Pazin Castle & Ethnographic Museum

The castle enters written history in 983 under the name Castrum Pisinum, held by the bishops of Poreč, then the Counts of Gorizia, then — from 1374 for four centuries — the Habsburgs, whose outpost it remained against Venice until the republic fell. Because it changed hands so little, it never had to be rebuilt: the walls, the round tower and the palace keep their medieval lines. In the 19th century the castle became the administrative heart of Austrian Istria — the reason Pazin, not a bigger coastal town, is the region’s capital today. The museum opened in 1962 and has filled the rooms since.