Top 5 Istrian legends

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1. Apart from the legends about the giants, there are also those about the fairies which are related to Istria. Such is the one about the building of the Arena in Pula . According to the legend, one night, the fairies had decided to build their own town, Divić town, and they carried the stones from Učka throughout the whole night, carefully putting them together. When at dawn the time came to put a roof on the Arena, they were interrupted by a rooster. When it crowed, the fairies ran away so that the people wouldn't see them and that is how the Arena remained roofless.

2. Attila is a name often mentioned in Istrian legends as well as how he had burned many villages with his army. The one about his death, based on his true ending, is interesting. Attila was 120 years old. He married a twenty-year-old girl and he died on the same night while he was “having fun with her”. Attila died in 453 in a German prisoner Ildiko’s bed.

3. There is a legend about the deep and frightening Bonvašeja Cave in the Kanfanarština area. A long time ago there was a fertile field located on its place which was owned by a blind man who couldn’t cultivate it himself. He gave the field to his groomsman with an agreement that the harvest would be equally divided each year. When the time of sharing came, the groomsman gave the blind man a smaller part. As he wanted to set off towards his home, the earth opened under the lorry, the groomsman fell into it and the deepest cave in the Kanfanar region came to its existence.

4. There is a legend about the Sopajac valley according to which Sopajac is a magical place on which you can become invisible. First you have to find a black cat and a new cauldron and then go to the place which is far away from the nearest village, a place where not even a rooster can be heard. Then you should light a fire in the centre of Sopajac, use it to heat the water in the cauldron and put the black cat into the boiling water when the clock strikes midnight. When the cat is boiled, you should find a particular bone and put it under your tongue at which point you will become invisible. Simple, isn’t it?

5. And to finish off with some vampires. Jure Grando, an Istrian vampire, is the most famous and the oldest recorded European vampire. Not long after Jure Grando was buried, he started appearing in front of the local people, wandering the village, knocking on their door, bullying and terrorizing them. People had been afraid for 16 years. It was then that a group of brave men led by district prefect Radetić had decided to dig up Jure’s body and drive a hawthorn stake through it. When that didn’t work either, one of the villagers (Stipan Milašić) decapitated him and the dead man cried out while the grave filled up with blood. The ghost of Jure Grando appeared never again.

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