Rovinj (Rovigno in Italian) is coastal Istria’s legendary attractive feature. Although it can get overflowed with travelers in summer, and residents are developing a bright eye for increasing earnings by improving hotels and restaurants to four star status, it keeps to be the last true Mediterranean fishing ports. Fishers haul their catch into the harbour in the early morning, followed by a bunch of screeching gulls, and patch their nets before lunch. Appeals for a fine catch are sent forth at the large Church of St Euphemia, with its 60 m-high tower marking the peninsula. Forested hills and low-rise hotels surround the old town webbed by steep, cobbled streets and piazzas. The 13 green, offshore islands of the Rovinj archipelago make for a pleasant afternoon away, and you can swim from the rocks in the sparkling water below Hotel Rovinj.
The old town of Rovinj is comprised within an egg-shaped peninsula, with the bus station just to the south-east. There are two harbours: the northwestern open harbour and the little, secure harbour to the south. Some 1.5 kilometers south of the old town is the Punta Corrente Forest Park and the wooded cape of Zlatni Rt (Golden Cape), with its age-old oak and pine trees, and many large hotels. A tiny archipelago lies just offshore; the most well known islands are Crveni Otok (Red Island), Sveta Katarina and Sveti Andrija.
Sights in Rovinj: Church of St Euphemia
The town’s show window is the imposing church towering the old town from its hilltop position in the middle of the peninsula. Built in 1736, it’s the largest baroque building in Istria, reflecting the period during the 18th century when Rovinj was its most settled town. Inside the church, look for the marble tomb of St Euphemia behind the right-hand altar. Rovinj’s patron saint was tortured for her Christian faith by Emperor Diocletian before being given to the lions in 304. Based on legend, the body disappeared one dark and windy night only to appear off the coast of Rovinj in a spectral boat. The townspeople were unable to budge the heavy sarcophagus until a tiny boy appeared with two calves and moved it to the top of the hill, where it still stands in the present-day church. On the day of remembrance of her martyrdom (16 September), devotees congregate here. Molded on the belfry of St Mark’s in Venice, the sixty meter bell tower is topped by a copper statue of St Euphemia, which shows the direction of the wind by turning on a spindle.
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