A walk to Pazinski krov (713)
Trail marked with number 713
Start and end: Pazin
Length: 2 km
Difficulty: Easy
Altitude: 53 m
Highest point: 291 m
Lowest point: 210 m
Duration: 0:30 h
Only 500 meters as the crow flies from Pazin Castle is the waterfall Pazinski krov. Before the last house on the right in street Prilaz kaštelu, a macadam road branches off into the Pazinčica valley in a northerly direction. It is often marked on maps as the Roman Road. After about a hundred meters, at the lowest point of the road, there is a branch to the left through the forest that will lead you straight to the waterfall. If the weather is wet and the trail is muddy, it is better to continue along the Roman road. We will pass by the ruins of a stone house where millers used to store grain and flour above the flood level. A hundred meters further on, you should turn left along the path through the bushes when you hear the waterfall. From the waterfall, we continue upstream along the path along the stream to Tomažin's mill and St. Jožef's bridge, where we come to the asphalt, which we take to the right to return to Pazin. In the middle of summer, Pazinski krov often dries up, but don't let that disappoint you: you will have the opportunity to closely observe the remains of the Rapiccio noble family's mill, which was located below the waterfall itself.
We will start in front of the Pazin Castle itself, under the large stone coat of arms of the Auersperg and Herberstein families. Almost 500 years ago, there was the main entrance to the Pazin fortress from the north. If we now come closer to the fence wall, we will see how that road still winds downhill to the north and then climbs up to some ruins, before disappearing in the vegetation. Today, that ruin is most often called a mill, however, it is an auxiliary building or a storehouse that belonged to the mill. Grain and flour were stored there because of the danger of floods, and only as much as could be ground without fear of floods was transported to the mill, which was located deeper to the left in the canyon.
In order to get down to the Roman Road, as that once main road is still called today, we have to go back about a hundred meters towards the town and turn left around the first house in the row. This way, we reach the foot of the walls, and then we go down the road, which is bordered on both sides by an ancient dry wall. The gardens on both sides of the road belonged to noble families from Pazin who lived around castle, and the oldest inhabitants of Pazin still remember that in the gardens there were cisterns with water and arranged gazebos with benches where the gentlemen of Pazin came for their afternoon rest. If we now look back at the Kastel, we will experience it in a completely new light.
The road then crosses over a limestone slab, which was once eroded by torrents coming from the direction of the city. At the lowest point of the Roman Road, a forest path branches off to the left, which leads us down even deeper into the Pazinčica canyon. For the first ten meters, we step on bare stone, so we need to be extremely careful because it is usually slippery. The path then gently descends through the forest to the very bank of the stream, where it suddenly turns upstream along the stream and comes under the very rocks. Let's pay attention to the square grooves cut in the rock on the right - in that place, secured to the rock that protected it from strong torrents, there used to be Trabljan's mill. Today, only about a meter high remains of one wall next to the path itself are visible. The rest was carried away by torrents or is covered with loam, which is deposited in a layer up to 5 cm thick after each flood. The path that we continue along the canyon along the rock itself is actually the former channel through which the water came to the mill. These channels were called "struge". Perhaps such a name originates from the word "scrape". Namely, the easiest way to bring water exactly where we want it is to create a channel through which the water will flow from a reservoir, for example from a dam, in the desired direction. Using the power of the water that immediately carries away the scraped material, by simple scraping we can quickly dig a wide channel through the loam and thus divert a significant amount of water, quite enough to run the mill wheels.
If we continue along the stream, we soon arrive at the Pazin Roof, where we first notice a huge stone-arched space that testifies to the destructive power of the water passing through the canyon, and right next to the path, we will see in a thick layer of clay a vertical hole created by the water. It is neither advisable nor pleasant to venture under that rock which seems like it could collapse at any moment, so staying on the path, we continue further to the waterfall itself.
The Pazin roof is smaller than two similar waterfalls on Pazinčica. In the dry season of the year, there is usually no water in the pond under the waterfall, but don't let that disappoint you. For a change, we have the opportunity to take a good look at the remains of the mill that was under the waterfall from the dry lake below the waterfall. The Fotzlapum mill (under the waterfall) is mentioned in the Urbar of the Duchy of Pazin as early as 1498 when it was owned by one Gregor Prechenstein, while later it was owned by the noble Rapicio family. That mill was partly cut into the rock and leaned against it, and grain was brought and flour was taken from its upper side, where today there are wooden steps to climb out of the canyon. If the lake is dry, we have the opportunity to see the remains of all four walls of the former mill, while the bottom of the lake is full of man-made stones from which the mill was built. On one stone, which is normally below the surface of the water, we will notice the drawn fields of the ancient game "mill" with which the millers apparently passed the time.
Two millstones have recently been taken out of the lake and placed next to the steps, to be visible trough all year, and several larger pieces of hewn stone, which belonged to the mill, have been used to repair the crossing of the stream. Now, even for the winter water level, it is possible to cross safely enough to the other side of the canyon, where the path leading downstream to the half-cave called Đandarmarija, the Punger meadow, and exits behind the former Pazinka factory again to the road, from where we can go back to Pazin or we can extend everything to Gortan's hill and Beram.
We will, however, climb the wooden stairs and exit the waterfall, because just above the waterfall there used to be another mill - the mill of the Ladavac family. That mill had an attached strong tower that protected it from sudden bursts of water. The tower had a semicircular opening at its base through which water flowed, which can still be partially seen today. The water cart was located in a cut carved by human hands in the living rock. Where the water came out of the mill, you can see the square grooves that held the small wooden dam that diverted the water along the rock towards the Rapicio mill.
Small round ponds or "circles" hollowed out by the force of water in the limestone, which literally flow from one to the other at that place, were once used for soaking and washing clothes, and until about fifty years ago, also for bathing. What Zarečki krov is today to the young people of Pazin - once is used to be Pazinski krov and the area around it.
If we continue to follow the narrow path upstream along the stream, we come to the remains of Tomažin's mill, the last active mill on Pazinčica, which stopped working at the end of the sixties of the last century. There used to be two mills, one next to the other. The lower one belonged to the Hrastić family, and the upper one to the Brajković family with the nickname Tomažin. They used a common dam, which used to be wooden like all the others, until the end of World War II, when, according to the memory of Marijo Brajković Tomažin, prisoners from the Pazin castle were brought to build a new concrete dam that is still standing today.
The lake formed by the dam of Tomažin's mill was once known as Tornina. This toponym is mentioned in the registry books of Pazin as early as the beginning of the 18th century. About a hundred meters upstream, the two coast of Pazinčica are connected by an old stone bridge St. Joseph or sometimes Napoleon's Bridge or French Bridge due to the fact that it was built at the beginning of the 19th century when this part of Istria was under Napoleon's rule for a few years. During the flood in 1993, the torrents damaged the bridge so much that it moved ten centimeters, and it was reinforced with concrete and later expanded. During 2012, the restoration work on the stone facade of the bridge was completed, and its beauty shone in full light.
Before taking the asphalt road to the right towards Pazin, look north from the bridge towards the fertile valley Loka. There, after 2.5 km, awaits us another waterfall and the remains of mills along the road which are very difficult to recognize.
