city of Porech ...
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... and show you the ship that fell from the sky.
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I mean, this pirate-themed thing was assembled right here on the meadow not long ago, in 2022 ...
... but it looks a bit like something that fell from the sky or ended up stranded here after being brought by a big tidal wave. Teleportation as well came to my mind upon seeing the ship.
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It was immediately clear that this false amusement park ship has plenty of entertainment value for a post about Tar ...
... so I photographed it from all angles ...
... and explored all the details ...
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... I could reach through my camera.
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I got dangerously close to this dangerous lion ...
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... and then, through the gunports ...
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... I was able to get a few shots of the ship's interior. It looked disappointing. If once some treasure was there, it was gone.
At one point, the door of the rear cabin on the stern got blown open by the wind. Or maybe a ghost did it.
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Anyway, the mighty pirates left a threatening message so I haven't found the courage to climb up and enter.
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I found some interesting information about this pseudo-ship on one of the local news portals, here on the Internet.
Among other things, the article states that: "A wooden pirate ship appeared in Tar and caused strong reactions. While the residents protest and say that this is not Istra they know, Mayor Nivio Stojnich claims that he is powerless because it is a boat that the owner parked on his lot. Of course, Nivio knows that it is not a real ship, but the question is whether it can react because the owners of the building are the former mayor of a wealthy city and a well-known restaurateur from the capital, a frequent guest in newspapers, often in the crime reports pages."
The text was written in Croatian and then turned into English through the Google translate machine.
The following link can take you to the original article if you wish to go there and learn more about local politics.
https://www.istra24.hr/politika-i-drustvo/pirati-iz-tara-pjerino-pista-nacelnik-nivio-i-fantomski-brod
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In the background of this photograph, in the misty distance behind the line of cannons, you can see the village and its church tower. In the following triptych...
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... you can take a good look at the details of that elegant old tower.
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The Parish Church of St. Martin was built in 1800 on the site where a medieval church from the 14th century stood before that. In this photograph, a good part of the front facade is hidden by the tall cypress tree ...
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... but here, you can see the entire thing, the main entrance included.
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This is the smaller, lateral entrance.
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While standing on the sidewalk in front of the church, I took this photograph in which you can take a look down the main road that passes through the center of the village.
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Here I zoomed in to better show you the small details in the background of the previous shot.
This is the small square in the area behind the church.
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The houses shown in this photograph are situated in the area behind the palace introduced at the beginning of the post.
Here, on the town sign at the northern entrance to the village, you can see its name written in Croatian and in Italian. Torre means tower in Italian.
On the lawn not far from the sign, there is a small tower that looks like a three-dimensional replica of the tower from the town's emblem. Tar is a village now, but it was a small town during most of the middle ages.
In written sources, Tar was first mentioned as Turris in the year 983. The town had a tower or a castle in its center. But that town wasn't exactly in the place I showed you in this post. In those times Tar was divided into two settlements called "New Tar" and "Old Tar." Although both had a long history, the Old Tar is indeed older. The village I showed you is mentioned in written sources since the 12th century as "Torre Nuova" or "Villa."
Only an archeological site is all that remains of the Old Tar situated closer to the sea. Hope I'll visit that place soon and make another post about it.
On the way back home, in the area not far from the town called Vrsar, I stopped by the side of the road to take a walk in the woods ...
... and a photograph or two along the way. In this shot, you can see the dense growth of the Ruscus Aculeatus plant.
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A bit further down the road, there was this recently afforested area in which the young trees were protected by tubes that created a pretty strange piece of landscape surrounded by woods typical for this area.
After taking this shot, I returned to the car and drove back home.
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In this last shot, you can see my old Toyota parked near the stranded ship.
AND THAT'S IT. THE POST ENDS HERE. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE TOUR. AS ALWAYS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.