PAZIN-history

PAZIN is a city in the center of Istria that formed around a castle on a cliff, below which the Pazin Brook disappears underground. It is mentioned in a document of Emperor Otto II dated 983 (Castrum Pisinum).
The castle is a two-story fortification with an irregular ground plan and an inner ward. Its present appearance dates primarily from the 15th and 16th centuries, due to frequent remodelling. The original fortification was elongated in form. It had a square tower, bulwarks that also encompassed the surrounding houses and a Romanesque chapel consecrated to the Madonna. A drawbridge stretched across the moat. With the construction of a semicircular tower (with a passagewayin the base), the castle gained greater security
The castle nobles administered the large Pazin feudal estate. In 1374, this estate became the property of the Austrian House of Habsburg .

Inn the middle ages, new fortifications were added to the castle. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the fortifications were remodelled: the bulwarks around the plateau over the chasm were demolished, the moat and drawbridge became unnecesary, and in the first half of the 19th century the top of the square tower was demolished. New windows were installed in the rooms, providing more light, and the castle was opened toward the city. After world II, the Castle was used to house the Ethnographic Museum of Istria, the Museum of the City of Pazin and the Depot of the Historical Archives.
The French author Jules Verne set part of a novel, Mathias Sandorf, in this ambient. For his description of the castle and the chasm, he allegedly relied upon a photograph recieved from a mayor of Pazin.

The Pazin Jama (chasm) is the most beautiful example of the evolution of karstic hydrography and morphology in Istria. Subterranean investigations have revealed galleries, siphons and lakes of great depth. The vertical walls reach the height of a hunderd meters. The caves, created by nature, have interesting contents. During heavy rains, a lake forms around the opening of the Jama and the heaviest precipitation causes flooding. The first scientific subterranean study was performed at the end of the last century (Martel and Putick, 1896.)