Pazin - Beram - Pazin (711)
Trail marked with number 711
Start and end: Pazin
Length: 11,8 km
Difficulty: Medium
Altitude: 385 m
Highest point: 462 m
Lowest point: 201 m
Duration: 3:00 h
The hiking trail from Pazin to Beram via the Gortan hill, with the return to Pazin via the Santarija plateau and the Pazin Roof waterfall. Hiking trail is marked with the 711 signs. The first part of the trail, before the turning to Santarija, is marked with red and white markings. The biggest part of the trail is in the shade and it follows gravel roads and forest paths.
Description of the trail
We set out on the Pazin - Beram - Pazin trail from the Pazin Tourist board office where one can get all the necessary information material about the trail and about Beram, we pass along the Pazin Castle, cross the bridge over the Pazin cave, go along the former Pazinka factory complex, after which we take the road and climb up to the Gortan hill. Right after the Gortan hill, the trail turns left onto a field path (sign 711), which takes us along meadows and the forest edge, to finally descent towards Beram down a forest path, where we come out onto the asphalt between Beram (left) and the church of St. Mary of the Rocks (right). Before you proceed with the trail, you can seek some refreshment at the "Vela Vrata" tavern in Beram or in the Baćac family wine-cellar. In order to visit the church of St. Mary of the Rocks (the Dance of the Dead fresco from 1474), we’ll contact the Šestan family at house number 38. We move away from the church and continue the trail along the gravel road, which at first gently and later more steeply ascends to the Findrle hill. Here, several climbing routes intersect so we need to be cautious at each of many forest crossings, until at one of them the sign 711 guides us left, off the marked climbing route. From here on, there are no more red and white climbing markings, only the 711 signs at the crossings. The trail follows the drive, partly paved with stones and leading downhill to Pazin. Upon reaching the broad macadam, we turn left and shortly after we turn right onto the tractor path, which gets more and more narrow until it eventually comes out at the Pazin Roof waterfall, where we cross the brook and soon arrive to Pazin.
The Gortan hill
The monastery of St. Micheal was mentioned on this hill as early as 1177. In the 14th century it was already deserted and given to the local noblemen. The Istrian Book of Boundaries states that the deconsecrated monastery served as a refuge to Drmitor, the bishop of Pićan,during the fruitless years in Pićan, which is why it is possible that this particular monastery was the one where Dante Alighieri stayed during his visit to Istria. The view of the Pazin cave spreading from the Gortan hill is equivalent to the Dante’ description of entering Hell: a gentle valley through which flows a rivulet that reaches a vertical rock where it sinks to the ground. In the 15th century the hill was named the Kršan hill, after its owner Andrija Kršanski, who was the Captain of Pazin and Trieste. In the first half of the 17th century it was inhabited by their heirs, the nobles Tolzay, who did a fundamental reconstruction of the chapel. They were succeeded by the families Cavalieri, Calligarich, Weissenhaus,and finally Camus, who possessed the estate until 1945. Today, the biggest part of this historical and agricultural complex is used by AZRRI (Agency for Rural Development of Istria). AZRRI created the Education and Gastronomic centre of Istria in one part of the complex, while an agricultural complex was added north of the present-day settlement, where a basic herd of the Istrian ox boškarin , on whose protection AZRRI has been working for years, is going to be accommodated.
Beram
Beram is one of the settlements with the longest continuity of population in Istria. Investigations of the prehistoric necropolis on the southern slopes of Beram have shown with certainty that there was a settlement here as early as the Iron Age. The conical hill above the fertile valley was an ideal place for a castle-type settlement, surrounded by a simple rough wall that followed the configuration of the terrain. Later Roman fortifications and castles were built on the ruins of those walls. Even today in Beram, the radial layout of the streets, founded in ancient times, has been preserved. The investigations of the Beram Necropolis in 1883 were the first real archaeological investigations in Istria and provided extensive material that shed light not only on the prehistoric period of Berm, but also on the whole of Istria. In the Middle Ages, Beram was a fortress on the second line of defense of the Principality of Pazin, and the Beram castle played an important role, but because of this, it suffered frequent attacks and destruction. Beram was one of the most important centers of medieval Glagolitic literacy. Pupils (“žakani” in Croatian) from a large part of Istria came to learn from the Glagolitic priests of Beram. They left evidence of this written in Glagolitic script on the margins of Beram liturgical books or carved with a sharp object on the frescoed wall of the church of St. Marija on Škriljinah. Church of St. Marija on Škriljinah in the cemetery 1 km northeast of Berm, preserves in its interior a cycle of frescoes by Vincent from Kastav from 1474, among which the most famous fresco is "Dance of the Dead".
