Istrian Italians

Istrian Italians(Italian:istriani italiani;Slovene:Italijanski Istrani;Croatian:Talijanski Istrani) are an ethnic group from theAdriaticregion ofIstriain modern northwesternCroatiaand southwesternSlovenia. Istrian Italians descend from the original Latinized population ofRomanHistria, from theVenetian-speaking settlers who colonized the region during the time of theRepublic of Venice, and from the localCroatianpeople who culturally assimilated.
Istrian Italians were 36% in 1910.Today, as a result of theIstrian–Dalmatian exodus(1943–1960), the majority of Istrian Italians live outside of the Istrian peninsula; however, a significant Italian minority still lives in theCroatianCounty of Istria(5.01%) and inSlovenian Istria(3.3%), where they are grantedminority rights. According to the official Slovenian and Croatian censuses conducted in 2001 and 2002 respectively, they number around 22,000.The Istrian–Dalmatian exodus, on the other hand, numbers between 230,000 and 350,000 Istrian Italians.
Throughout history, Istrian Italians exerted a vast and significant influence on Istria, especially cultural and architectural. The number of people resident in the Croatian part of Istria declaring themselves to be Italian nearly doubled between 1981 and 1991 (i.e. before and after the dissolution of Yugoslavia).
HistorianTheodor Mommsenwrote that Istria (included in the Regio XVenetia et HistriaofRoman ItalysinceAugustus) was fully romanized in the 5th century AD.
Between 500 and 700 AD, Slavs settled in Southeastern Europe (Eastern Adriatic), and their number ever increased, and with theOttoman invasionSlavs were pushed from the south and east.This led to Italic people becoming ever more confined to urban areas, while some areas of the countryside were populated by Slavs, with exceptions in western and southern Istria which remained fully Romance-speaking.
By the 11th century, most of the interior mountainous areas of northern and eastern Istria (Liburnia) were inhabited bySouth Slavs, while the Romance population continued to prevail in the south and west of the peninsula. Linguistically, the Romance inhabitants of Istria were most probably divided into two main linguistic groups: in the north-west, the speakers of aRhaeto-Romance languagesimilar toLadinandFriulianprevailed, while in the south, the natives most probably spoke a variant of theDalmatian language.
One modern claim suggests the original language of the romanized Istrians survived the invasions, this being theIstriot languagewhich was spoken by some nearPula.Republic of Veniceinfluenced the neolatins of Istria for many centuries from theMiddle Agesuntil 1797, until conquered byNapoleon:Capodistriaand Pola were important centres of art and culture during the ItalianRenaissance.Other historians have attributed the ancient language of romanized Istrians as being theIstro-Romanian.
In the 14th century, epidemics such as theBlack Deathdecimated in those years the Istrian population, which was still mostly of Romance ethnicity. As a consequence of depopulation, Venice started settling Slavic communities to repopulate the interior areas of the peninsula. These were mostlyČakavianand partiallyŠtokavianspeaking South Slavs from Dalmatia and present-dayMontenegro(differently fromKajkavianand proto-Slovenespeakers that lived in the northern areas of the peninsula).
At the same time, settlers from theVenetoregion were used to resettle the towns. This caused alanguage shiftof the local Romance population who replaced the old Romance (eitherRhaeto-RomanceorItalo-Dalmatian) languages with theVenetian language. Only in the extreme south of the peninsula did the original Istrian Romance language survive: under strong Venetian influences it transformed itself into the modernIstriot language. Until the early 19th century,Dalmatiancontinued to be spoken on the island of Veglia /Krk, and a dialect ofFriulianin the town ofMuggia: both became extinct in the mid 19th century, replaced by Venetian.
In 1374 Because of the implementation of a treaty of inheritance, central and eastern Istria fell to theHouse of Habsburg, while Venice continued to control the northern, western and south-eastern portion of the peninsula, including the major coastal towns of  Capodistria /Koper, Parenzo /Poreč, Rovigno /Rovinj, Pola /Pula, Fianona /Plomin, and the interior towns of Albona /Labinand Pinguente /Buzet.This created a dichotomy that characterized Istria until the late 18th century. The Venetian culture and language left a profound impact on Venetian Istria. By the Baroque and Enlightenment periods, Istrian Italians were completely integrated into the wider Italian culture via their belonging to the Republic of Venice. The towns of Venetian Istria became almost exclusively Venetian-speaking, and Venetian Italian was the language of commerce, culture and administration. Nevertheless, significant numbers of South Slavic speakers (mostly Slovene andČakavian Croatian) continued to dwell in the rural areas of Venetian Istria, especially in the north of the province and on the border with Austrian Istria.
On the other hand, interior and eastern Istria were included in the Central European cultural sphere and were dominated by a feudal culture. By the late 18th century, the vast majority of Austrian Istria were Slavic (Slovene and Croat) speakers.
In 1797, during theNapoleonic wars, theRepublic of Venicewas dissolved. After theTreaty of Campo Formio(1797) Austria occupied the Venetian part of the peninsula. Istria was included in theNapoleonic Kingdom of Italyfrom 1805 to 1809, and successively in theIllyrian Provincesfrom 1809.
After a short French interim, Austria reconquered the whole peninsula in 1813, and unified it into a single province. As a result, Istrian Italians became a minority in the new administrative unit, although they maintained their social and part of their political power.
From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Italian and Slavic communities in Istria had lived peacefully side by side because they did not know the national identification, given that they generically defined themselves as "Istrians", of "Romance" or "Slavic" culture.
Although the incorporation into theAustrian Empirecaused deep changes in the political assets of the region, it did not alter the social balance. Venetian-speaking Istrian Italians continued to dominate the region both culturally and economically. In the first half of the 19th century, the use of the Venetian language even extended to some areas of former Austrian Istria, like the town ofPazin/ Pisino. The Austrian censuses detected a gradual but constant rise of Italian speakers both in numerical and proportional terms: in 1848, around a third of Istrians were Italian (Venetian or Istriot) speakers.
From the early 19th century onward, the localCroatsandSlovenesengaged in anational revival, demanding linguistic and national rights that challenged the supremacy of the Italian language and culture in Istria. The Croatian-Slovene national movement gained force only in the second part of the 19th century, causing a clash with a parallel nationalist movement of the Istrian Italians.
Many Istrian Italians looked with sympathy towards theRisorgimentomovement that fought for the unification of Italy.However, after 1866, when theVenetoandFriuliregions were ceded by theAustriansto the newly formedKingdom Italy, Istria remained part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic (Trieste,Gorizia and Gradisca,Fiume). This triggered the gradual rise ofItalian irredentismamong many Italians in Istria, who demanded the unification of theAustrian Littoral, Fiume andDalmatiawith Italy.
UnderAustrian rulein the 19th century, it included a large population ofItalians,Croats,Slovenes, someVlachs/Istro-Romaniansand even a fewMontenegrins. The Italians in Istria supported the ItalianRisorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favoured the Slav communities of IstriaDuring the meeting of the Council of Ministers of 12 November 1866, EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austriaoutlined a wide-ranging project aimed at theGermanizationorSlavizationof the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:
This tension created - by some claims - a "huge" emigration of Italians from Istria beforeWorld War I, reducing their percentage inside the peninsula inhabitants (there are some claims Italians made more than 50% of the total population for centuries,but at the end of the 19th century they were reduced to only two fifths according to some estimates).
A limited tension with the Austrian state did not in fact stop the rise of the use of the Italian language, in the second part of the 19th century, when the population of predominantly Italian-speaking towns in Istria rose dramatically: in the part of Istria that eventually became part of Croatia, the first Austrian census from 1846 found 34 thousand Italian speakers, alongside 120 thousand Croatian speakers. Until 1910, the proportion changed: there were 108 thousand Italian speakers and 134 thousand Croatian speakers.Vanni D'Alessio notes (2008), the Austrian surveys of the language of use (in the Austrian censuses, the ethnic composition of the population wasn't surveyed, only the "Umgangsprache") "overestimated the diffusion of the socially dominant languages of the empire...  The capacity of assimilation of the Italian language suggests that amongst those who declared themselves Italian speakers in Istria, there were people whose mother tongue was different." D'Alessio notes even the people who immigrated from non-Croatian and non-Italian parts of the Habsburg Empire tended to use Italian, after living in Istrian towns long enough. Contrasting the claims of a "huge emigration" of Italians from Istria, D'Allesio writes about an important influx of immigrants from the Kingdom of Italy to Istria, during the last decades of the Austrian rule.
In the same period, the Istrian Slovenes and Croats, who represented around three-fifths of the Istrian population, increased their demands for national and linguistic emancipation. The result was the intensification of the ethnic strife between the two groups, although it was limited to institutional battles and it rarely manifested in violent forms.
Indeed, in 1910, the ethnic and linguistic composition was completely mixed and the Italians were reduced to a minority, although still significant. According to the Austrian census results, out of 404,309 inhabitants in the "Margravate of Istria", 168,116 (41.6%) spokeCroatian, 147,416 (36.5%) spokeItalian, 55,365 (13.7%) spokeSlovene, 13,279 (3.3%) spokeGerman, 882 (0.2%) spokeRomanian, 2,116 (0.5%) spoke other languages and 17,135 (4.2%) were non-citizens, which had not been asked for their language of communication.
Excluding the almost exclusively Croatian-speaking areas that were annexed to Yugoslavia after WWI (Kastavand the island of Krk), Istria had 39% of Italian speakers, 37% of Croatian, and 14.7% Slovene speakers.
Until the end of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the bourgeois Italiannational liberalelites retained much of the political control in Istria.
During World War One, many Istrians fought as volunteers on the Italian side against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among them, the most famous was theNazario SaurofromKoper(Capodistria).
After the end of the war, the whole peninsula was occupied by theKingdom of Italy, and officially annexed to Italy with theTreaty of Rapalloof 1920. Istria was included in the administrative region known as theJulian March/Venezia Giulia. After theFascisttakeover of Italy in 1922, Italian became the sole language of administration and education. A fierce policy ofItalianizationwas followed which prohibited all use of any language but Italian. Many Slovenes and Croats left the region, which strengthened the Italian positions. However, ethnic tensions grew, and a Slovenian and Croatian anti-Fascist insurgency started to appear in the late 1920s, although it was much less strong than in other parts of the Julian March.
Indeed, before the Treaty of Rapallo, the Italians in Istria accounted for nearly half of the local inhabitants and were mostly an indigenous population, but after the treaty they were bolstered by some new arrivals of the so-calledregnicoli(from the Kingdom of Italy), which were never well likedby the indigenous Istrians Italians.
The Austrian 1910 census indicated approximately 182,500 people who listed Italian as their language of communication in what is now the territory of Slovenia and Croatia: 137,131 in Istria and 28,911 in Fiume/Rijeka(1918).Meanwhile, the Italian 1936 censusindicated approximately 230,000 people who listed Italian as their language of communication (in what is now the territory of Slovenia and Croatia, then part of the Italian state): nearly 194,000 in today's Croatia and 36,000 in today's Slovenia.
After theItalian armisticeof 1943, Istria became a battlefield between the Nazi German army and the partisan (mostly Yugoslav) insurgency. Already in September 1943, several hundred Istrian Italians were killed by theYugoslav partisansbecause of their allegiance to the Italian State. This was the first wave of theFoibe massacres, which continued after the Yugoslav takeover of the region in May 1945.
From 1943 until 1953, according to various data, between 200,000 and 330,000 Italians emigrated from these regions. This emigration of Italians (calledIstrian–Dalmatian exodus) reduced the total population of the region and altered its ethnic structure.
After the Yugoslav Communist troops occupied Istria in May 1945, many Italians started leaving Istria under the pressure of the new authorities who demanded the annexation of Istria to Yugoslavia. With an agreement between the Allied forces andTito's Yugoslav government, a line of demarcation known as theMorgan Linewas set in June 1945: most of Istria remained under Yugoslav occupation, while the towns ofPulaandMuggiawere transferred to Allied administration.
With the peace treaty of 1947, most of Istria (including Pula) was assigned to Yugoslavia. This triggered theIstrian–Dalmatian exodus, the departure of the large majority of Istrian Italians. Only the north-western portion was assigned to zone B of the short-livedFree Territory of Trieste, but de facto remained under Yugoslav administration.
In 1953 according to the official census only 36,000 Italians lived inYugoslavia, 16% of the Italian population before World War II,and another 35,000 lived in the zone B of theFree Territory of Trieste(FTT). After the dissolution of the FTT in 1954, and the definitive handover of zone B to Yugoslavia, almost the totality of Istria became officially part of Yugoslavia. This triggered the last wave of theIstrian–Dalmatian exodus, with most of the Istrian Italiansleaving the zone B for elsewhere (mainly to Italy) because intimidated or preferring not to live in communist Yugoslavia. Yugoslav Istria was divided betweenCroatiaandSlovenia, so that the Istrian Italians became subject to two different administrations.
In 1961 25,651 Italians remained in Yugoslavia (this number included some small minorities in Dalmatia), around 10-12% of the Italian population before World War II. Italians continued to emigrate in later decades (most of them to Australia, Canada, South America or the USA). Therefore, their population declined in each subsequent census to 15,132 inhabitants in 1981.
It has to be emphasized that the data of the Yugoslav censuses are unreliable in relation to the real number of Italians, since many members of the Italian minority, for various reasons, chose to be nationally undeclared or preferred to use their regional identity and declared themselves as Istrians. Not surprisingly in 2001 (i.e. after the dissolution of Yugoslavia), the Croatian and Slovenian censuses reported a total Italian population of 21,894 (with the figure in Croatia nearly doubling).
In its 1996 report on 'Local self-government, territorial integrity and protection of minorities' theCouncil of Europe's European Commission for Democracy through Law (theVenice Commission) put it that "a great majority of the local Italians, some thousands of Slovenes and of nationally undefined bilingual 'Istrians', used their legal right from the peace treaty to 'opt out' of the Yugoslav controlled part of Istria". In several waves, they moved to Italy and elsewhere (also overseas, mainly in theAmericas) and claimed Italian or other citizenship.
Today Istrian Italians are mostly a national minority in Croatia. Croatian municipalities with a significant Italian population include Grisignana /Grožnjan(36%), Verteneglio /Brtonigla(32%), and Buie /Buje(24%).
The last census (2001) showed that there are nearly 50,000 Istrian Italians in Istria as a whole (between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy), more than half of them living in Italy:
Source: Croatian Census - 2021.Slovenian Census - 2002.Italian Census - 1970/2001
Besides Croat language schools, in theCroatianCounty of Istriathere are also kindergartens inBuje/Buie,Brtonigla/Verteneglio,Novigrad/Cittanova,Umag/Umago,Poreč/Parenzo,Vrsar/Orsera,Rovinj/Rovigno,Bale/Valle,Vodnjan/Dignano,Pula/Pola andLabin/Albona, as well as primary schools in Buje/Buie, Brtonigla/Verteneglio, Novigrad/Cittanova, Umag/Umago, Poreč/Parenzo, Vodnjan/Dignano, Rovinj/Rovigno, Bale/Valle and Pula/Pola, as well aslower secondary schoolsandupper secondary schoolsin Buje/Buie, Rovinj/Rovigno and Pula/Pola, all with Italian as the language of instruction.
Besides Slovene language schools, inSlovenian Istriathere are also kindergartens, primary schools,lower secondary schoolsandupper secondary schoolswith Italian as the language of instruction inKoper/Capodistria,Izola/Isola andPiran/Pirano. At the state-ownedUniversity of Primorska, however, which is also established in the bilingual area, Slovene is the only language of instruction (although the official name of the university includes the Italian version, too).
As per theParis Peace Treaties, 1947, those people who lived in the territories of theKingdom of Italyceded toYugoslaviabetween 1940 and 1947 would lose theirItalian citizenship, but could keep it should they decide to move to Italy in a ten-year-period following the treaty.
As such, the local Italian residents who opted to remain inIstria,Rijeka,Lastovoand other territories lost their Italian citizenship.
On 8 March 2006, the Italian government approved law n. 124, which would provide a possibility to regain Italian citizenship to "those Italians and their descendants residing inIstria,Fiume, andDalmatiabetween 1940 and 1947, when they relinquished it upon these territories being ceded toYugoslavia. To access this initiative, the following documents are required:
Istrian culture has been deeply influenced by Venetian culture, especially from an architectural point of view.Istrian cities are characterized by architectural forms with a Venetian imprint, an influence that extends to urban planning, particularly in the grid formed by streets and squares.This influence is still visible today, both in cities and in smaller population centres.Noteworthy is the Venetian architecture ofPoreč.
Italian cultural influence has resulted in the resemblance of many Istrian dances to those of Northern Italy. This applies to dances done by the modern-day Croatian population and by the Italian national minority found today in the larger towns and some villages in the western part of Istria. Dances done by both the Croatian and the Italian communities includeMolferinaorMafrinaandKvadrilja. Dances specific to the Istrian Italians includeLa Veneziana,Bersagliera,Denci,Sette Passiand the very similar dancesVilotaandFurlana.
TheCroatian cuisineofIstriawas influenced byItalian cuisine, given the historical presence of Istrian Italians, influence that has eased after theIstrian-Dalmatian exodus.For example, the influence of Italian cuisine on Croatian dishes is seen in thepršut(similar to Italianprosciutto) and in the preparation of homemade pasta.Italian cuisine has particularly influenced the cuisine ofSlovenian Istria, given the historical presence of Istrian Italians, influence that has eased after the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus.Slovenian dishes of Italian origin arenjoki(similar to Italiangnocchi),rizota(the Slovenian version ofrisotto) andzilkrofi(similar to Italianravioli).
Istrian stewor Jota (Croatian:Istarska jota;Slovene:Jota,Italian:Jota) is a soup made ofbeans,sauerkrautor sourturnip,potatoes,bacon,spare ribs, known in the northernAdriaticregion.It is especially popular inFriuli-Venezia Giulia,Istriaand some other parts of northwesternCroatia. Under the namejota, it is also typical of the wholeSlovenian Littoraland territories in northeastern Italy, especially in the provinces ofTrieste(where it is considered to be the prime example of Triestine food) andGorizia, and in some peripheral areas of northeasternFriuli(the Torre river valley, and the mountain borderlands ofCarniaandSlavia Veneta). The stew originated in Friuli before spreading east and south. According to the most accredited thesis, "Jota" derives from theLatinjutta(meaningbroth)and has parallels in the ancientfriulan languageand in modernemilian-romagnol.
List of notable Istrian Italians across the centuries.