Valamar Blog

The best way to feel the spirit of the Mediterranean cities is by experiencing the atmosphere of the cities’ historical core. And Porec offers the same. Authentic, Istrian, Mediterranean… Numerous years and people have left their traces on the old streets of Porec, and when passing them you will come across various traces of Porec’s stormy past - streets, towers, walls… only fractions of times gone by… Today, Porec is inspired with new life, and that is why you will arrive at numerous picturesque sights - galleries, museums…

There are many sights to visit in Porec, but one thing is not to be bypassed when in Porec.?. That is definitely the Euphrasian Basilica, and we will come back to it in our future texts bringing you some less known facts about it. For an introductory post I would like to point to some basic facts about the Euphrasiana in Porec. The Euphrasian Basilica was built in the 6th century, during the reign of the Roman emperor Justinijan and was named after Euphrasius, who at that time, was the bishop, but also the constructor of the Basilica. The church was originally named Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, whereas over the years, the citizens of Porec have adopted the name of “Euphrasiana”.

Experts agree when they say that this is one of the most representative and best preserved early Christian buildings on the whole Mediterranean. It is actually a cultural monument that was put on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In order to be given this status, in 1996 the Euphrasian Basilica had to fulfill a great number of challenging UNESCO requirements.
Besides the aesthetic criteria that played a minor role, a whole team of conservators, lead by the profesor Ernest Bacher, assessed and evaluated every detail of the Basilica on the basis of its documentary, scientific and historical value.

To what conclusions they arrived, well, you can read about that in the next post on Euphrasiana…