Valamar Blog

A few words today about once frequent and important, but today nearly forgotten traffic route which was in function from 1902 to 1935. I am talking about Parenzana, one-rail railway connecting with Trieste over a series of stations, with Porec as a final station. The main purpose of this railway is to transfer agricultural goods of northwestern Istria.

Parenzana crossed three states: Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, and the first section (Trieste – Buje) was opened on 1 April 1902. A few months after, its southern lane was extended and connected with Porec. Today is the route of Parenzana rearranged into cycling and tracking paths, and a large number of facilities, bridges, viaducts and tunnels are saved. From time to time there are talks of reconstruction of parts of the old railway for tourist purposes, which would definitely be very interesting for the tourists, as well as for the “locals.”

An interesting destiny of this railway track should be mentioned. Mussolini’s government dismantled the tracks and shipped them into Ethiopia which had just been occupied. The ship never made it to its destination as it sunk in the Mediterranean Sea. The railway was long 122 km, bypassing hills and watercourses. Traveling by quick (passenger) line took about 6 hours, and freight about 7 hours.