The story of Tartini Square

Imagine standing in water. Until 1894 this square was the mandrač, an inner harbour for fishing boats, and for centuries it lay outside the town walls. Important buildings and palaces grew up around it, but because of the stench, the dirt and the lack of space the dock was finally filled in, and the town's main institutions and townhouses rose around the new square.

Of them all, only one keeps its original form: the Gothic house called Benečanka, the Venetian House, from the 15th century. A unique lifting bridge, which had let boats with masts sail in, was pulled down at the same time. From 1909 until 1953 a line, first a trolleybus and then a tram, linked Piran with Portorož and Lucija, and it ended right here.

Notice the white Istrian stone beneath your feet: its elliptical shape, designed by the architect Boris Podrecca for the 300th anniversary of Tartini's birth, echoes the outline of the old harbour.