A perfect blend of peace and adrenaline

Life began with the Histrians in the prehistoric Iron Age on a hilltop, five kilometres south of Tinjan. In Roman times, the inhabitants left the fort, a fortified settlement, and moved to the nearby villages, so fragments of inscriptions and tombstones and a bronze figurine of Venus Anadyomene were found on the hills of Korona and Podkorona. Kringa was first mentioned in 1102 as Curitico, the property of the Patriarch of Aquileia. In 1177 it was taken over by the bishops of Poreč and then left to the descendants of Count Meinhard from Crni Grad at the end of the 12th century, whilst in the Middle Ages it formed an integral part of the County of Pazin (Pazinska knežija). Despite this, Kringa is probably best known for its vampire story transmitted by the Slovenian travel writer Janez Vajkard Valvasor and thus recorded by him as the oldest European vampire in written documents...

 

Jure Grando and 16 terrible years

According to Valvasor`s records, Jure Grando was an inhabitant of Kringa, who died and was buried in the usual way in 1656. But on the first night after the funeral (and thus every night over sixteen years) he rose from the grave, wandered around Kringa banging on house doors (where soon somebody would die). He would also visit his widow every night, forcing her to comply with her marital duties. After 16 years of such terror, the mayor of Kringa, Miho Radetić, gathered nine people from the village. They opened Grando`s grave, found in it the completely preserved body with rosy cheeks. After unsuccessfully trying to pierce the body with a hawthorn stake, they cut off his head and refilled the grave. Valvasor concluded his record by saying that Jure Grando molested the inhabitants of Kringa never again.

 

The story of the Istrian vampire Jure Grando, as found in Valvasor's work, has been transmitted to many other collections of eerie tales, including the famous vampire anthology by the English author and priest Montague Summers. Through the almanac "Rajnski antiquarius," the story also found its way into a collection edited by the renowned Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse. There are indications that the tale of Jure Grando was indeed the inspiration for the first-ever vampire prose in European and world literature, John Polidori's novella "The Vampyre" (1819), based on a template by George Gordon Byron. It is believed that the vampire from Kringa directly influenced an entire literary (and later cinematic) genre, the popularity of which continues unabated to this day. In recent years, the story of Jure Grando has served as the foundation for literary, cultural, and touristic programs launched and developed in Kringa and Tinjan.

 

 

European dry wall

On Europe's Day May 9th 2007 the construction of "European dry wall" began at the entrance to Kringa. The wall will expand all way to Tinjan. Every constructor can build in one numbered stone at most and get the certificate for their participation.