Lovran

Lovran keeps a small medieval core of stone lanes around St George's church, and around that core is a belt of large villas built between about 1890 and 1914, when the Austrian riviera reached down this coast from Opatija and wealthy visitors built here for the winters. The mountain of Ucka rises directly behind, and its lower slopes are chestnut forest - the marun variety grown here is the basis of Marunada, a festival running through October in which the town and the villages above it cook chestnuts in every form. The seafront promenade, the Lungomare, runs from here to Opatija and beyond.

History

Lovran is one of the oldest settlements on the eastern shore of Istria. Legend says it began with a summer house built by the Roman statesman Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa in the 1st century AD; the name, recorded in the 7th century as Lauriana, comes from the laurel. In the early Middle Ages it was an important town and shipbuilding centre of the northern Adriatic, but it lost ground as Trieste, Pula and Rijeka grew into the dominant ports. From the middle of the 19th century it found a new role as a fashionable resort of the Austro-Hungarian nobility, and the villas and parks of that time still ring the old core, with its parish church of medieval frescoes and Glagolitic inscriptions and the 14th-century tower on St George's Square (Wikipedia, Lovran).

What to look for

• A small medieval core - lanes around St George's church.
• Habsburg-era villas - built for the Austrian riviera before 1914.
• Chestnut forest on Ucka - the marun variety grown above the town.
• Marunada in October - the festival built on it.

When to go

May to October, with the chestnut festival in October. Half a day.

Before you go

Parking along the coast road is difficult all summer. Many villas are private and seen only from outside. Beaches are concrete platforms and shingle. The town is quiet outside the season.

Nearby

Opatija is north along the Lungomare; Ucka rises directly behind.

Key facts