Kastel – Castle – Pula – Istria – Croatia: Wishing to protect the city of Pula and its harbor, because of it great significance in maritime trade in North Adriatic, on the top of the central hill of the city, in 1630. The Venetians inspiring of the building of the Kastel – Castle from the French military architect Antoine de Ville.
Castle is most likely the site of an earlier fortress dating from the pre-Roman and Roman period. The Histrian hill-fort is primarily for defensive purposes. Whereas in the Roman period a small military garrison was stationed there.
Today the Kastel – Castle – Pula – Istria – Croatia, houses the Historical Museum of Istria:
The Castle has recently been connected by an elevator to Zerostrasse, the underground tunnels under the fortress that lead to the city center: below Pula is an underground tunnel world stretching almost across entire city. Pula’s underground tunnels were erected during the WW1 to provide a shelter for people in case of air raids.
The underground tunnel system consisted of shelters, trenches, galleries and passages, as well as ammunition storages and communication passages. Each hill in the town’s core was drilled and dug up, thus creating an extended tunnel network. The tunnels of Monte Zaro, Monte Ghiro and the Castel are the largest. And today, you can visit them all.