page_title: Gračišće
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gračišće / History
caption_attribution_description: Gračišće
context_page_description: Gračišće is a village and municipality of Istria County in Croatia.
context_section_description: The prehistory of Gračišće and its surroundings is poorly known. Due to its advantageous strategic position the area was almost surely settled and also played significant role already during the Bronze and Iron Age. There are just few findings located at Perunčevac, Perunovac, Osoje, Funčići, Bazgalji, with ceramics finds, and Salamunišće where a Bronze Age grave was found. In the Iron Age, Istria was settled with Illyrian tribes of Histri (west, south and central Istria) and Liburnians (in the eastern part).
  After centuries of armed conflicts, the war between the Roman Empire and Histri tribes (Istria is named after them) ended with the fall of Nesactium in 177 BC. From then, Istria was subjected to Roman rule and was incorporated into the Tenth region of Italy), replaced with the Venetia et Histria province at the end of the 3rd century. The inner territory of Gračišće remained confined between coastal colonies but did not belong to them. After a while it became Imperial property and in the 3rd century it came under control of the revenue officials situated in Colonia Pietas Iulia Pola (present-day Pula). The strategic position of Gračišće grew more important during and after the 3rd and 4th century, when the surrounding hills became good defending positions. After 476 West Roman Empire fell but after 30 years Justinian I restored the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Byzantine Emperors ruled in Istria until 751.
  In the Early Middle Ages, various 'barbarian' tribes like the Avars and the Lombards invaded Istria but remained only for brief periods, except for the Slavs who moved in from Pannonia and settled mostly in the interior. Istria became part of Francia under Charlemagne, whose son Carloman subjugated it in 788. From 803 the area was incorporated into the Carolingian march of Friuli and the Kingdom of Italy.
  After the German king Otto I had conquered Italy in 952, he granted Istria with the vast March of Verona to his brother Duke Henry I of Bavaria. When his son and successor Emperor Otto II established the Duchy of Carinthia for Duke Henry the Younger in 976, he also gave him suzerainty over the southeastern Bavarian marches, including Verona, Istria, Carniola and Styria. In the 11th century, the newly established March of Istria fell under the jurisdiction of the Church of Aquileia and several German feudal families like the Counts of Andechs, who ruled as Dukes of Merania.
  In 1199 Gračišće was first mentioned in written sources as Gallinianum. From that time onwards, the coastal areas of Istria were gradually conquered by the Republic of Venice, advantaged by the lack of a central authority upon the deposition of Emperor Frederick II in 1246 and the fall of the House of Hohenstaufen. Neverteheless the inner territories around Pazin (German: Mitterburg) with Gračišće were retained by the Imperial Counts of Gorizia and in 1374 were inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg. In 14th and 15th century Gračišće grew quite prosperous. The Inner Istrian for centuries remained with the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806.
  With the Napoleonic rule upon the 1805 Peace of Pressburg, Istria became part of the re-established Italian Kingdom and in 1809 was incorporated into the so-called Illyrian Provinces of the French Empire. After this short period the newly established Austrian Kingdom of Illyria comprised Istria, from 1849 as part of the Austrian Littoral. After World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, Istria was given to the Kingdom of Italy and after the end of World War II was relinquished to Yugoslavia. After the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Istria (and Gračišće) became part of Republic of Croatia where Gračišće become the seat of a municipality.
caption: Gračišće in an engraving made by Valvasor from 1679.
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