Grožnjan

Grožnjan Općina Grožnjan – Comune di Grisignana
Municipality
Grožnjan Municipality
View of Grožnjan/Grisignana
Flag
Grožnjan Location of Grožnjan in Croatia
Coordinates: 45°23′N 13°43′E / 45.383°N 13.717°E / 45.383; 13.717Coordinates: 45°23′N 13°43′E / 45.383°N 13.717°E / 45.383; 13.717
Country	Croatia
County	Istria
Government
• Mayor	Claudio Stocovaz
Area
• Total	68 km2 (26 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	736
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Website	Grožnjan Municipality Official Website

Grožnjan (Italian: Grisignana) is a settlement and municipality in Croatia. It is part of Croatia's Istria County, which takes up most of the Istria peninsula. It is the only Croatian settlement to have an ethnic Italian majority.

In Grisignana are found ancient roman artifacts and near Grisignana is the remains of a roman house, but the first mention of Grisignana dates from 1102, when Margrave of Istria Ulric II and his wife Adelaida granted their land to Patriarch of Aquileia. In this document the fort is called Castrum Grisiniana. In 1238 Grisignana was the property of Vicardo I. Pietrapalosa. In 1286 Grožnjan fort was lent to the Aquileian patriarch during war with Venice but changed sides in 1287 and Grisignana was given to Venice.

Vicard’s son Pietro inherited Grisignana after his father’s death in 1329, and when he died in 1339 it again became the patriarch’s property. The patriarch rented it to a Friulian noble family, de Castello. In 1354 Grožnjan's new owner became Volrich, or Ulrich, Reifenberg, who in 1358 sold it to Venice for 4,000 ducats in order to pay his debts. Volrich was a son of Deitalm, a descendant of Aquileian patriarch Volcher, and in 1356, during the war between Venice and Hungary, his army, entrenched in Grisignana, strongly resisted the Hungarian army. Yet it seems that at the same time Volrich negotiated the surrendering of Grisignana in Venice.

Venice took Grisignana over in 1358 and ruled until its demise in 1797. In 1359 the Umag captain Pietro Dolfin moved to his new residence in Grisignana, and in 1360 and 1367 he fortified the town walls and renovated the palace.

Captain’s Office moved from Grisignana to Raspo in 1394, when a central rule was established for the whole area. Since then Grisignana was governed by Venetian noblemen who were given the title of "Mayor". From the early 16th century Grisignana's mayors were chosen among Koper noblemen. In the 15th century judicial duties were performed by the Pietrapelosas, and in 1446 the town walls were fortified in order to protect it from possible Turkish attacks. After the terrible plague in 1630 the Grisignana area became almost completely deserted. In order to revitalize the area the St. Mark’s Republic brought Italian families from Veneto and Friuli; these were mostly tradesmen who settled in towns. Settlers were invited by the Venetian Republic to cultivate the abandoned land in some hamlets around Grisignana. Most of the settlers were Morlaks from Dalmatia, but also Slavic people, Albanians and Greeks, all refugees of the Ottoman Empire.