Some of the world's most impressive Byzantine mosaics are hidden at this far-flung corner of Croatia, 1300 km west of medieval Constantinople and still a half day's drive from 21st century Zagreb. As Poreč and its UNESCO World Heritage Site remain nearly anonymous outside its own country, the intrigue built as we drove down the provincial road towards the Istrian coast.
This was our final day with a rental car in Croatia when we departed the truffle country of Motovun and reached Istria's resort-lined seaboard where the Croatian segment of our 22-day itinerary would soon end. Within 45 minutes we arrived at the foot of an ancient settlement seated impressively on a small peninsula in the Adriatic.
Better known by its Italian name of Parenzo just two generations ago, Poreč was founded as a Roman colony and thrived as a stronghold of the Venetian Republic for five centuries. Italian remains an official language along with Croatian even today, and seasonal ferries chauffeur passengers to Venice quicker than highway buses to Zagreb.
Historic connections to Italy becomes more apparent from the town's Renaissance-era bell tower, where vestiges of Roman town planning emerges in the form of 2000-year-old thoroughfares leading towards a Temple of Neptune, overlooking the Adriatic at the tip of the peninsula.
In mid-6th century this was the periphery of a disintegrating empire, across the Adriatic from the old Roman capital at Ravenna and faraway from the new power centre at Constantinople. Here the narcissism of one man would elevate Poreč from obscurity to one of the artistic jewels of the dark ages.
Upon foundations of stately Roman mansions and their spectacular floor mosaics, the renegade Bishop Euphrasius brought in artisans from Constantinople and erected an extravagant church complex encompassing a basilica, baptistery and bishop's palace, most of which remain standing after nearly 1500 years.
To create one of the most dazzling Byzantine mosaics outside of Ravenna, Euphrasius prescribed a frame of slender marble columns to highlight a masterful rendition of the Virgin and baby Jesus with your typical angels and saints. What constituted as borderline heretical was how Euphrasius immortalized himself on the mosaic, standing among the holy martyrs and holding a model of this very basilica in his arms.
For a maverick bishop excommunicated by the Pope and left behind nearly no written records, Euphrasius created an artistic legacy now recognized as Croatia's most valuable early Christian architecture, not quite as mind-blowingly opulent as San Vitale in Ravenna but well worth a half-day for travelers on the Istrian coast.
Outside the basilica the town brandished the familiar cobblestone alleys and laid-back vibe that characterizes many of Istria's coastal towns. After glancing through its streets full of restaurants with tourist resort prices, we opted for a quieter and more reputable lunch spot en route to Rovinj.
Restaurant Review: MORE (Funtana) (Location Map)
A fixture at out-of-the-way Funtana for over 40 years, Konoba More has long catered to local patrons in the former Yugoslavia way before Croatian independence and the subsequent mass arrival of Italian and German vacationers. Prices were reasonable, and the quality was among the best of restaurants we sampled along the Adriatic coastline from Corfu to Rovinj.
As usual we started with a buzara, which came ornamented with a baked scallop atop a deliciously purist recipe with little but white wine and garlic, and definitely no tomatoes. This was our last encounter with these savory Noah's Ark shells and Adriatic mussels, ahead of our upcoming departure for the Slovenian Alps.
More's signature dish turned out to be the classic salt-crusted sea bass, oven-baked before being doused in flaming grappa for a dramatic presentation.
A perfectly moist fillet with no residual saltiness emerged once our server expertly removed the sealed crust. While this recipe may be popular among upmarket restaurants on both sides of the Adriatic, the bargain price of 16 euros (119 kuna) for such an elaborate dish was almost jaw-dropping compared with Dubrovnik or even Split prices.
Topped with a salsa verde of fresh Istrian herbs and aromatic olive oil, our sea bass certainly ranked among my favorite fish dishes in Croatia along with that perfectly grilled Kavala at Ficovič a week earlier.
Accompanying the sea bass was the indispensable Croatian side dish of Swiss chards and potatoes which, elevated by the fragrance of this salsa verde, became my favorite side dish by far over our 22-day journey.
In fact the most unmemorable dish was a respectable spaghetti in a white wine sauce inbued with the flavour of scampi shells. While the restaurant could have been a little more generous with the portion of scampi meat, it still made for a satisfying wrap up.
... or I thought we had wrapped up. Then our waitress brought out a freebie that turned out as the best dessert of our Balkan trip through six countries, a generous serving of Istarske fritule infused with killer shots of homemade grappa! This was so good that I had to steal a last one from the unfinished dish when my wife went to the washroom ... which did not go unnoticed.
Meal for Two Persons
| Mixed Shellfish Buzara | 110 Kuna |
| Spaghetti in Scampi Sauce | 100 Kuna |
| Salt-Crusted Seabass 0.35 kg | 119 Kuna |
| Glass of Gemišt | 15 Kuna |
| Bottle of Water | 20 Kuna |
| Fritule with Grappa | FREE |
| TOTAL | 364 Kuna (CAD$74.3) |
It was a gratifying half day of impressive sights and authentic flavours as we traveled the gentle roads from Porec to Rovinj, the end point of our one-way car rental from Zadar to Plitvice National Park to the Istrian hill towns and finally the coast. Unlike our previous car rental experience at Dubrovnik with a smaller company, we have nothing but praises for the friendly staff and trouble-free process at Sixt. While I do love the simplicity and wallet-friendliness of Croatia's highway buses, I still would have rented a car for the 600 km journey through the countryside for these past four days.
IF YOU GO
The nearest airports to Poreč are Pula near the southern tip of Istria and Trieste at the northern end, both connected to Poreč via highway buses. The ease of public transport makes possible a stress-free itinerary of Poreč, Rovinj and Pula along the coast, though a visit to Motovun and the Istrian hill towns would be more convenient with a rental car.
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