Valamar Blog

“The smallest town in the world”. This is a very famous sentence that is often associated with Hum, a small and tame town in the heart of Green Istria. The town of Hum, in traffic terms from the direction of Western Istria “accessible” via roads from the direction of Pazin and Buzet, and from the direction of Rijeka via the Ucka Tunnel, is in many respects an interesting town. The 11th century was of crucial significance for the development of Hum as it is today. At that time Istria was under the Frankish kingdom, whereas on the remains of the old fortification the castle of Hum was built and after that the first row of houses of the future town started to be built.

Hum was in 1102 by the deed of gift of Urlich II, along with other Istrian castles, signed over to the Patriarch of Aquilea, where it is mentioned as “castrum Cholm”. This was the first official mention of Hum, whereas this was the moment when Hum’s history as a fortification actually began. Today, Hum is a specific town – monument, very special due to the fact that it is one of the rare preserved examples of urban development inside the medieval walls. Since the already mentioned 11th century up to the present moment, there has literally been built nothing more than one building, and that was the Italian school, dating from1892.

The smallest town in the world, beside that it presents a monument of its time, is important and interesting for other things also, namely traces of past. One of them are definitely the frescoes in Hum, a unique work of art that originates from the 12th century. Beside these skillfully painted Biblical motives of an unknown artist on the frescoes in Hum, we should also mention the famous Aleja glagoljaša (Glagolithic Avenue), a series of 11 monuments dedicated to the Glagolitic script, put up between Ro? und Hum.
When writing about Hum, we should definitely not forget the legendary Humska konoba (Hum tavern) and biska, a home-made brandy, made from grape-brandy, mistletoe and four arts of herbs, based on a two-thousand-year-old recipe.

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