Bale

Bale is a compact stone town built in a ring around the Soardo-Bembo castle, whose Venetian gothic front faces the main square, and the streets behind it are narrow, quiet and largely unaltered. What has put Bale into the scientific literature is underground: a quarry and a submerged site on the coast nearby have produced substantial dinosaur remains from the Cretaceous, among the more important finds in this part of Europe, and a small exhibition in the town covers them. The town has been careful about development, and in summer it runs a modest festival programme in the castle courtyard.

History

Bale grew out of the Roman stronghold of Castrum Vallis, built to guard the salt-pan road between Pula and Poreč; its name is taken from vallum, a moat, which suggests the fort was ringed by one, and Roman coins and ruins have been found around the town. In the late Roman period Vallis belonged to the inner ring of fortified settlements watching the Via Flavia from Pola to Tergeste; its walls were laid in a herringbone pattern and it had a three-aisled church of the Virgin Mary that began in the 5th century as a simple hall without an apse. The parish existed by 1177, and the present town grew in the 15th century around the castle of the Soardo and Bembo families. Far older finds came to light nearby from 1998 to 2005, when Fabio Marco Dalla Vecchia described Cretaceous dinosaur fossils from the area, among them Histriasaurus, first found here and now kept in the local museum (Wikipedia, Bale, Croatia).

What you'll find

• A castle at the centre - the Venetian gothic Soardo-Bembo front.
• A ring of stone streets - built around the castle and little altered.
• Cretaceous dinosaur finds - from a quarry and a site off the coast.
• A small exhibition on them - in the town itself.

When to go

May to September, when the summer programme runs. Half a day.

Things to know

The town is small and an hour or two covers it. The dinosaur exhibition is modest and the sites themselves are not open. Restaurants are few. It works better as a stop between Pula and Rovinj than as a destination.

Nearby

Rovinj is north-west; Pula and the Brijuni ferry are south.

Key facts