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word 'dream' – Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri (Book Fair(y) in Istria). It is a programme that twists and ..... will introduce the concept of audio books in the city's everyday  ...
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ula was born, survived and persisted by work of fugitives, as a refuge and haven of European migrants, refugees and vagrants... It was this nomadic destiny that created a polis, generated a city and accompanied it all until these virtual times, carved it into stones, inscribed in on parchments, wrote it in books and stored it on computers. Book celebration in this Mediterranean and Central European settlement in the very centre of Europe, sprung out of a mythopoeic legend about the Argonauts, began 3000 years ago, faithfully reflecting the trilingualism and multilingualism of Croatian literary tradition. Throughout the centuries, Istria has been the breeding place of fundamental literary texts, the place of translation and editing of the most popular works of European literary tradition, a bridge between the European West and Slavic South and East. It gave birth to important Croatian writers and thinkers – Herman Dalmatin, the first Istrian intellectual of the western European circuit, revivalist Juraj Dobrila, reformer Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Paula von Preradović, author of the Austrian national anthem, Herman Potočnik Noordung, the pioneer of astronautics, space flights and rocket technology. It was visited by numerous world greats – from Dante and Michelangelo, James Joyce, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, to the contemporaries such as Orhan Pamuk, Umberto Eco, Claudio Magris, Peter Esterhazy...

Pula and Istria have been a frequent literary topos – the connection between fiction and reality is rarely so seamless; the symbiosis between the geographic and literary space is nothing short of perfection. The programme Pula – 2014 World Book Capital is oriented towards and dedicated to the city, inspired by its turbulent past, its multiculturalism and multilingualism, but also to the Istrian space, its specifics and idiosyncrasies. By reinterpreting the relations between fiction and fact, by repositioning the book as a timeless and ubiquitous form of one’s self-realisation, the programme goes beyond local and regional frameworks, inscribes new contents and new experiences in the cultural map of Croatia, reinforces the existing and builds new international relations. The concept of the programme is fuelled by the rich festival tradition of Pula and Istria – film, theatre, music, literary and book festivals – it maps and upgrades the existing cultural resources, discovers new potentials and develops formats that should become a paradigm of best cultural practice. Through a comprehensive scope of target audience – from pre-school children to senior citizens, underprivileged social groups, or visitors arriving to Croatia as a world-famous destination – the programme proactively implements the principle of social inclusion in the spirit of UNESCO’s

convention and declaration, and highlights the social dimension of books and reading as a lifestyle. By connecting with locations that already carried the title of World Book Capital, Pula assimilates their positive experiences, multiplies long-term cultural impacts of their programmes, reinforces the existing literary connections and establishes new relationships. The promotion of reading as a worldview and lifestyle, the promotion of book – regardless of the change of format and migration from the material to the virtual system – as fundamental determinants of one’s social and cultural progress, as a bridge between the past and the future are important guidelines of the programme concept. Such orientation is reflected in year-long and month-long continuous programmes which place the book outside its usual scope, put it somewhere unexpected, make it visible in innovative programme outlines and formats: Book in the Arena, Book Capitals’ Shipload, I ladri di biciclettte, Metaphor Bazaar, Bookship in Pula Waters, Pula and Istria Book Roads, Bookhouses, Pula’s Corso – Book of Quotes, Book Graffiti in Rojc, Drio l’Arena – Pula’s Montmartre, Listen to a Book with Coffee, Sleeping with a Book, Attention – Writer in the City.

Cultural infrastructure, renovated or built during the book capital term of office – a literature house, integration of existing subculture spaces, Pula and Istria book routes in the footsteps of Joyce, Mann, Dante, Cankar, Krleža, but also a trip to the world of incunabulae, old and rare books and an insight into the world of Istrian Glagolitic priests, library night shifts – will remain a permanent good of the city and region, while newly founded and strengthened networks of literary connections ensure the continuity of creation and mediation of cultural contents within national and international boundaries. Widespread support from the highest-ranking state, county and city institutions, NGOs and professional associations, numerous local and foreign partners, unanimous support from all stakeholders in the book chain, from authors, publishers and booksellers to libraries and schools testify of the quality of the programme and guarantee professional implementation. Pre-assured financial support guarantees good and feasible implementation of the envisaged programmes.

PULA – THE CITY OF FUGITIVES

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ula was born, survived and persisted by work of fugitives, as a refuge and haven of European migrants, refugees and vagrants... It was this nomadic destiny that created a polis, generated a city and accompanied it all until these virtual times, carved it into stones, inscribed in on parchments, wrote it in books and stored it on computers. The Mediterranean (Adriatic) and Central European settlement in the very centre of Europe sprang out of a mythopoeic legend (the perseverant fate of Pula all until these days) about the Argonauts, golden fleece, Colchian race, Jason’s flight and persecution and the unsuccessful quest for Medea, was written in two elegiac couplets by a famed Hellenic poet and man on the source of all the knowledge of the existing world, the

Alexandrian librarian Callimachus of Cyrene (320-240 BC): “They calmed their oars on the river of Illyria, By the gravestone of the blond Harmony-Serpent, And founded a city: a Greek would say - a ‘City of Fugitives’, But in their tongue they called it Pula.”

IT ALL BEGAN 3000 YEARS AGO

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here was life in the lowest, southernmost part of Istria, in the suburbs of today’s Pula, in a paleontological cave of Šandalja some 28 thousand years ago, but an organised social community, a citadel on the location of today’s Kaštel, which would in time become the core of the future city, was built by the Histri,

pre-Roman inhabitants of Istria who gave it a permanent name, at the dawn of the first millennium before Christ (around that time there were another five fortified settlements – Muzil, Monte Zaro, Šijana and Štinjan). The tribe of Histri (and their brave Histrian king Epulon), as well as their citadels were destroyed and devastated by Roman legions (the nearby Nesactium, 177 BC). The Romans established a government, created a military post, a trade empire, an economic and leisure province.

ANTIQUE PULA

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he gradual urban (planning) formation of Pula (defensive walls with gates, squares and streets, residential and public structures, cultural and athletic facilities, parks

and playgrounds...) began in the Antique period, with the establishment of Pietas Iulia, the Roman colony in Caesar’s time (in the mid-first century BC). The greatest thrive occurred during the rule of Septimius Severus in the late second and early third century, when it had approximately twenty thousand inhabitants and was deemed, in addition to Salona (the central city of the Roman Dalmatia), the largest settlement on the east Adriatic coast. The Roman government (especially the rule of Augustus and Vespasian) is to be thanked for the still existing construction ornaments, Pula’s antique monuments: the sixth largest amphitheatre in the world (history, i.e. the legend says that emperor Vespasian, inebriated with love, completed the monumental Arena whose construction began in the time of emperor Claudius to honour his magnificent lover, a beautiful woman from Pula, the intelligent libertina Antonia Cenida), city walls, Forum, Small Roman Theatre (the Great Roman Theatre at Monte Zaro was used in the Medieval period to build the fortified citadel on Kaštel), temple of Augustus, Arch of the Sergii, Gate of Hercules and Twin Gate...

PULA’S LITTERATI

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he scattered antique stone monuments and carved titles and writings manifestly speak of the broadness of Roman civilisation and

Latin alphabet in the Pula area (and Istria), as well as of the literacy of Pula’s inhabitants. With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Pula changed sovereigns, languished in term of population and waited, almost devastated, for a new period of urbanity. In the late 6th century, the ethnic map of Istria, including Pula, was divided in three cultures: Roman, Germanic and Slavic, while logically resulting political conflicts, civilisation, cultural and ethnic diversities and tensions attempted to find peace in Placitum Risanum, dating from 804.

THE FIRST CROATIAN INTELLECTUAL: HERMAN DALMATIN

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he oldest Croatian scholar, philosopher and natural scientist, the first Istrian western-oriented intellectual, Herman Dalmatin lived in the first half of the 12th century. He was a direct and insightful translator of Arabian texts (Jacques Le Goff) into Latin (Fatidica, Kur’an, Introductorium in astronomiam...) and the original author of philosophical (De essentiis, A Discussion of Essences, 1143), scientific, astronomical and astrological works, born somewhere in the Istrian mainland (around 1110), where he spent his childhood (speaking most probably in the archaic

ča-dialect like all the central Istrian children of the time) and acquired basic education in Benedictine abbeys and monasteries in Pula, Poreč, Motovun or Sv. Petar u Šumi. He was further educated at the famous School of Chartres (mentored by master Thierry), where he became acquainted with seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music, after which he travelled across the Middle East and worked at scriptoriums all over Europe: Toledo, Leon, Chartres, Toulouse, Beziers...

CROATIAN ALPHABET: GLAGOLITIC SCRIPT

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he Croatian people’s medieval alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet, was widespread since the 11th century and appeared in missals, breviaries, collections, liturgical manuscripts and frescoes as graffiti. Glagolitic writings are recorded on the Plomin tablet, Supetar and Grdoselo fragments. Later, breviaries and missals from Hum, Roč (Vid Omišljanin’s Breviary, 1396), Draguć, Beram, Barban, as well as the collection of legends Fragments of Pazin and numerous city and municipality statues were written in both Latin and Croatian. The travelogue and document Istrian Book of Boundaries, dating from the turn of the 14th century, on land demarcation in Istrian rural communes and feudal farms, was written

in three languages: Latin, German and Croatian, all testifying of a high level of literacy. The most popular works of medieval European literature were translated and edited in Istria, thus bridging the European West (especially Bohemia, followed by Italy and France) and the Slavic South and East. Throughout several centuries, Istria was the incubator of medieval literary texts. Many of them were not preserved in Croatian language and alphabet, while some became part of other Slavic national literatures (Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian).

MEDIEVAL DOWNFALL OF THE CITY

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uring the Venetian rule in the Middle Ages, Pula was ravaged by “forty epidemics of plague, among which those in 1371, 1437, 1527 and 1631 had disastrous consequences. The collapse of the old city with nine gates and nine urban areas continued at an unstoppable pace. Its walls and building already deteriorated, its population was decimated, its economy ruined. Venetian rectors and accidental by-passers gave it an unprepossessing name: ‘corpse-city’, ‘carcass-city’ (città cadavero). For centuries Pula was enwrapped in malarian swamps and piles of weed-overgrown ruins; aside from the already mentioned plague, it was pillaged by malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, measles, various fevers, intestinal and kidney diseases, illnesses

as a consequence of ill-nourishment etc. Pula was a city reeking of shallow graves...” (Miroslav Bertoša).

DANTE IN THE HELL OF PULA

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omewhere in those plagued and pestilent times, in the early 14th century, starting from 1302, the perennially persecuted master of Italian poetry Dante Alighieri visited Pula (albeit Bernardo Benussi mentioned 1320 as the year of his visit). Seeing it from a top of a hill (probably the former St. Michael’s monastery), he could not help but include the scene filled with tombstones and remnants of a Roman necropolis in his Divine Comedy precisely in the darkest sepulchral reign of Hell (Inferno, IX, 112-115): “Even as at Arles, where stagnant grows the Rhone,   Even as at Pola near to the Quarnaro,   That shuts in Italy and bathes its borders, The sepulchres make all the place uneven;“

FIRST PRINTED BOOK IN CROATIA

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he first printed copy of Missale Romanum Glagolitice (the first missal in Europe not printed in Latin language and alphabet) and also the first Croatian and South Slavic book,

was edited for press in Istria in 1482, while the printing process was completed on 22 February 1483, most probably in Roč, Izola or Venice, only 28 years after Gutenberg’s invention. The Croatian first edition of Missale is one of the most beautiful incunables in history, printed in black and red on a parchment. Only eleven incomplete copies were preserved (five in Zagreb, two in Vatican and one on the island of Brač, in Vienna, Washington, D.C., and Saint Petersburg). The editor and proof-reader was the Istrian glagolitic priest žakan Juraj (or Juri) from the town of Roč, who wrote in exhilaration: “Vita, vita! Štampa naša gori gre! Tako ja oću, da naša gori gre...” (“There you go! Our printing is making progress! That’s what I want to see, our printing making progress!”). Istrian printers from Koper, Motovun and Buzet (while Pula was struggling with plague) belonged to the very beginning of European printing press tradition. The book was popularised by Benedictine, Franciscan and Pauline monks. The early 16th century, the protestant times, saw the printing of works by bishop Petrus Paulus Vergerius from Koper, musician Andrija Antico from Motovun, scientist and doctor Santorio Santorio from Koper, friar Baldo Lupetina from Labin etc.

MICHELANGELO IN FRONT OF THE ARCH

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edieval cultural pundits and artists knew Pula’s secrets well. “In the renaissance period Pula preserved an exceptional allure; almost like a lighthouse radiating antique beauty. Most renowned architects of the time would visit it and study its monuments. One of them was Fra Giocondo, which is evidenced by the drawing from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Just like Dante, Michelangelo also visited Pula: among the sketches of the famed master preserved at Wicar Museum in Lille, there is one representing the Arch of the Sergii with painstakingly documented measures which could only be made on the spot. Other artists followed in his footsteps, such as Giovanni Maria Falconetto, Baldassare Peruzzi, Iacopo Sansovino, Sebastiano Serlio, Andrea Palladio.” (Bernardo Benussi)

REFORMER MATTHIAS FLACIUS ILLYRICUS

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he best known Croatian protestant theologian, master of liberal arts, teacher of Greek and Hebrew, Istrian author (writing attempts in ča-dialect), ardent advocate and defender of the Reformation and close collaborator of Martin Luther, conceptual

instigator of a fight against the Pope, Matija Vlačić Ilirik or Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575), born in Labin, in his theological, philological, philosophical and similar works (Ecclesiastica historia, Clavis Scripturae, Sacrae, Catalogus testium veritatis, Centuriae Magdeburgenses...) regularly underlined his Istrian fatherland: “Istria mia dulcissima patria”. Stjepan Konzul, an Istrian from Buzet, at that time diligently wrote, translated, edited and printed numerous Croatian books in Glagolitic, Cyrillic and Latin alphabet. Somewhat later, counter-reformer and linguist Franjo Glavinić (1586-1650) from Kanfanar renewed Catholicism in his work Czvit szvetih. Enlightenment thinker Josip Voltić (1750-1825) from Tinjan lived in Vienna and translated from French, Italian, German and Latin and wrote in these languages as well. His best known works is Ričoslovnik iliričkoga, italijanskoga i nimačkoga jezika (Dictionary of Illyric, Italian and German Language). Petar Stanković from Barban (17711853), a historian, book lover and erudite, wrote around twenty books mainly in Italian, including Bibliografia degli uomini distinti dell’Istria.

PULA – A CITY AGAIN

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nder the aegis of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Pula became a city again, just like it was during the Roman Empire, and a growing military, naval and urban

centre of the Austrian empire (Cisleithania), experiencing a thrive in every possible aspect, including culture. On 9 December 1856 Pula was officially proclaimed the central harbour of the Austrian navy and was consequentially restored the status of a city, at that time Austrian and today as it is, which is a date worthy of particular and every attention. Austria renewed Pula’s health and economy, leisure and entertainment, art and culture with a single word: urbanity. Thanks to the building developer and philanthropist Pietro Ciscutti (1822-1890), on 28 December 1854, a small theatre named Teatro Nuovo was opened (300 places, quite enough for the city’s needs at the time). Some thirty years later the benevolent Ciscutti (who came to Pula in 1847 to work as a blacksmith, but soon began pursuing moneymaking entrepreneurial ventures and acquired great possessions which he generously bequeathed to the urban and cultural vision of Pula), again at his own expense, erected in the early 1880s a multi-purpose theatre, officially opened on 24 September 1881, which could host 800 people: orchestra stalls, two tiers of boxes, a balcony and a standing amphitheatre, today’s Istrian National Theatre.

JURAJ DOBRILA, THE NATIONALIST

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omewhat more to the North of Pula, a bishop and national revival thinker Juraj Dobrila from Tinjan region wrote a Croatian book of prayers Otče, budi volja tvoja (Father, Thy Will Be Done) (1854), which has until this day lived to see over twenty editions and often served many Istrians as a beginner’s textbook for reading and writing in Croatian. The Croatian national weekly “Naša sloga” (1870) with texts by Matko Laginja, Vjekoslav Spinčić, Matko Bastijan, Antun Kalac also appeared... Those were the times of many Italian historians, archaeologists and writers, who devoted their work to Pula and Istria: Pietro Kandler, Domenico Rossetti, Michele Fachinetti, Carlo De Franceschi, Bernardo Benussi, Giuseppe Caprin, Marco Tamaro, Giuseppe Picciola...

MODERN EUROPEAN CITY

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ula, a city that in the 1860s had almost no traffic connections with the world, at the turn of the century became a well-connected place. It was reachable by train (since 1876), steamboat or bus. In 1871 the Hydrographical Institute building was completed, housing the following departments: Observatory, Instrument Department, Maritime Charts Department and Maritime Library (Marine

Bibliothek). The meteorological observatory began making daily weather forecast charts as early as in 1874. An Art Nouveau market was built in the city centre in 1903, representing a construction marvel of steel and glass, and in 1904 an electric tram took a ride through Pula... The first Pula daily journal in Italian, Il giornaletto di Pola, became active on 25 June 1900, a German daily newspaper Polaer Tagblatt was first issued on 15 October 1905, and the Croatian journal Hrvatski list was being published from 1 July 1915, as well as other weekly journals and magazines... Environment cultivation, mild climate, rich heritage of preserved numerous antique monuments, museums (naval, military, archaeological...), theatres, cinemas, music halls, cabarets, hotels, restaurants, coffee places and the close proximity of Kupelwieser’s Brijuni islands made the city an important tourist destination in the early 20th century. At that time, Pula was the second largest city (after Zagreb) in the entire area from Drava river to the sea (in 1910 the city had 58,562 inhabitants, or 86,873 together with the suburbs).

JOHANN PALISA: PULA IN THE SKIES

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t only 24 years of age, in 1872 Johann Palisa became the head of the Maritime Observatory in Pula. He was one of the finest observers of the world and universe; with

only a modest telescope and instruments, in 1874 he discovered his first asteroid and named it (136) Austria. This discovery included AustroHungary on the list of countries that participated in asteroid discovery and the very same year the emperor himself honoured him with the Order of Franz Joseph. Until 1880 (when he joined the Vienna Observatory), Palisa discovered a total of 28 planets (asteroids) from his Pula base, some of which were named after Pula or Istria: (142) Polana, (143) Adria and (183) Istria. In 1880 he accepted the emperor’s offer to work with a newly installed telescope, at that time the largest in the world, at the Vienna Observatory. There he discovered another 94 new asteroids until the end of his career, making it a total of 122 small space objects and becoming their greatest discoverer using visual method. A relief structure on the Id asteroid, discovered by Palisa in 1884 (from Vienna) was named Pola Region.

HERMANN NOORDUNG: PULA IN THE ORBIT

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erman Potočnik was born on 22 December 1892 in Pula. His parents were of Slovenian origin – father, doctor and official, from Slovenj Gradec, and mother from Maribor. His father passed away at a very young age, in 1894, so the mother and her four children first moved to her brother in Vitanje and then

to Maribor, where Herman finished elementary school. He attended military high schools in Fischau and Hranica (in Moravia) and then graduated from the Technical Military Academy in Mödling near Vienna. During World War I he served in Galicia, Serbia, Bosnia and Soča. When the war ended, he was retired as a captain due to severe health issues. He again enrolled in the study of engineering at the Vienna Polytechnic and in 1925 obtained a degree in rocket technology. After graduation he moved in with his brother in Vienna and devoted all of his time to rocket and space theory, technology and technique. Late in 1928 he published the book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums – Das Raketen-motor under the pseudonym of Hermann Noordung, which became the central (and pioneering) work of astronautics, space flights and rocket technology. Devastated by tuberculosis and poverty, he died in Vienna on 27 August 1929. Only many years later he received exceptional acknowledgment for the development of astronautics.

JAMES JOYCE’S PULA EPISODE

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elf-sufficient and still passionately in love, young Nora Barnacle and James Joyce arrived in Pula on a steamboat from Trieste (where he lost a promised job) on Sunday morning, 30 October 1904, the very same day of the inauguration of a monument dedicated to empress Elisabeth, Franz Joseph’s wife and widely popular Sissi, in the park in front of the Arena. (Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni stuck a long, thin needle file straight into the empress’s sixty-twoyear-old heart while she was casually strolling with her ladies-in-waiting along the Geneva Lake on 10 September 1898. When she later took off her corset, she bled to death.) “He would always write lying on his back, so it never occurred to me that he was writing in earnest. This young man was incessantly ironic and arrogant. I think he underrated us all,” said later Amalija Globočnik, Joyce’s landlord, a secretary and Croatian linguist at Berlitz School of Language in Pula, where Joyce taught 16 English classes a week. The arrogant Joyce disliked many things, so why not the heinous and far-flung Pula as well? He considered it “a coastal Siberia”, where he ended up not on his own free will, but accidentally, as a punishment: “I will try to move to Italy as soon as possible, because I detest this Catholic country and its hundred nations and thousand languages...” The

time stretch Joyce spent in Pula, mesmerised and enthralled with Nora’s private parts (James and Nora’s son Giorgio/George, conceived in Pula, was born on 27 July 1905 in Trieste) and occasionally writing at coffee shops, was terminated in less than four and a half months, when the lovers returned to Trieste.

THRIVING ISTRIAN LITERATURE

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ugen Kumičić from Brseč was the one to introduce Istrian novel into Croatian literature. His works Začuđeni svatovi and Jelkin bosiljak analyse the environment of Istria and Primorje region. Matko Laginja collected Croatian folk poetry from the region in his work Hrvatske narodne pjesme što se pjevaju po Istri i kvarnerskih otocih. Antun Tentor described the rural Istria in his prose works (Sa zapadnih strana: Ljubav na prijevaru, Suvišna usta). Poet Rikard Katalinić Jeretov used a simple lyrical expression in his poetry collections Pozdrav istarskog Hrvata, S moje lire, Našim morem i našim krajem to unpretentiously celebrate Istria and Istrian mankind. Istrian life is featured in the works of narrator, novelist, journalist and playwright Viktor Car Emin. His heroes are politically involved in the national movement and Istrian issue (Pusto ognjište, Usahlo vrelo, Nove borbe, Iza plime,

Presječeni puti...). After spending time in Istria, Vladimir Nazor left a significant body of prose works on Istrian subjects: Veli Jože, Istarske priče, Istarski gradovi, Krvavi dani, and Franjo Horvat Kiš, originally from Zagorje region wrote an impressive travelogue Istarski puti.

FROM PULA TO DEATH IN VENICE



What he was looking for was the unfamiliar and unrelated, which was indeed reached rather easily and so he stayed on a celebrated Adriatic island, situated not far from the Istrian coast, with a gaily ragged people that conversed in an alien-sounding language and with picturesquely broken cliffs where the sea was open. Unfortunately, heavy rain and an oppressive atmosphere, a parochial and completely Austrian company in the hotel and the lack of calm and easy communion with the sea which only a softsloping and sandy beach can afford, caused him distress, prevented in him the feeling that he had reached his destination; an innermost calling of his, he did not know to where, caused him alarm, he studied the passenger ship routes, he looked around searchingly, and all of a sudden, at the same time surprising and expected, his destination became clear to him. When one wanted to see something without equal, the romantically

different, where would one go? There could be no question about it. What was he supposed to do here? He had erred. He should have had travelled to that other location in the first place. He did not hesitate to immediately cancel his abortive stay on the island. One-and-a-half weeks after his arrival on the island, at hazy dawn a fast lunch took him and his luggage back to the military harbour and there he only went ashore to directly step onto the damp deck of a ship bound for Venice.” The protagonist is Aschenbach, the hotel is the Neptun, the island is Veliki Brijun, the military port is Pula, the novella is Death in Venice, and the author Thomas Mann really arrived to the glamorous destination and medical centre, the Brijuni islands across the fishing village of Fažana, near Pula, early in May 1911 (more accurately, on 5 May), when Venice witnessed several cases of cholera. Exhausted and burnt out, with indicative health issues, together with his wife Katja and brother Heinrich he decided to take a rest and regain health on the islands of Brijuni, already a popular medical destination. However, his expectations failed him, rain was pouring and a southern wind was blowing incessantly. Besides, he found out from the Viennese press, which attentively reported on the progress of Gustav Mahler’s illness, that the famous Austrian composer passed away on 18 May. Shocked and deeply touched by the news of Mahler’s death, he

left the island and returned to Venice on 20 May 1911. The next year he published his most famous novella, Death in Venice.

AUSTRIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM AUTHOR: PAULA VON PRERADOVIĆ

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ustrian-Croatian writer Paula von Preradović, the granddaughter of Croatian writer Petar Preradović, was born on 12 October 1887 in Vienna, but lived in Pula since the age of two, because her father Dušan, an officer in the Imperial and Royal Navy, was transferred in 1898 to the main Austrian military harbour. In Pula she finished elementary school and civil school Marinenschule, where all senior and junior ranked officers’ children were schooled. Afterwards she left for Sankt Pölten, to a Catholic boarding school of the female order of English ladies. After graduation, she returned home. A literary youth circuit was being formed at the time in Pula, and Paula acted in the very centre of it. Marine Casino was the centre of social and spiritual life, new magazines arrived there and discussions often continued well into the night. In 1913 she left Pula for good and went to Munich on a one-year class in nursing, after which she moved to Vienna, where she applied

for a post at the Military Hospital and there met her future husband, historian and docent, doctor Ernst Molden. She died on 25 May 1951 in Vienna. During her lifetime she published several collections of poetry and prose and earned her fame as the author of text for the new Austrian national anthem in 1947, Land der Berge, Land am Strome (Land of hillsides, land of rivers). She wrote an autobiographical novel Kindheit am Meer (Childhood at the sea), in which she remembered her childhood in Pula, her ‘lost fatherland’.

LITERARY GUESTS OF PULA AND BRIJUNI

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aul Kupelwieser bought, renovated and restored a derelict malarian archipelago (Nobel prize winner Robert Koch eradicated malaria in the early 20th century) and turned Brijuni into an appealing medical centre and glamorous tourist destination with attractive contents, which became a meeting point of European and global cultural, scientific, political, military, economic, aristocratic and all other greats. In addition to numerous artists (if we stick to culture), famous and significant painters, sculptors, architects, musicians, composers, directors and actors (listing them would take a considerable amount of space), the islands and Pula quite often hosted the literary geniuses of the

time: the already mentioned James Joyce, Thomas and Heinrich Mann, Hermann Bahr (playwright, narrator, travel writer, essayist, critic, journalist, director, author of Dalmatinsko putovanje), Ernst Decsey (writer and music critic), Ivan Cankar (poet and prose writer), Hanns Heinz Ewers (prose writer, playwright, screenwriter, eccentric, occasional drug addict, erotomaniac, a short-term Nazi, known for his sci-fi novel about ants Ameisen and the most translated one Alraune, passed away with last words “What an ass I was!”), Emillie Exner-Ewarten (feminist writer), Felix Falzari (prose writer and poet, whose tales and short stories often touch on Pula and Istrian subjects, librettist for Lehar’s opera Kukuschka, frigate captain), Friedrich Freska (playwright, novelist, satirist), Franz Karl Gizney (poet, children’s writer, Pula-born, recalling his childhood and army service as an officer in his autobiography Der Heimatsucher), Fritz Otto Herzmanovsky (writer and painter), Wielhelm Kienzl (composer and writer), Alfred Henschke Klabund (writer, journalist, playwright, art historian, censored for immorality, published 76 books of poems, plays, novels, translations of far-eastern poetry), Karl Kraus (playwright, essayist, critic, journalist, fierce debater, publisher, editor and often the only author featured in Die Fackel, held a public lecture on 8 November 1913 at a newly opened Riviera Hotel in Pula), Paul Maria Lacroma (German and Italian writer), Karol Lanckoronski (writer and

art collector, count and art patron), Felix Salten (children’s writer, author of Bambi), Hugo Salus (short story writer and lyricist), Alice Schalek (writer, author of novels pertaining to Brijuni), Arthur Schnitzler (writer and doctor, famous representative of Viennese modernism, often criticised and banned), George Bernard Shaw (writer, playwright, satirist, Nobel Prize and Oscar winner), Karl von Thaler (journalist, playwright, prose writer, editor of Viennese newspaper Neue Frei Presse), Rudolf Tyrolt (actor, director, writer), Jakob Wassermann (writer and critic, the most popular German-writing author of the 1920s and 1930s), Felix Weingartner (composer, conductor and music writer) etc.

WORLD WAR I: THE FIRST EXODUS

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arly in July 1914, the Minerva cinema in Pula screened the documentary film Sahrana nadvojvode prijestolonasljednika i grofice of Hohenberga and Sarajevska drama, announcing the tentative future of the Dual Monarchy. Only a month after Gavrilo Princip’s young Bosnian “Sarajevo Drama”, World War I began. The army needed to organise appropriate resistance at the main Austrian military harbour and thus gain freedom in warfare, which was why a decision was reached: all population unfit for

work or war would be evacuated – women, older men and children. In the mid-May and June 1915, mainly the inhabitants of Pula and Pula region were evacuated to the Monarchy mainland – Austria, Hungary, Moravia and Bohemia. Over 26 thousand people from the city and suburbs are estimated to have been evacuated.

of the favourable (according to fascist criteria), Pula welcomed World War II as a cleansed and Italianised city, inhabited in a large (almost absolute) majority by Italians and Italianised Croats. In that period, between 15 and 20 thousand Croats left Pula, which amounted to 25 thousand Pula citizens including other ethnicities.

FASCISM: THE SECOND EXODUS

ISTRIAN LITERATURE IN EXILE

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he former European Pula began losing pace in all aspects during the fascist rule. The fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy put the city’s modernisation and urbanisation process to a halt and Pula became an ailing, decadent and depopulated city of destroyed economy, impoverished culture and deregulated social relations – multiculturalism vanished. The forsaken Italian parochial region, a random Istrian province with Pula as the centre, was now a backward colony and an unwanted tailpiece of the Kingdom of Italy. A long-term and permanent exodus of Pula citizens in the interwar fascist period ensued, unlike the first, this time mainly Croats and other non-Italian inhabitants (political and ethnic repression) and economically jeopardised citizens (disastrous economic urban policy) were compelled to migrate. Through forced emigration of the unfavourable and immigration

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talian literature in Pula and Istria in the interwar period (the fascist era) left almost no trace, unlike Croatian, i.e. Istrian literature in emigration. Mijo Marković, better known under his pseudonym of Mate Balota, did not leave a comprehensive body of literary work, but his poetry collection Dragi kamen left a recognisable and permanent mark in Croatian dialect (čadialect) poetry. However, his memoir and essayist prose and non-fiction in Stara pazinska gimnazija and Puna je Pula, and an awe-inspiring monograph about Mathias Flacius Illyricus, Flacius, left a powerful creative impression. Ante Dukić (structurally modern novel Iz dnevnika jednog magarca), Ernest Radetić (initiator of Istria, emigration magazine in Zagreb, who also published a collection of short stories Kad se užge mlada krv), journalist Ante Mihovilović (prolific writer, who published around fifty acclaimed

poems in the official Croatian što-dialect in a 1930s periodical), Tone Peruško (author of youth literary prose Sumraci pod Učkom and a series of sketches and feuilletons), Ante Ciliga (published Štorice iz Proštine, writing his political non-fiction and memoirs with a distinguished literary touch), Drago Gervais (author of original and creative collection Čakavski stihovi) also wrote and created outside their native Istria.

YUGOSLAVIA: THE THIRD EXODUS

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fter the fascist Italy capitulated in 1943, after the Nazi Third Reich occupation, after the Allies and their ruthless bombardment, and after the Partisan liberation, Pula was assigned to a temporary two-year Anglo-American Ally government, as a starving and disfigured city divided into Italian and/ or Yugoslav orientation. The final international decision reached in 1947 that Pula be a part of Yugoslav Croatia instigated in the past century another, third wave of mass emigration in the already exodus-stricken city, mostly Italians, but also Croats and Slovenes who had a hard time placing their trust in the communists (about 28 thousand citizens). The city remained ransacked, abandoned and devastated, a ghost city, a city of closed shops, houses with closed or no shutters, a

city of empty streets and deserted parks. Judging by the population, destroyed industrial plants and infrastructure, Pula literally went a hundred years back, to the pre-industrial era. For a moment, the city ceased to exist.

SOCIALIST CULTURE

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he post-war cultural activity in Pula (and Istria) all until the late fifties (just like in the rest of Yugoslavia) struggled to carry the heavy burden of politicisation and ideological indoctrination, which reflected in the socialist realist slogan “culture to the people”. This cultural and ethnic turning point, discontinuity and break-up with the previous cultural identity represented an attempt to create a different urban identity. After the departure of old bourgeoisie and the arrival of new (primarily military, rural and petit-bourgeois) inhabitants, Pula became an entirely new city. A city of different social and cultural determinants, and after cleaning the remaining bombed ruins, a city of different urban planning solutions. Culture lost all spontaneity and autonomy and became an entirely political construct. Communist agitation and propaganda (Agitprop) on all levels of the Party’s committee created a new, general, people’s, socialist culture “for the people and by the people”, culture to the measure of the socialist man. Still, realising that the Arena could be utilised for top-rate cultural

(and beloved socialist mass) events, the City of Pula People’s Committee (with Party suggestions) decided to organise an Opera Festival (Italian heritage) and somewhat later, in 1954, a festival of national film that later became an acknowledged European Festival of Yugoslav Film (today’s Pula Film Festival, the seventh oldest and longest lasting film festival in Europe).

PULA’S UNDERGROUND SCENE

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ugoslavian opening to the world in the 1960s and later, when it was considered one of the most accessible countries in the world, brought Pula a series of economic, mass culture and tourist benefits. Pula became the most prominent national example of parallel development in both tourism and industry. Ethnic changes in the city’s population were crucial, not only in the sense of a complete disappearance of the former cultural identity, but also in the sense of an ever-growing cultural influence of the newcomers. Acculturation of the new population was gradual and incomplete, due to the nonexistence of a consistent cultural policy in the specific social conditions of an ethnically mixed population. On the other hand, instead of a planned official culture, in this Yugoslavian military mainstay, a military (or garrison) city in every aspect, the second generation of

newcomers and the offspring of the indigenous population developed an important (thanks also to the closeness of West, particularly Trieste), acknowledged, powerful rock (later also punk) and alternative cultural scene (theatre, film, literature, art), a social and cultural phenomenon that has not yet been systematically analysed, neither on the scientific level, nor on the level of urban cultural past.

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE OF PULA AND ISTRIA

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he most prolific and diverse Croatian writer from Istria in the second half of the 20th century was definitely Zvane Črnja, a poet, essayist, debater, culturologist, journalist, playwright, the founder of Čakavski sabor and initiator of the edition Istra kroz stoljeća. In the ča-dialect of Žminj region he wrote the poetry collections Žminjski libar and Bezak na tovare. In terms of essays, he proved as a brave and curious erudite: Kulturna povijest Hrvatske, Hrvatski don Kihoti and Pogled iz provincije. He also wrote a non-fiction book Obećana zemlja. Contemporary Croatian writers from Istria made an attempt at all genres, especially in Pula as a cultural and literary centre, and those who made a name for themselves were, in particular,

Tatjana Arambašin, Stjepan Vukušić, Miroslav Sinčić, Milan Rakovac, Daniel Načinović, Boris Domagoj Biletić, Edo Budiša etc. In the last half a century, Pula and Istria had their own contemporary literary magazines: Istarski borac, Ibor, Istarski mozaik and Istra, and today Nova Istra. After the third exodus (similarly to Croatia after the second exodus), Italian literature in Istria also gained momentum among both refuge and indigenous Istrian Italians. Writers (both prose and poetry) who explored the memories of war and persecutions, border (co-native) and nostalgia themes, as well as contemporary issues emerged: Ligio Zanini, Eros Sequi, Giacomo Scotti, Fulvio Tomizza, Lucifero Martini, Giusto Curto, Claudio Ugussi, Mario Schiavato, Nelida Milani-Kruljac, Loredana Bogliun, Laura Marchig etc. A quarterly magazine for culture and literature La Batana is an important promoter of Italian literature in Istria.

BOOK FAIR(Y) IN PULA, ISTRIA

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ula has welcomed the seventh (sic!) state (administration) in the 20th century (after Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, a short-term Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Kingdom of Italy, Third Reich, Anglo-American government, Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, Republic of Croatia and the third war, Croatian

War of Independence). The year when the war in Croatia ended, in December 1995, in a time of calming down, great hopes and expectations of something new, the Book Fair(y) in Istria was launched as an independent cultural project of a few creative bookloving people from Pula’s Castropola bookshop. In 18 years of existence, the Fair became the pivotal junction of books and authors in Croatia and the region. The fair where people dream of books created an authentic model of presentation of both books and writers. Located in the very centre of Pula (in the antique period it would at the entrance of the former Great Theatre), at the Austrian Art Nouveau palace of Marine Kasino (Croatian Veterans House), this fair is quite different from conventional (European) book fairs located in large industrial halls. Its decadent appearance and display style nostalgically evoke the times when reading took place at salons and books were carefully examined prior to their purchase at bookshops, kept and managed by book lovers and connoisseurs, owners endowed with culture and broad education. In the late 1990s, the Fair was the first venue in Croatia to open a platform for meetings between publishers and authors from Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and later Montenegro. Such programmatic orientation made it the centre

of regional culture and writers’ meeting point. Each year there are 300 participating publishers from Croatia and the region and an enormous number of bookloving visitors (around 60,000, which equals the number of inhabitants), there are more than 80 events (book presentations, professional meetings, roundtables, performances, exhibitions, theatre plays, concerts, film screenings...), with more than 200 participating authors, translators, editors, musicians, actors... Today it is the largest authors’ festival in SouthEastEurope. Still, this Fair and the Festival of Book and Authors made a name for themselves thanks to the great personalities of the global literary and art scene such as Orhan Pamuk, Umberto Eco, Claudio Magris, Peter Esterhazy, Kenneth White, Irwin Welsh, Tess Gallagher, Michal Viewegh, Jiři Menzel, Dacia Maraini, Alberto Manguel etc. Special original programmes taking place at all cultural venues in the city, as well as intriguing annual themes, generate wide attention and interest of both professional audience and readership. The most prominent focal points of the Fair were: Power of Women and Literature (on the boundary between trivial and literary women’s writing), Writer as Traveller (a discussion on the reception of Croatia and its cultural heritage

outside the country), Crime Novel (a popular literary genre with theoretical reception), Poetry (the perseverance of poetry in the world of today), The Other Balkan (assumptions and prejudices about the geographic and cultural space of the Balkans), Literary Nomads (nomadism in literature, multiculturalism, national and transnational literatures), Book and Film (interconnection between film, literature and book), Identity Drama – Drama’s Identity (theatre in literature and the question of identity in theatre)... The Book Fair(y) in Istria is not only a place of writers and publishers presentation, every year it also creates its own original materials: publishes books, produces documentary films, theatre plays, performances, exhibitions, concerts etc. The Fair also launched three autonomous important cultural projects: Monte Librić, a festival of children’s books (the largest children’s book fair in Croatia), Kiklop literary prize (our national, Croatian book Oscar) and the Polis festival (multimedia festival dedicated to books). The Book Fair(y) in Istria and its special literary programmes are active throughout the entire year (Sa(n)jam knjige u Castropoli), which makes it unique.

APPENDIX: BRIEF HISTORY OF LIBRARIES IN PULA AND ISTRIA

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he first larger libraries in Istria were established in the medieval Benedictine, Franciscan and Pauline monasteries. Most of these monasteries were closed in the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century, and their libraries were confiscated or sold at public auctions. The oldest preserved library is located at the Franciscan monastery in Pazin, established in 1481: around 2,200 book volumes were preserved, including four incunables and thirty 16th century volumes. The library of the Franciscan monastery in Rovinj was founded in the 18th century and kept around 9,000 volumes, including fifty-one 16th century volumes. Around 2,500 volumes of old books from the former Benedictine monastery in Dajla, abolished by the government in 1948, are now kept at the University Library in Pula and the Pazin Collegium library. The first known private library was the one owned by the bishop of Poreč Ivan Porečan (15th century), while the bishop of Poreč Giovanni Negri also collected rare books (18th century). The largest and one of the oldest scientific libraries was the Naval Library, the central library

of the Austrian Navy, founded in 1802 in Venice and transferred to Pula in 1865-66. The largest part of its holdings (around 20,000 volumes) is preserved at the University Library in Pula. The oldest military library was the Austro-Hungarian Garrison Library in Pula, whose catalogue was published in 1866. A regional library in Istria was established in 1861 as an institution of the Regional Committee of Istria in Poreč (executive body of the Istrian Regional Parliament). Around 18,000 volumes from its holdings are kept in the Pula University Library. The oldest preserved public libraries are the former civic library in Poreč, with around 3,000 volumes (founded in 1810) and the one in Rovinj, with about 9,000 volumes (established in 1859, when canon Pietro Stancovich gave and bequeathed Rovinj about 4,000 volumes. His exlibris is visible on 2,896 volumes, with 84 of them being from the 16th century.). These are kept in these towns’ heritage museums. In the times of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, many Italian, Croatian, Slovenian and German schools had a library (printed library catalogues of Istrian high schools of the time were preserved). The largest library among cultural and educational associations was the one belonging to Marine Casino in Pula, founded in 1870, with around 25,000 volumes, which disappeared after World War I, except the 3,000 volumes kept at the Pula

University Library. The library of the association Società Istriana di Archeologia e Storia Patria (founded in 1884 in Poreč) possessed 3,277 volumes in 1930, when it was joined with the Istrian Regional Library. The most frequent phenomenon were libraries of readers’ associations intended for their members. In early 1900s they became public libraries for the people, which served to the enlightenment of broader social classes. Italian public libraries were also established and financed by municipalities with governing Italian liberal bourgeoisie (mainly in west-coast towns), however they did not procure books in Croatian. Therefore, in the early 1900s, Croatian intelligentsia, gathered in Croatian associations, began opening public libraries through book donations and contributions, manifestly nationally oriented (Opatija, Volosko, Pula, Pazin, Lovran, Buzet...). Between 1918 and 1943, Croatian and Slovenian libraries bothered Italian assimilation policy and were forcedly closed and the books which had not been hid in private homes were destroyed. On 13 July 1920, the Fascists burned books from the Public National Library in Pula (at the burned National House), which was one of the first fascist actions of public book burning in Europe. Public libraries in Buzet (1921) and Volosko (1922, with 3,500 books) were also destroyed, as well as

some school libraries comprising Croatian and Slovenian reading rooms. The total holdings of books and periodicals in public, educational, higher educational and specialised libraries (within scientific and cultural public institutions) encompasses about 1.600,000 volumes. The largest is the Pula University Library (established in 1949, with about 300,000 volumes). The Civic Library and Reading Room in Pula (founded in 1957, with about 153,000 volumes). Other national (public) libraries, established since the 1950s, are active within Buje, Buzet, Labin, Novigrad, Pazin, Poreč, Rovinj, Umag and Opatija polytechnics. Larger specialised libraries: Centre for Historical Research (Centro di ricerche storiche) in Rovinj (about 100,000 volumes), Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula (about 31,000 volumes), Institute of Marine Research in Rovinj (about 16,000 volumes; the library was founded in 1891), State Archive in Pazin (about 13,000 volumes) and Rovinj Heritage Museum (about 12,000 volumes). Two university-level libraries (about 28,000 volumes) are active within Pula and Opatija (15,000 volumes) universities. The largest military library is located at the Croatian Veterans’ House in Pula (about 25,000 volumes) and is open to the public. A rich regional collection is kept at the University Library in Pula and the Centre for Historical Research in Rovinj (Bruno Dobrić).

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he programme of Pula as the World Book Capital was inspired by Pula book fair, which in Croatian language carries in its name the word ‘dream’ – Sa(n)jam knjige u Istri (Book Fair(y) in Istria). It is a programme that twists and fails reality (mostly motivated by the manifold history of Pula and Istria) and creates an illusion of a book world that appears and disappears like a dream. In this dream anything is possible: a province becomes a centre, a footnote becomes a title, literary protagonists become real, and their authors become imaginary chimeras. For a moment, past becomes present, and our wishes and desires and all what is forgotten and repressed within us become reality. In this utterly imaginative approach to a book, everything surrounding it and pertaining to it, anything is possible, including a chance that a small or medium-sized town beyond all flows and book centres might become a World Book Capital. The programme is oriented towards and dedicated to the city, inspired by its eventful past, its multicultural and multi-linguist being and the space of Istria, its idiosyncrasies and peculiarities. The very beginning of the book celebration in Pula will be marked with yearlong or months-long continuous programmes that take the book out of its usual spaces and place it at most unusual locations.

This fantasy will most evidently reflect in the following programmes: Book in the Arena, Book Capitals’ Shipload, I ladri di biciclette, Metaphor Bazaar, Bookship in Pula Waters, Pula’s and Istria’s Book Itinerary, Bookhouses, Pula’s Corso – A Book of Quotes, Rojc Graffiti, Drio l’Arena – Pula’s Montmartre, Listen to a Book with Coffee, Sleeping with a Book, Attention – Writer in the City. The programme summarises and connects book-related programmes that traditionally take place in Pula and Istria with new programmes that will be launched the year when Pula becomes the World Book Capital. The greatest enterprise and the most lasting value will surely be the opening of the first Literature House in Croatia in September 2014, which will not belong only to Pula and Croatia, but act as a literary home to writers, publishers and translators from the broader region. Also, most of the listed events and programmes will continue well after 2014 and 2015 and become Pula’s permanent trademark.

BOOK IN THE ARENA The opening ceremony of the World Book Capital will take place on 23 April 2014 in Pula’s Arena. The two thousand years old, sixth largest and the best preserved European Arena can host 10,000 people. To enter the Arena on that day, the visitors will be required to purchase a book with the World Book Capital certificate. The certificate will be authorised to 1000 praiseworthy titles published by Croatian publishers, and for this occasion they will be on sale at the prices between 50 and 150 kuna (between 7 and 20 euro). Books/ tickets will be sold all over Pula and via Internet, as well as at the entrance to the Arena. The opening ceremony will begin by photographing 10,000 people in the Arena holding a book above their heads. Texts about books and the world book capital will be read by authors who made a name for Pula’s book festival: Orhan Pamuk, Umberto Eco, Claudio Magris, Peter Esterhazy and Croatian writers, ambassadors of Pula – World Book Capital: Predrag Matvejević, Viktor Žmegač, Slavenka Drakulić, Miljenko Jergović, Mirko Kovač...

The opening will be wrapped up with a large concert of a poet-musician – Nick Cave (or Leonard Cohen). This programme will mark the beginning of book celebration in the Arena.

GLAGOLITSA – THE OFFICIAL ALPHABET OF THE BOOK CAPITAL In the honour of Glagolitic priests who spread literacy in Istria since the 11th century and were pioneers of Gutenberg’s era, the alphabet they used – the Glagolitic alphabet – will that year be the official script of Pula – the World Book Capital. In 2014 and 2015 all over Pula various workshops of Glagolitic alphabet will take place, for all age groups. Pula Art School will organise a workshop in handmade paper (according to the ancient “recipe” of the Glagolitic priests) and how to use a quill for writing in Glagolitsa in the ancient manner. This paper will be offered to the visitors as “Pula Papyrus”, and a booklet serving as a textbook for learning the Glagolitsa will be available at all city checkpoints. In July, in the honour of Glagolitic

alphabet and the priests who introduced it, a performance Žakan Juri, directed by the acclaimed young choreographer from Pula, Matija Ferlin, will be organised along the Alley of the Glagolitic Priests, a seven-kilometre-long road between Roč and Hum with 11 Glagolitic monuments.

LITERATURE HOUSE Literature House will be located in the University Library building, which is moving to new premises in 2013. Citizens of Pula have always regarded the 1908 building, which hosted first the scientific, then the university library for 35 years, the city’s central book temple. The building, an urban palace, is situated on the former historical citadel where Pula originated, close to the Archaeological Museum and Small Roman Theatre, the space featuring the clearest signs of Pula’s rich cultural history. This will be the first Literature House in Croatia, aspiring to become one of book centres in the broader region. Literature House will host residences and a hall for reading and book-related events. It will also

comprise a contemporary library, as well as rare collections of old materials kept in Pula: the Histrica collection and the Navy Library. The building will also function as the headquarters of the Book Fair(y) in Istria. The annual programme of Literature House will be oriented towards both local and foreign authors, especially those from the Mediterranean, Central and SouthEastern Europe. Literature House will officially open in September 2014. From 2014 to April 2015 it will host a programme entitled Great Croatian Writers, readings and lectures dedicated to Marko Marulić, Marin Držić, Miroslav Krleža, Ivo Andrić, Tin Ujević, A.B. Šimić, Nikola Šop, Ranko Marinković and Zvane Črnja.

BOOK CAPITAL SHIPLOAD In the honour of the previous World Book Capitals, twenty ship containers will be installed in Pula. Each of them will carry a “shipload” from one of the cities that had already been the World Book Capital: Madrid, Alexandria,

New Delhi, Antwerp, Montreal, Turin, Bogota, Amsterdam, Beirut, Ljubljana, Buenos Aires, Yerevan, and Bangkok. All of them will display in their containers the best of the events that occurred back in the year when they acted as the World Book Capital. Seven containers will be granted, through a public bidding, to those wishing to run for the next World Book Capital. The cities will carry to Pula one literary programme as shipload that will be presented in the streets and squares of Pula. After 2015 the containers will be intended for cities competing for the title of World Book Capital.

BICYCLE THIEVES (I ladri di biciclette) In the honour of the cult film by Vittorio De Sica from 1948, I ladri di biciclette, in the honour of Pula’s working class and cinema, in 2014 Pula will introduce street/mobile bookshops: specially constructed bicycles (tricycles with trailers). Each bicycle will carry in its trailer a small thematic bookshop: cinema, heritage, Mediterranean, contemporary Croatian novelists,

classics etc. Twenty bookshop bikes will be circling the city and switching at twenty historical and cult city points: at the antique Arena, in front of the Arch of the Sergii, in the Forum, in Dante’s Square, in front of the cathedral, at the Rijeka Pier in the harbour, at the market, in Pula’s parks, at the Corso... On rainy and cold days the trailer bikes will be parked in the facilities of the Old Bus Station, a canopied terminal built in the late 19th century when passengers could reach Pula in dusty wagons. This venue, now unused, but still beloved and remembered by Pula’s citizens, could hence become a large bookstore on bicycle wheels.

METAPHOR BAZAAR – JUST IN CASE Based on a project implemented by the Book Fair(y) in Istria in association with Petikat Art Workshop from Zagreb, called Metaphor Shop – Just in Case, we plan to establish a summer programme Metaphor Bazaar. Supported by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Pula and Istrian Museum of Archaeology,

the Book Fair(y) and Petikat wish to share this idea with young emerging visual artists from all over the world, who perceive book as one of the metaphors of life. The best competing submitted entries will be displayed at the museumgallery space of Sacred Hearts, while Uspon De Ville, a slope leading to the Sacred Hearts, will act as a summertime Metaphor Bazaar from May to October, where international artists will display and sell their metaphors in the form of book memorabilia. Metaphor Bazaar will become a tradition of Pula and take place every year between June and September.

BOOKSHIP IN PULA WATERS Of all Croatian coastal cities, Pula has got the longest shoreline. In summertime, the city life takes place on the rocky and stony beaches of Pula and the city literally doubles. A need for books is like a need for sun. Therefore, we should take the book to the beaches, on an old wooden ship, which could host both books

and avid readers. The bookship will lend books for daily reading. It will offer both Croatian and foreign books and at the same time on two decks it will be able to host 60 readers. Book borrowing will be free of charge and there will also be a small bookshop on the ship for those who wish to purchase one. This sea library will sail in the Pula waters from June to September and stop in bays from Brijuni to Cape Kamenjak. Starting from 2014, Pula will have a city bookship for book lending every year between June and September.

BOOKHOUSES Bookhouses, like birdhouses (even of similar shape) will be installed in the park of the City of Graz, near the Forum. Books donated by the citizens of Pula will be kept inside them and people will be encouraged to bring the books they no longer need and store them in bookhouses. Bring your own and take someone else’s – simple book-crossing in the tree shadows. Once installed, the bookhouses will become one of the city’s trademarks.

PULA’S CORSO – A BOOK OF QUOTES In every coastal town, the Corso represents the centre of life, a magical space where people stroll, meet and look around. Pula’s Corso is canopied by centennial trees growing from the asphalt trodden on by generations and generations of citizens, perfect for graffiti. Graffiti – with literary quotes – will cover Pula’s Corso. Literary quotes will be selected by Pula’s elementary school and high school students, and executed by Art School students. In the centre of the Corso a large screen will be installed, showing literary quotes in Croatian and other languages.

BOOK GRAFITTI IN ROJC Rojc, the former largest military barracks, is now the centre of the city’s subculture. More than a century, the old halls, sleeping rooms and cafeterias have been ruled by young creative people from Pula. Endless kilometres of Rojc corridors have for years been a platform for graffiti artists from Croatia and the

region. From August to October 2014, book graffiti will be made in Rojc in a special, still unopened wing, by invited graffiti artists from the entire region.

PULA AND ISTRIA BOOK ROADS A programme active for the last three years in association with Pula University Library is called Pula Book Roads. It comprises an unusual stroll around Pula, in the footsteps of Joyce, Mann, Dante, Cankar, Krleža, but also a trip to the world of incunables, old and rare books preserved by the University Library and one of the most interesting collections in the Mediterranean – the Navy Library. A similar programme will be devised for Istria as well – Istrian Book Roads – a day trip to the world of Istrian Glagolitic priests, žakan Juri, Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Herman Dalmatin, Jules Verne, but also a chance to see valuable volumes kept at Istrian libraries and archives. Guidebooks in foreign languages will be published for this purpose, and these cultural and tourist routes for future visitors

of Pula and Istria will remain a permanent journey through the world of literature.

DRIO L’ARENA – PULA’S MONTMARTRE Croatia boasts in exceptional, world acclaimed and award-winning illustrators. Above the Arena, in a view from the sea, there is a square called Drio l’Arena (behind the Arena). Its size and street cafe atmosphere remind of the famous Parisian Montmartre. Next to the Arena walls in the summer of 2014 (June-September), young illustrators from all over the world will have a chance to display and sell their works and transform Drio l’Arena into an illustrators’ square and a small Montmartre in Pula. This programme will become tradition and will take place every summer, even after 2014.

SLEEPING WITH A BOOK For those readers who cannot fall asleep without a book, the

City Library and Reading Room will open a night shift with home delivery. In winter months it will stay open until midnight, and in the summer until 2am, including Saturdays and Sundays. Books will be delivered all over Pula, as well as to tourist compounds and hotels. This programme will begin in 2014 and remain customary in the years to follow.

LISTEN TO A BOOK WITH COFFEE In 2014 and 2015, Pula’s coffee shops and bars will arrange one table for ‘book listeners’. The coffee places will have a small audio library, which will introduce the concept of audio books in the city’s everyday life. The programme is intended primarily for the blind and visually impaired population, as well as those who simply like ‘listening to books’ with coffee. After 2015 the selected coffee places in Pula will keep a table for book listeners.

ATTENTION – WRITER IN THE CITY Writers will swarm Pula in 2014 and 2015. Each year more than 200 of them attend and participate at the Book Fair(y) in Istria. However, should Pula become the World Book Capital, we expect more than a thousand of them. The authors will not only present their works in Pula, but also work as salespeople in bookstores, at information desks in libraries, and those more daring might try their luck as bartenders or fishmongers.

CIRCOLO – HOUSE OF ITALIAN LITERATURE IN PULA The Italian Community in Pula, called the Circolo, is located on the city walls. The entrance to it is the famous Pula city gate – Hercule’s Gate. Traditionally, the Circolo has been one of the key cultural points of the city and is not intended only for the Italian minority. All of Pula’s citizens consider the Circolo a common space. Italian culture, today a minority, is deeply rooted

in Pula’s culture. In certain periods of history, Italians in fact comprised the majority of Pula’s population. This changed after the great exodus in 1947, when almost the entire city set off to Italy from the harbour. In their honour, from November 2014 to April 2015 the Circolo will become Pula’s house of Italian book, with programmes active throughout the entire year. The programme entitled Viaggio Polesano is one of them; it will revolve around Italian publishers’ projects.

HUMANITAS UNA IN LINGUIS MULTIS Pula, which only in the 20th century experienced seven different governments, has been a multicultural and multilingual place. Today, it is a city of minorities. In the honour of the city in which at every hour you can hear people speaking Croatian, Italian, Albanian, Serbian, Bosnian and during the summer all other European languages as well, throughout the year translation workshops will take place. Pula Translation Workshops envisage a programme of translation

and reading in all historical and present-day languages of Pula. It will be organised in association with the European Literary Translation Institute, which was established this year within the Pula Book Fair, Juraj Dobrila University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, and Croatian Association of Literary Translators. The workshops will span throughout the year and will take place at the premises of Juraj Dobrila University. Preparing young generations for all the challenges of literary translation, a true art and craft, is the purpose of Pula’s translation workshops. Ten contemporary Croatian authors’ works will be translated into Italian, German, Hungarian, Albanian and Slovenian. Special workshops will be held for the translation of the finest writers from Italy, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia. In addition to the translators, a special contribution to the workshop will be given by authors and public readings from both translations and originals will present the best results. Such readings and analyses of the narrative rhythm mainly generate fruitful discussions with the original authors and help determine whether

a translator managed to create a new original work. Pula translation workshops will begin in 2014 and continue in the following years at the Literature House.

LITERARY TREASURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA When an unfortunate ship filled with people and cargo set off in 1991 from Pula towards Boka Kotorska, it also carried books from Pula’s Military Library. The war had just begun, the army was withdrawing from Pula. With them, book went away, too. We found out only later that the books were thrown overboard. How many books disappeared in these exoduses, we do not know. Certainly many more than people. Still, those that remained or returned, by a stroke of luck, make Pula a city of rare books. Especially valuable are the incunables kept in the safe deposit of the University Library in Pula, the Histrica Collection (books from and about Istria), especially Biblioteca Provinciale and above all one of the rarest Mediterranean book collections: the Navy Library.

The exhibition In the World of Incunabulae will display for the very first time the 150 incunables kept in Croatian libraries, mainly in the coastal region, many of which are currently kept in closed safes and archives of monastery libraries. At the Books about Istria exhibition, the Histrica Collection of the Pula University Library will be completed with Istrian titles kept at Croatian libraries. Navy Library’s collection will have its first open and representative public display, symbolically at the house of its founders.

SIMPLY BOOK The Museum of Contemporary Art will organise a group exhibition of selected Croatian contemporary visual artists, entitled Simply Book. Two most attractive gallery spaces in the city will serve as venues: the Museum-Gallery Space of the Sacred Heart and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Old Printing Mill).

ISTRIA GRAND TOUR The writers’ house in Pazin will be the official residence for writers in Istria. In accommodating writers, Pazin will be joined by Rovinj, Pula and Labin. Writers (a dozen of them from all over the world) will stay in Istria from April until November 2014. Each of them will be organised a grand tour of Istria, guided by writers, scientists, ethnologists and historians. Each writer will stay in Istria for three weeks and during that time should write a story – an Istrian travelogue. The travelogues will be gathered in a book and translated into Italian, German and English. The book will presented on 15 April 2015.

THIS MONTH WE READ TO... In the twelve months of book celebration in Pula, volunteering bookdreamers will read every month to a (mainly vulnerable) target group of book lovers. The months will be dedicated to: pensioners in nursing homes, children at the children’s

ward in the Pula hospital, mothers and babies, the visually impaired, cerebral palsy patients, Down syndrome patients, the disabled, abandoned children, detention centre inmates, prisoners, cancer patients, the dying. This programme will not end in 2015; we will continue to read to the vulnerable and marginalised groups of book-readers in the years to come as well.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME Just like Rome, Pula is scattered on seven hillsides. Five years ago, the Fair team invented the eighth, imaginary hillside, covered with children’s books and called it Monte Librić. Monte Librić is a children’s book festival consisting of programmes for children mainly in Croatian and Italian, but also other Pula’s minority languages: Albanian, Slovenian, Macedonian, Serbian etc. Monte Librić is the largest children’s book festival in Croatia, aiming to become the centre of a broader region. However, Monte Librić will not fade with the closing of festival

in May. Throughout the year, on various Pula locations, workshops for children will take place, encouraging them to read and recognise books via the city. In 2014 and 2015 the children of Pula, as well as visiting children, will have a chance to attend various book-related events. The following workshops and activities pertaining to reading and motivating the young ones to read are planned. Labyrinth – an interactive workshop. Pula’ s elementary school children (10-12 years of age) will connect contents and follow signs to discover historical mysteries of their city. At the labyrinth exit they will find a book. The workshop is competitive, will take place on city streets and the winner will be the one who collects more books. This workshop will become tradition and in the future a similar event will be devised for tourists. Cover me with a book! – a quilt, the size of a child’s bed, will be made for all kindergartens in Pula. The quilts will feature parts from children’s favourite stories and fairy tales (words and images instead of some words). The quilt becomes a large book for children to be covered with and read from before taking a nap. Book-quilts will be made by students from the Pula Art School. Adventurous Monte Librić – a series of summer seaside workshops for children age

6-12, inspired by tales of the city and its thousand years of history. The programme will include visiting children who will get a chance to meet the city with the help of their new friends and learn Croatian. This adventurous programme will take place from June until late in August. Pick a story – the original project by Croatian children’s writer Sanja Lovrenčić. A dozen picture books will be hung on trees in Pula’ s Monte Zaro park. The children will be required to grab a picture book however they can, “pick it”. Each child that joins the picking session will take one picture book home. The picking will take place every Saturday in September 2014. Pula in the Orbit – in October 2014, every night at Monte Zaro Observatory, readings from the book Noordung.doc will take place. A selection of excerpts will be read from the book Problem vožnje po svemiru by Herman Potočnik Noordung. Herman Potočnik, originally from Pula, was one of the pioneers of strategic human penetration into the Universe. After the reading, little lovers of books and space will stand in line for the telescope and take a break among the stars. This workshop will become traditional and in the future it will broaden its scope to include not only Pula’ s children, but also little city visitors. Bedtime Story – the traditional bedtime story is the first contact between a child and

literature. During the holiday season, the youngest readers will have a chance to enjoy it. Every evening in December, the children will be able to hear Santa Claus telling tales, and for a touch of Christmas magic, the readings will take place in Santa’s picturesque house, located at Portarata, near the Arch of the Sergii. Every evening, young visitors will be given picture books as a present. Animated Story – a series of workshops pertaining to digital storytelling. Just like traditional storytelling, the children will have a clear task, however in this case they will use new technologies. Their task will be to create a short tale and express their personal opinion on an issue. The workshops will take place in January and February and are intended for children age 12-14. Born to Read / Nati per leggere – a project conducted by the Pula City Library and Reading Room with a fundamental message: read to your children so that you may have something to talk about. The habit of reading is created from a very early age, and this project is intended for children from six months to nine years of age. Throughout the year, children will experience fairy tales and stories through readings in families, kindergartens, hospitals and homes.

PUBLISHING PROGRAMME For the purpose of the programme Pula – World Book Capital, Croatian publishers will launch a series of new books. An edition devoted to Contemporary Croatian Writers (11 of them) will be established and their best works will be translated in five world languages. Also, a selection of 11 world authors, writers in small languages (but coming from great cultures) will be published in Pula Edition. Book from these editions will be sold at favourable prices (€5) all over Croatia, in bookshops, at airports, bus and train stations and tourist points from December 2013 to April 2015. Books dedicated to the historical and present-day Istria and Croatia will also be published: travel guides (multilingual), Little School of Glagolitic Alphabet (multilingual), Croatian Book Roads (bilingual), Pula Book Roads and Istria Book Road multilingual guidebooks, as well as translations of books about the history of Istria and Pula into English and Italian. Presentations of books and authors, as well as special

readings, will take place in 2014 and 2015 in Pula, Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Osijek within a programme named Croatia Reads. Two authors per month (one Croatian, one foreign) will travel around Croatia and meet the readers. This programme will take place at Croatian bookshops, libraries, schools, parks, squares, theatres and coffee shops.

festivals and literary events

DANTE, JOYCE AND MANN REVISIT PULA Since these writers only briefly visited Pula, like tourists in a dream, we will take them back to our city in 2014. We will organise dreamlike multimedia festivals and performances honouring Dante, Joyce and Mann. In his Divine Comedy, Dante marked Pula as a place of entering into Hell. In September 2014, a festival entitled Entering Dante’s Inferno will take place, and it will include performers and visual artists from Croatia with their performances and installations. The festival will take place underground, in former shelters and labyrinths, which are today an attraction for tourists called Zero Strasse. The festival will become traditional. On Bloomsday (16 June), Pula will connect with Dublin and Trieste via video-link and mark Joyce’s stay in Pula. Pula will celebrate Bloomsday with a day-long performance in the

city streets and cafes under the name (Joyce’s own phrase): Pula is a naval Siberia! Thomas Mann will get a boat of his own to navigate between Pula and Brijuni, with readings from Mann’s most famous books, primarily Death in Venice. On the islands of Brijuni, a project connecting tourism and culture will take place – a literary route dedicated to Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Hemann Bahr, Ivan Cankar, Bernard Shaw, Miroslav Krleža, George Bernard Shaw, Felix Salten and many other writers who spent some time in Brijuni. Also, Thomas Mann ship and the literary tour of Brijuni will become traditional events.

PULA FILM FESTIVAL Topic: FILM AND LITERATURE Pula is also known as a city of cinema thanks to the film festival, which has taken place for almost sixty years at the largest open-air cinema – the Pula Arena. One of the themes of Pula Film Festival in 2014 will be Film and Literature.

Film will salute literature with a cycle of Academy Award winning films based on an original literary work. A year before, Pula Film Festival, the Croatian Film Clubs’ Association and the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) will organise a public bidding for screenplays based on novels and short stories by contemporary Croatian writers. In 2014, during the festival, the results will be announced. The most successful screenplays will be presented at the festival and the best among them, at the jury’s discretion, will be granted financial support.

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE FESTIVAL Topic: ANTIQUE DRAMA

For almost 20 years, the Istrian National Theatre in Pula has been organising the successful MKFM (International Youth Theatre Festival), focusing in education of theatre youth. The topic of MKFM 2014 will be antique drama. The festival takes place in July and August. In the evening, young

actors will recite parts from antique plays on the steps of the Temple of Augustus and at the Small Roman Theatre, in Croatian, Italian, German and English.

NEIGHBOURING BOOKS AND WRITERS From January to April 2015, libraries of Pula and Istria will host a programme entitled Neighbouring Books and Writers. The three-month caravan of publishers and authors from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina will travel to all the corners of Istria. In that period, the Pula City Library and Reading Room will organise a representative exhibition of the most beautiful books from the region, while Pula and Istria’s bookshops will dedicate a small amount of space to the sale of their books. Presentations will take place at bookshops and Istrian libraries, very active venues in terms of programme. In places where there are no bookshops or libraries, the programmes will take place at traditional taverns, turning them into ‘one-night-bookshops’.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF EUROPE

DAYS OF ŠOLJAN

A Journey to the Centre of Europe is a meeting of publishers taking place in Pazin and gathering publishing companies from Central Europe every year in May. The gathering was established by the Austrian Cultural Forum and the City of Pazin. In May 2014, the Journey to the Centre of Europe will take place in Pazin and Pula and it will gather editors and book agents from the Central and South-Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

Days of Šoljan is a traditional literary event dedicated to the great Croatian writer and translator Antun Šoljan. It takes place in May, in the most beautiful Istrian town – Rovinj. In 2014 Days of Šoljan will be specially themed: Mediterranean Poets. The event will take place in Rovinj, on a boat between Rovinj and Pula, and in Pula.

Topic: MEDITERRANEAN POETS

FORUM TOMIZZA

JULES VERNE DAYS

Topic: ISTRIA AS A LITERARY MODEL The famous French fantasy writer Jules Verne chose the Pazin Pit and town of Pazin as a literary model for his novel Matthias Sandorf. In his honour, every June at Kaštel, a fortress above the Pazin Pit, a festival called Jules Verne Days takes place. Within 2014 Jules Verne Days in Pula and Pazin, an international literature and history congress will be organised, focusing on Istria as a literary model.

Topic: PULA’S THREE EXODUSES

ESSAY DAYS

Topic: MATTHIAS FLACIUS Essay Days is a traditional international book event taking place every October in Pula. The event also includes a prize named after the great Istrian writer Zvane Črnja. The topic of 2014 Essay Days will be Matthias Flacius and it will gather essayists from all over Europe.

The Forum Tomizza was established in the honour of the border writer Fulvio Tomizza, who wrote on both sides of the borderline. The Forum’s conceptual focus is border issues and border writers. The Forum Tomizza traditionally takes place in May in Trieste, Koper and Umag, and in 2014 a part of the programme will also take place in Pula, with the topic of Pula’s Three Exoduses.

FANTASY FESTIVAL Topic: NOORDUNG

The fantasy literature festival is a literary meeting of writers, editors, publishers and translators of science fiction and similar genres from Croatia and neighbouring countries. The festival programme consists of literary evenings presenting the current fantasy production in Croatia and the region, as well as a thematic festival collection of short sci-fi stories. The focal point of the Fantasy

Festival, taking place in 2014 in Pazin and Pula, will be Noordung. It is a dedication to Herman Potočnik, born in Pula, a space flight visionary.

LEGEND FEST

Topic: ISTRIAN WITCHES, SORCERERS AND VAMPIRES Istria is a place of tales, a place of myths and legends, from the Slavic to the Romanic and Celtic. The most powerful and oldest folk tales are those of Istrian witches, sorcerers and vampires. One of the most interesting multimedia festivals in Istria is the Legend Fest, taking place every year, late in July in Pićan, an unusual medieval Istrian town. The festival programmes are inspired by Istria’ s rich oral tradition. The Legend Fest dresses the town of Pićan in old Istrian fabrics and organises theatre plays, concerts and open-air performances in town squares... In 2014 it will include a small festival of authors who write about witches and vampires and a congress entitled: Istrian Witches, Sorcerers and Vampires. A part of the programme will also take place in Pula.

ULYSSES THEATRE Topic: BERNARD SHAW

It is most famous theatre festival in Istria, gathering an international team of actors and directors. It is led by the famous Croatian actor Rade Šerbedžija. The venue is Minor Fortress on the island of Mali Brijun. The festival takes place in July and August and performs only plays from their own production. One of the themes Ulysses Theatre will focus on in 2014 is Nobel Prize winner Bernard Shaw.

BOOKTIGA

Topic: CROATIAN 19TH CENTURY PUBLISHERS Booktiga is an international fair of used and second-hand books that takes place every year in the oldest antique square in Poreč – Marofor. It also features an important programme of connecting books with their readers. In 2014 Booktiga will take place in Poreč and Pula and will focus on the Croatian 19th century publishers.

20TH BOOK FAIR(Y) IN ISTRIA Topic: 1914

On the anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination and the beginning of World War I, the fair will turn to the territory of the former AustroHungarian monarchy, as well as literature and history of countries that used to be part of it. Also, it will conceptually focus on global issues of war and militarisation of the world. A special programme will be inspired by Pula, Austro-Hungarian main military harbour, its famous Observatory and scientists related to Pula, like the renowned astronomer Johann Palisa and space trip visionary Herman Potočnik. In 10 days, the programme will present 80 events. In addition to book presentations, there will be exhibitions, performances, theatre plays, film screenings... Aside from Croatian publishers, the Fair will host visiting publishers from Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Book Fair(y) in Istria

Book Fair(y) in Istria, book promotion

Book Fair(y) in Istria, visitors

Pula’s book treasure

Glagolitsa

Matthias Flacius Illyricus

Johann Palisa

Noordung space station

Pula’ s harbour in the beginning of 20th cen.

Pula University Library

Paul Kupelwieser on Brijuni islands

James Joyce monument in Pula

Marinebibliothek

Umberto Eco at the Book Fair(y)

Claudio Magris at the Book Fair(y)

Slavenka Drakulić at the Book Fair(y)

Péter Esterházy at the Book Fair(y)

Orhan Pamuk at the Book Fair(y)

Istrian National Theatre

Contemporary art meets ancient Pula

Opening ceremony of the Book Fair(y)

Rovinj

Ulysses Theatre

Book Fair(y)

Pula’ s shipyard

Arch of Sergi

Kiklop National Literary Award in Secred Hearts

Booklovers

LITERARY TREASURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA Event type: exhibitions Scheduled for: April-November 2014 Location: Pula, Croatian Veterans’ House Organisers: National and University Library Zagreb, Pula University Library

LEARNING GLAGOLITSA Event type: workshop Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula City Library and Reading Room Organisers: Pula City Library and Reading Room, Juri Žakan Small Academy

SHIPLOAD OF BOOK-CITIES Event type: spatial installations Scheduled for: April 2014 until April 2015, permanent programme Location: Pula, streets and squares Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture

PULA PAPYRUS Event type: workshop Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula Art School Organiser: Pula Art School

BICYCLE THIEVES (I ladri di biciclette) Event type: bookselling Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula, streets and squares Organisers: Pula’s bookshops

BOOKHOUSES Event type: spatial installation Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula’s parks Organisers: Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Pula University Library

PULA AND ISTRIA BOOK ROADS Event type: cultural and tourist project Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula’s streets and libraries Organisers: Pula University Library, Juraj Dobrila University in Pula

BOOK OF QUOTES Event type: spatial installation Scheduled for: from April 2014 to April 2015 Location: Pula’s Corso Organisers: Pula’s high schools, Art School, Book Fair(y) in Istria

CROATIA READS Event type: readings, book presentations Scheduled for: from May 2014 to April 2015 Location: libraries and bookstores in Pula, Rijeka, Split, Osijek and Zagreb Organisers: Knjižni blok, Booksa and Book Fair(y) in Istria

LISTEN TO A BOOK WITH COFFEE Event type: listening room Scheduled for: from April 2014 to April 2015 Location: Pula’s coffee shops and bars Organisers: Pula’s bookshops

GRAND TOUR – ISTRIA Event type: writers’ residency Scheduled for: April to November 2014 Location: entire Istria Organisers: Writers’ House, Istria County Tourist Board

ATTENTION – WRITER IN THE CITY! Event type: motivation of readers Scheduled for: from April 2014 to April 2015 Location: Pula’s bookshops, libraries, coffee shops, fishmongers’ Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria

SLEEPING WITH A BOOK Event type: library activity Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula City Library and Reading Room Organisers: Pula City Library and Reading Room

ADVENTUROUS MONTE LIBRIĆ Event type: literature and history workshop for children Scheduled for: June to September 2014, permanent programme Location: Stoja Bath, Castropola bookshop, city streets Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria

COVER ME WITH A BOOK Event type: stimulation of reading Scheduled for: starting from April 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula’s kindergartens Organisers: Monte Librić, Art School, Pula’s kindergartens

BOOKSHIP IN PULA WATERS Event type: librarian Scheduled for: June to September 2014, permanent programme Location: bays around Pula Organisers: Pula City Library and Reading Room, City of Pula Tourist Board

METAPHOR BAZAAR – JUST IN CASE Event type: sales exhibition Scheduled for: May to October 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula, Uspon de Ville Organisers: Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Petikat and Book Fair(y) in Istria

BRIJUNI – A LITERARY WALK Event type: cultural and tourist Scheduled for: June to September 2014, permanent programme Location: Brijuni Organisers: Juraj Dobrila Univeristy in Pula, Department for Culture and Tourism, Brijuni National Park, City of Pula Tourist Board

HUMANITAS UNA IN LINGUIS MULTIS Event type: translation workshop Scheduled for: from May 2014 to March 2015, permanent programme Location: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula Organisers: European Literary Translation Institute, Croatian Literary Translators’ Association, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb, Juraj Dobrila University in Pula JUST IN CASE Event type: exhibition Scheduled for: June to October 2014 Location: Pula, Museum Gallery Space Sacred Hearts Organisers: Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Petikat and Istrian Museum of Archaeology DRIO L’ARENA – PULA’S MONTMARTRE Event type: sales exhibition Scheduled for: June to October 2014, permanent programme Location: Drio l’Arena Square (behind the Arena) Organisers: ULUPUH, Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria

THOMAS MANN SHIP Event type: cultural and tourist Scheduled for: June to September 2014, permanent programme Location: Pula-Brijuni ship Organisers: Juraj Dobrila Univeristy in Pula, Department for Culture and Tourism, Brijuni National Park, City of Pula Tourist Board BOOK GRAFITTI IN ROJC Event type: art Scheduled for: August to October 2014 Location: Rojc Organisers: Rojc independent associations NEXT DOOR WRITERS Event type: presentations of writers and publishers Scheduled for: January to April 2015 Location: Istria and Pula’s libraries and bookshops Organisers: Istrian National Libraries and Book Fair(y) in Istria

April 2014

BOOK IN THE ARENA Event type: official opening ceremony Scheduled for: 23 April Location: Pula, Arena Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria LITERARY TREASURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA Event type: exhibition opening Scheduled for: Croatian Veterans’ House Location: 22 April 2014 WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: BANGKOK Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: end of April Location: Pula, Old Printing Mill Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Thailand to the Republic of Croatia THIS MONTH WE READ TO MAMAS AND BABIES Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Hospital, gynaecology ward Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

May 2014

MONTE LIBRIĆ Event type: children’s book fair Scheduled for: beginning of May Location: Pula, Circolo Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria

METAPHOR BAZAAR Event type: sales exhibition opening Scheduled for: 10 May 2014 Location: Uspon De Ville

Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Lebanon to the Republic of Croatia

DAYS OF ŠOLJAN Event type: literary Scheduled for: mid-May Location: Pula, Rovinj, boat Organisers: Croatian Writers’ Association, Croatian Writers’ Association – Istrian Branch, Public Open University Rovinj

June 2014

JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF EUROPE Event type: conference Scheduled for: mid-May Location: Pazin and Pula Organisers: Austrian Cultural Forum, Public Open University Pazin, Knjižni blok

DRIO L’ARENA – PULA’S MONTMARTRE Event type: sales exhibition opening Scheduled for: 10 June 2014 Location: Drio l’Arena

JUST IN CASE Event type: exhibition opening Scheduled for: 4 June 2014 Location: Sacred Hearts

FORUM TOMIZZA Event type: literary and non fiction Scheduled for: end of May Location: Trieste, Koper, Umag, Pula Organisers: Forum Tomizza, Public Open University Umag

PULA: A NAVAL SIBERIA Event type: whole day long multimedia performance Scheduled for: 16 June (Bloomsday) Location: Pula’s streets and coffee shops, via video-link: Dublin and Trieste Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Istrian Museum of History, Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria

THIS MONTH WE READ TO PRISON INMATES Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula prison Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

JULES VERNE DAYS Event type: literary Scheduled for: end of June 2014 Location: Pazin and Pula Organisers: Jules Verne Society, Pula City Library, Book Fair(y) in Istria

WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: BEIRUT Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: end of May Location: Pula squares

THIS MONTH WE READ TO CEREBRAL PALSY PATIENTS Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day

Location: Pula, Centre for Cerebral Palsy Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

Location: Pula, Ruža Petrović Children’s Home Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: ALEXANDRIA Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: end of June Location: Pula’s squares Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Egypt to the Republic of Croatia

BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: NEW DELHI Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: end of July Location: Pula’s squares Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of India to the Republic of Croatia

July 2014

LEGEND FEST Event type: multimedia festival Scheduled for: end of July Location: Pićan, Pula Organiser: Municipality of Pićan, City of Buje, ZIID Association

MKFM (International Youth Theatre Festival) Event type: theatre workshops Scheduled for: July-August Location: Istrian National Theatre, Temple of August, Small Roman Theatre Organiser: Istrian National Theatre PULA FILM FESTIVAL Event type: film festival Scheduled for: end of July Location: Arena Organiser: Pula Film Festival ŽAKAN JURI Event type: performance Scheduled for: mid-July Location: Alley of Glagolitic Priests, Roč Organiser: Istrian National Theatre THIS MONTH WE READ AT THE ORPHANAGE Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day

August 2014

FANTASY FESTIVAL Event type: literary festival Scheduled for: beginning of August Location: Pazin, Pula Organiser: Association for Science Fiction Promotion Pazin ULYSSES THEATRE Event type: theatre festival Scheduled for: July-August Location: Brijuni Organiser: Ulysses Theatre WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: BOGOTA Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: end of August Location: Pula’s squares

Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Columbia to the Republic of Croatia

September 2014

LITERATURE HOUSE OPENING Event type: official opening ceremony Scheduled for: 5 September 2014 Location: Literature House ENTERING DANTE’S INFERNO Event type: multimedia festival Scheduled for: mid-September Location: Pula, Zero Strasse Organisers: Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, dr. Inat Theatre, Book Fair(y) in Istria WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: TURIN Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: mid-September Location: Literature House, Pula’s squares Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Italy to the Republic of Croatia GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: MARKO MARULIĆ Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of September Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb

PICK A STORY Event type: children’s workshop Scheduled for: every day Location: Monte Zaro Park Organisers: Mala zvona Art Association, Book Fair(y) in Istria THIS MONTH WE READ AT THE YOUTH DETENTION CENTRE Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula, Monte Zaro youth detention centre Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

October 2014

WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: LJUBLJANA Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: beginning of October Location: Pula, Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Slovenia to the Republic of Croatia LABYRINTH Event type: workshop Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula city streets Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Pula elementary schools ESSAY DAYS Event type: literary Scheduled for: mid-October Location: Pula – Literature House, Labin – Theatre Organiser: Croatian Writers’ Association – Istrian branch GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: MARIN DRŽIĆ Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of October

Location: Literature House Organiser: Croatian Writers’ Association – Istrian branch GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: MARIN DRŽIĆ Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of October Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb THIS MONTH WE READ TO THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula, Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired Persons Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Canada to the Republic of Croatia GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: MIROSLAV KRLEŽA Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of November Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb THIS MONTH WE READ AT THE NURSING HOME Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Hospital, oncology ward Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers

November 2014

December 2014

VIAGGIO POLESANO: PUBLISHERS AND WRITERS OF VENETO REGION Event type: book exhibition, readings Scheduled for: mid-November Location: Italian Community Organisers: Italian Community Pula, Edit Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula – Department of Italian

VIAGGIO POLESANO: NELIDA MILANI KRULJAC AND PULA Event type: conference, readings Scheduled for: mid-December Location: Italian Community Organisers: Italian Community Pula, Edit Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula – Department of Italian

WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: MONTREAL Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: beginning of November Location: Pula, Literature House

WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: AMSTERDAM Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: end of December

OPENING OF THE HOUSE OF ITALIAN LITERATURE Event type: official opening ceremony Scheduled for: 3 November 2014 Location: Italian Community – Circolo

BOOK FAIR(Y) IN ISTRIA Event type: book fair Scheduled for: beginning of December Location: Pula, Croatian Veterans’ House Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria

the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Armenia to the Republic of Croatia

Location: Castropola bookshop Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria

GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: IVO ANDRIĆ Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of December Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb

VIAGGIO POLESANO: ITALIAN HISTORIANS ABOUT ISTRIA Event type: readings Scheduled for: mid-January Location: Italian Community Organisers: Italian Community Pula, Edit Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula – Department of Italian

WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: BUENOS AIRES Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: beginning of February Location: Pula, Croatian Veterans’ House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Argentina to the Republic of Croatia

THIS MONTH WE READ AT THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Hospital, children’s ward Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair Volunteers

GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: RANKO MARINKOVIĆ Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of January Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb

BEDTIME STORY Event type: storytelling Scheduled for: every day Location: Santa Claus House Organiser: Book Fair(y) in Istria

VIAGGIO POLESANO: CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN PROSE WRITERS Event type: readings Scheduled for: mid-February Location: Italian Community Organisers: Italian Community Pula, Edit Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula – Department of Italian

February 2015

Location: Pula, Old Printing Mill Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of the Netherlands to the Republic of Croatia

January 2015

THIS MONTH WE READ TO THE DYING Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Hospital, hospice Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers WORLD BOOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: YEREVAN Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: mid-January Location: Pula, Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at

LIBRARIANS SPEAK OF ISTRIA Event type: conference Scheduled for: beginning of February Location: Pula, Croatian Veterans’ House Organisers: Pula University Library, National and University Library Zagreb THIS MONTH WE READ TO DOWN SYNDROME PATIENTS Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Centre for Down Syndrome Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair(y) in Istria ANIMATED STORY Event type: children’s workshop Scheduled for: every day

GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: TIN UJEVIĆ AND A.B. ŠIMIĆ Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of February Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb

March 2015

WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: ANTWERP Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: beginning of March Location: Pula, Croatian Veterans’ House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Belgium to the Republic of Croatia

THIS MONTH WE READ AT THE CANCER WARD Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Hospital, oncology ward Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers PULA IN THE ORBIT Event type: astronomy workshop Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula Observatory Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Pula Astronomy Society SIMPLY BOOK Event type: exhibition Scheduled for: March-April Location: Sacred Hearts, Old Printing Mill Organiser: Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria VIAGGIO POLESANO: CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN POETS Event type: readings Scheduled for: mid-March Location: Italian Community Organisers: Italian Community Pula, Edit Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula – Department of Italian GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: NIKOLA ŠOP Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: end of March Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb

April 2015

BOOKTIGA Event type: used and second hand book fair Scheduled for: beginning of April Location: Poreč, Pula Organiser: Poreč City Library GREAT CROATIAN WRITERS: ZVANE ČRNJA Event type: readings, lectures Scheduled for: mid-April Location: Literature House Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb VIAGGIO POLESANO: DANTE AND MICHELANGELO IN PULA Event type: conference Scheduled for: mid-April Location: Italian Community Organisers: Italian Community Pula, Edit Rijeka, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Pula – Department of Italian WORLD BOOK CAPITAL PRESENTATION: MADRID Event type: multimedia presentation Scheduled for: beginning of April Location: Literature House, Pula’s squares Organisers: Book Fair(y) in Istria, UNESCO Department at the Ministry of Culture, Embassy of Spain to the Republic of Croatia BOOK ABOUT ISTRIA Event type: book presentation Scheduled for: mid-April Location: Pula, Istrian National Theatre Organisers: Pazin Writers’ House and Book Fair(y) in Istria

THIS MONTH WE READ TO THE DISABLED Event type: readings Scheduled for: every day Location: Pula, private homes Organisers: Pula University Library, Book Fair volunteers CROATIAN BOOK ROADS Event type: book presentation Scheduled for: 23 April 2015 Location: Pula, Forum Organisers: Pazin Writers’ House and Book Fair(y) in Istria