Roman Ruins of Pula, Croatia

A massive amphitheatre in a very ancient place

Unlike many of the overseas and extra-European destinations in Erich Sonntag’s collection, I’ve actually been to quite a few places in (East) Central Europe, including the focus of this posting (source of the below quote):

Pula, also known as Pola, is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula in western Croatia, with a population of 52,220 in 2021. It is known for its multitude of ancient Roman buildings, the most famous of which is the Pula Arena, one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters. The city has a long tradition of wine making, fishing, shipbuilding, and tourism. It was the administrative centre of Istria from ancient Roman times until superseded by Pazin in 1991.

Here’s a primer showing the city’s main sights on one multilingual (hi, dear

Aneta Pavlenko

) postcard, which was mailed in 1982:

Pula Arena, 1910-Cold War

As you can guess, we’ll be looking at quite a few images of the place showing the renowned Pula Arena, for which we’ll also turn to Wikipedia:

The Pula Arena (Croatian: Pulska Arena; Italian: Arena di Pola) is a Roman amphitheatre located in Pula, Croatia. It is the only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers entirely preserved. It was constructed between 27 BC and AD 68, and is among the world’s six largest surviving Roman arenas. The arena is also the country’s best-preserved ancient monument…

The Arena was built between 27 BC and 68 AD, as the city of Pula became a regional centre of Roman rule, called Pietas Julia…

The amphitheatre was first built in timber during the reign of Augustus (2–14 AD). It was replaced by a small stone amphitheatre during the reign of Emperor Claudius. In 79 AD it was enlarged to accommodate gladiator fights by Vespasian and to be completed in 81 AD under Emperor Titus.

With that being said by way of an introduction, here we go—a survey of Arena-themed postcards across the 20th century. We’ll begin in 1910 when the below postcard was mailed from Pola* to Steinbrückel near Wiener Neustadt:

* I’m using the Italian designation to indicate that the city was named thus before the First World War, and it was also the main naval base of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which also explains the presence of the below postcard (which I’m throwing in here because I can), as well as the Navy’s cemetery (see here [Wikipedia], here [an online database], and here [official tourist board info in English] for further information).

I’m not a military ships buff, hence here’s you’ll find (much, much) more about the vessel, an armed cruiser, courtesy of Wikipedia. And now back to the Arena.

The above specimen—mailed in 1935—shows one of the four towers in quite some detail.

What was the purpose of these towers? Well, I’ll let Wikipedia doing the ‘splainin’:

Each of the four towers had two cisterns filled with perfumed water that fed a fountain or could be sprinkled on the spectators. The amphitheatre could be covered with velaria (large sails), protecting the spectators from sun or rain (as attested by rare construction elements). Below the arena was a system of canals which collected rainwater and effluent and drained into the sea.

Below, a nice aerial view of the arena—on a postcard mailed to Erich Sonntag in 1962

Thus concludes the Arena in b/w colour—let’s move on to colourful postcards, shall we?

I like this one for it’s both in colour and shows the interior, too.

The exterior wall is constructed in limestone. The part facing the sea consists of three stories, while the other part has only two stories since the amphitheatre was built on a slope. The maximum height of the exterior wall is 29.40 m (96.5 ft). The first two floors have each 72 arches, while the top floor consists of 64 rectangular openings…

The seats rest directly on the sloping ground; The field for the games, the proper arena, measured 67.95 by 41.65 m (222.9 by 136.6 ft). The field was separated from the public by iron gates.

The arena had a total of 15 gates. A series of underground passageways were built underneath the arena along the main axis from which animals, ludi scenes and fighters could be released; stores and shops were located under the raked seating. The amphitheatre was part of the circuit of the gladiators.

Finally for this series on the Pula Arena, a specimen from 1983:

Greetings from PULA

Thus concludes our first foray into Pula, and while we’ve spent quite a bit of time on (with) the amphitheatre, there’s plenty more to see about which I’ll keep you posted!