Pazin Gorge & the Pazin Abyss

The abyss has been Pazin’s identity since the middle ages, but it entered world literature in 1885, when Jules Verne chose it as the escape route of Mathias Sandorf: his hero, pursued through the gorge, enters the cave, rides the underground river and emerges at the coast. Verne never saw Istria; his description came from traveller accounts and the cave’s legend. Dante is often — if more doubtfully — claimed for the gorge too. The hydrology was finally mapped in the 20th century: the Pazinčica’s waters feed the springs of the Raša river on the opposite, eastern coast, crossing the whole peninsula underground.