arsia

Have you ever heard of the town which, apart from being a mining town, is also the youngest one in Istria? If your answer is negative, choose Liburnia trail and continue towards Raša. We are sure that you have never experienced anything like this before. As if it were a part of enchanting stage settings Raša will seduce you with its regular lines of houses harmonized with the landscape of the river Raša valley which seems almost imaginary.

Projected by the architect Pulitzer – Finale and built in 1936 Raša is the first modern mining town built with the aim to provide miners and their families with all necessary facilities: a school, a hospital, the cinema, a sports hall and the church consecrated to St Barbara, the patron saint of miners. Even though the mining activity in the Labin area has been gradually disappearing, it is still possible to find the remains of the mining history in the church of St Barbara where you can visit a rich mining collection.

The trail takes you on to the fishing village in Raša bay, Trget. Trget is a fishing village situated in the Raša bay. Its name comes from the verb ‘trgetarenje’ in Croatian (from the Latin word traiectum), which means ‘transport of people and goods from one side of the bay to the other’.

There are ruins of the Romanesque church of St. Justin with a semicircular apse in the village center, and history books mention the existence of a medieval castle in Trget (Castello di San Giorgio).

The village flourished at the end of the 19th century when a coal shipping harbor was built near-by. Numerous findings from the Antiquity were found in the hinterland of Trget.

Continue along the path through small villages along the peninsula Skitača, Trgetari, Sveti Lovrec Labinski, Viškovići, Brovinje to Skitača village, grown on an eastern Istrian seaside plateau.

The place of a peculiar, Walachian origin name, that denotes moving – or nomad people, has been established in the 15th century by part of the immigrated caravan of Istrian – Rumanians which were retreating from the Turks, and which reached its highest development between the two wars when it counted as much as 350 souls. Today, on the contrary, almost completely empty with just 4 inhabitants, Skitača is just a place for excursionists and pilgrims, considering that in the near mountain it hides the famous rock from which the medicinal water wells out.

Skitača is definitely the place from where your eyes will see special distances, considering that from here you’ll be able to admire an unrepeatable view of the Kvarner bay, and in optimal conditions of visibility you could also catch a glimpse of the features of Venice.

You continue the ride further along the slopes of the peninsula, which leads you partly on macadam paths, partly on asphalted roads to a small village of Salakovci. After you will have a downhill ride through the village of Breg where you join the Raša River Valley back to Raša from where you started today.