Pazin (Italian: Pisino, German: Mitterburg) is a town in western Croatia, the administrative seat of Istria County.

In 1991 it was made the capital of the county for its location in the geographical centre of the Istrian peninsula and in order to boost the development of its interior territories.

Some historians also link it to Pucinium, an unidentified fortification in central Istria, whose wine was famous even at the Roman court,[5] with Livia, wife of Emperor Augustus, believing that her longevity was due to it.

These were the houses of the family relatives and feudal settlers, to which were later added those of the foreign artisans, who offered their services to the lords of the castle as well as their employees and subjects.

Thus the small burg increased its population, both with commoners and nobles, who embellished it with new buildings, such as the hospice founded by Giovanni Mosconi, then the captain of Pazin.

In the 12th century, Mitterburg Castle was in possession of the Lower Carniolan count Meinhard of Schwarzenburg, who held the office of a vogt of the Poreč bishops (in Latin documents he is known as Cernogradus), and established the Pazin County (earldom).

[16] In 1476 the Turks struck the heartland of the towns of Pazin and Beram, with the people of Vermo later claiming to have captured and killed all the members of a band of Turkish raiders (akindjis).

[15] Both the Turks and the Venetians attacked the town of Draguccio (Draguć), in the Pisinese, and part of the County of Pazin since 1350,[17][18] and destroyed the settlement around its castle during Austrian times.

[21] During its time under the Serenissima, Francesco Loredan was the castellan of the fortress, while Secondo de Cà Pesaro served in the position of captain of Pazin, as provveditore of the Republic of Venice.

[21][22] Slavs inhabited the countryside around Pazin since the 9th century; they worked for the German landowners, who lived in the small fortresses and rocks, built on the edges of the cliffs.

The Italians of Pisino trace their origins to the pre-existing Roman community living in the area of the County of Pazin, having resisted the expansion and assimilation of the newcomers.

[10] In 1890, through an artificial formation of the comune, the Austrian government was able to make the municipio fall to the Slavs, but the Italians "passionately defended the city on this and other occasions".

Public education was neglected until the 16th century, when some priests started to teach the basics of Latin to the children of the local nobles and the bourgeoisie.

Thereafter, the Pazin comune started to hire an Italian tutor (precettore italiano), who had also to serve as the organist of the Church of San Nicolò.

In 1872, the Pazin deputy Francesco Costantini obtained, after long insistence, that also a lower gymnasium with the Italian language would be opened.

[27] In 1899, by order of the Austrian government, the first Croatian gymnasium of Pazin was to be set up, which caused a "manifestation of Italianness" throughout the Julian March.

The new school was opened in 1902, and before it was completed it was visited by Gabriele D'Annunzio, who was surprised by the Italian population, writing to his friend Francesco Salata:[27][28] In Pisino - remember?

- on that savage slope, so thick with vigorous and impregnable roots, we see the highest and most effective form of modern intellectual heroism, the struggle for culture, expand throughout a whole people.

We feel with a proud and unanimous heartbeat the right of the great, manifold, transfiguring Latin civilization against the barbaric abuse[27]The Italian gymnasium suffered during World War I, being requisitioned from August 1914 to October of that year.

[27] The school was attended by students from all over Istria, notably Luigi Dallapiccola, Biagio Marin, Pierantonio Quarantotti Gambini, Mario and Licio Visintini, and Dario Leaone, the youngest victim of the foibe massacres.

The Pazin ponor (Pazinska jama/Foiba) located under the castle was partially explored by Édouard-Alfred Martel in 1896 and is the best example of karst hydrography and morphology in Istria.

[42] Bjelovar, Bjelovar-BilogoraSlavonski Brod, Brod-PosavinaDubrovnik, Dubrovnik-NeretvaPazin, Istria Karlovac, KarlovacKoprivnica, Koprivnica-KriževciKrapina, Krapina-ZagorjeGospić, Lika-Senj Čakovec, MeđimurjeOsijek, Osijek-BaranjaPožega, Požega-SlavoniaRijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar Sisak, Sisak-MoslavinaSplit, Split-DalmatiaŠibenik, Šibenik-KninVaraždin, Varaždin Virovitica, Virovitica-PodravinaVukovar, Vukovar-SrijemZadar, ZadarZagreb, Zagreb