The stronghold of Barbariga
CroatiaFor about ten days we lived in Barbariga, Croatia. The town may seem like a typical modern residential area for tourists who come to enjoy Pula and Rovinj, but the town has actually a bunch of its own historical jewels to offer.
So, one day we've decided to explore the surroundings.
On the Google Maps the place was proudly named as "Austro-Hungarian coastal fortress". In reality the building turned out to be just a small observation outpost tucked away on the coast of the Peroj Cove.
It took zero effort to get inside, as the door was long stolen for the metal parts.
The interior was, as expected, in a rather bad shape. No doors, parts of the roof were laying on the floor. It wasn't safe to walk there, the building apparently had basements, but they were filled with water.
By the look of the interior, some rooms gave certain clues on what they were originally used for: a kitchen (?), a storage (?). There used to be a tiled floor once, now completely missing.
The building was separated from the earth or stone hill by a dry moat. Walking behind the building I was surprised not to find an improvised toilet there. The locals seem to be decent residents keeping the premises clean, I certainly give them that.
One remarkable thing that caught my attention was the way the metal parts, such as the window frames and grilles were rusted. The rust wasn't that deep on the thing itself, but when the metal part was in touch with the stone, it looked as if it was eaten away.
After talking to ChatGPT about this little discovery we've come to a conclusion that upon exposure to humid salty air the metal and the stone being in constant contact with each other, form a kind of a galvanic cell, which accelerates the corrosion process.
On our way back we've noticed a bunch of people taking over the space in front of the building for a barbecue place, putting the grill close to the wall of the historical building.
Also, across the road there was a rather simplistic cheap structure with a sign "Cafe" on it.
Certainly, the historical building wasn't asking for being restored and used as a cafe, it was screaming for it. However the structural damage was seen with a naked eye, and in order to fix it, a whole reassembly of the building may be needed: the stone blocks were not in place, the metal parts were deeply rusted, the concrete floor - shattered and unsafe to walk on.
I guess, that's one of the cases when people rightfully say "Easier to be torn down than repaired."
That tiny outpost was far from being the only item in our list to visit. We had a bigger fish to fry that day, so we've soon headed west. Just in 10 minutes walk from the place there was a local jewel: the Fort San Benedetto, erected in 1903.
If you look at the map closely, you'll hardly miss the fact, that the area around Pula and Barbariga in particular is literally stuffed with fortifications. Those were built between 1898 and 1914 by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in order to defend Pula (which was an important naval base at that time).
The Empire has lost the WWI, but the Local Defense Group "Barbariga" of 11 military objects is still "guarding" the area of 150 hectares.
The massive steel gate led to the inner courtyard of the fort. Unlike the previous outpost, the gate was still in place, to my great surprise.
Just behind the gate there was another pair of radial rails mounted into the floor. To the right and left from the rails the leftovers of the grille that once formed a secondary security perimeter were still seen.
I tried moving one of the massive doors, and to my great surprise it moved without a single screech. After so many years (out) of service! Well, maybe local caretakers occasionally come here to clean the place and put some fresh oil.
The fort Benedetto is a rectangle-shaped fortication with a courtyard on the shore side, hidden behind a massive wall and a moat. Judging by the size of the gates and the yard, the fort, apparently, could theoretically house some vehicles.
The complex, to my surprise, still retained a lot of its original metal equipment. Only later I've found the reason: up until 1991 it remained in the military service, used to store ammunition.
The layout of the interior was typical for the fortifications of that time: a corridor going along the entire structure, with rooms on the sides. There wasn't any furniture, the internal doors were mostly missing. One room resembled a leftover from the kitchen, the other one was apparently a toilet.
If you are brave enough, and you have a flashlight, go check out something that can tickle your nerves a little. There is a long dark narrow passage on the first floor, that ends with a small room with a set of narrow embrasures. Thats the front (enemy facing) caponier - a room that allowed the defenders to fire at the enemy trying to storm the walls of the fort.
The fort also had the gorge (rear) caponier, but it wasn't (easily) accessible (the passage was partially blocked by a pile of garbage and vegetation), so we've refrained from checking it out.
As I've mentioned earlier, the iron doors and windows shutters is one of the most intriguing attributes of the fort. Most of them are still in place, they are formidable, heavy and solid. The firing port on the one of the doors had a drop-down metal shutter that weighted maybe 2-3 kilos. The visitors should be extra careful with it if there are children around, otherwise it may not end well.
There are a some rooms that tell an interesting story. One of the rooms on the first floor has a metal door with a label "Muni Bunker 7". Apparently, there were several such bunkers, but only that one had an original door in place, the rest had ugly, shattered wooden doors that were obviously installed at a later period.
Inside the room there were metal hooks in place that perhaps once held shelves with ammunition. But also, there was a rusty elevator and a shaf that lead to another room upstairs. The equipment was all rusted to the bone, and when my son touched it out of curiosity, it was all covered with a weird mix of rust and machine oil.
When we reached the second floor, we've found a room where the shaft surfaced. There was the second part of the machine: a set of guide rails with rollers, that started from the elevator and ended next to the small windows. Outside the structure the windows were sealed off and partially covered with concrete, I'll later tell why.
That was non else but a conveyor belt for the ammunition.
How it worked: the ammunition was stored in bunkers to lower the risk of detonation upon impact. On the surface there was a gun platform with a coastal defense gun. A team of soldiers would pick shells from the crates, and using the elevators the ammunition would be brought up to the second floor. Then, using the conveyer of the second floor it would pass through the small windows on the side, and ended up on the gun platform.
It was so cool the machine was still in place, after so many years. Just think about it: all people who saw it in action and were trained to operate it are long gone.
When we reached the roof, we've found... nothing. Originally, the fort had four gun platforms equipped with 150mm L/40 coastal defense guns, plus two flanking platforms with smaller 70mm L/42 guns. Today, (almost) all platforms, as well as every horizontal surface of the roof were covered with concrete slabs.
The race between the defense and offense was, and still is a never-ending one. The forts originally were built of stone and brick, but when the first rifle guns and heavy mortars appeared, it has become clear the existing fortifications wouldn't last long under the fire of the new weapons. However, after some excessive testing it has also become evident, that concrete can still give decent protection due to its ability to absorb the impact of the shells.
So, somewhere at the beginning of the 20th century the fortifications across Europe were upgraded with concrete roofs. I guess, in case of fort Benedetto, its fire platforms fell victim to the upgrade. The southern gun platform had a gun hangar next to it, and upon giving the upgrade they didn't even bother removing the rails: the rails just went straight under the concrete slab. It's not like people hoped to remove the protective cover one day and resume the operation of the gun, is it?
The northern gun platform, however, wasn't covered, thus it gave a unique opportunity to contemplate the original design of the gun platform. At the begninning I couldn't figure how the rails played with the turnable turrets, but then I've noticed small diagonal cuts on the rail barely noticeable from the distances: when the turret was turned, a segment of the rails would move along.
The fort had two cabins that protruded slightly above the roof. Initially I thought they were places where the minigunners would sit, but then I've figured that the embrasures would be too narrow to let the gun tilt vertically. Also, the miniguns would be useless at such a distance. Then I've discovered the brochure that said the fort was equipped with two range finders under massive armored cupolas.
A range finder is a device that measures the distance to a target, so the artillery could hit it. The embrasure of one of the cupolas was again half-fileld with concrete, making it even narrower than it used to be.
So there I had the explanation. Ofcourse, the equipment was long gone, only a hollow shell remained. It's also worth mentioning, that the trees blocking the view today weren't there when the fort was at its prime. The coastal view was clear and unobstructed, allowing the range seekers work as they were designed to.
The wall covering the fort from the land side had three (or so) fire dots meant for the miniguns. What's intriguing was the way the mountings were constructed: they had two radial rails of different diameters. I had two theories regarding that: either the second radial rail was a later upgrade, or two different guns could be mounted on the same platform. Since the concrete didn't have any patches or markings, I think the second statement is closer to the truth.
On our way out I've taken a few shots of the gorgeous gorge caponier we couldn't get into. The moat cut from the solid rock was entirely covered with vegetation. A small stone ladder at the beginning of the way to the caponier had something that looked like a tombstone as one of the steps. The text was partially visible, but I couldn't make out what it said.
All in all, the Benedetto fort is a rather interesting place, and it's the most well-preserved and accessible one in the area. I'd say it's a family-friendly even (if being extra careful). If you only have a few hours, definitely pay at least this fort a visit.
After climbing on the roof and zoomed 10x towards North-West, I've spotted our next target on the horizon: the Forno Fort.
It took certain effort to get to the fort. Sadly, the complex was fenced off, and there was a big metal lock on the gate. We couldn't get inside, but hey, maybe that's for the best, otherwise another 100 of photos would have ended up here. We could only observe the fort standing on the hill located on this side of the moat, and I flew the drone over the area once again.
The fort was built in year 1914, cut from the solid rock, perfectly blending with the surrounding landscape. It's armament, however, was quite modest: two 350mm L/35 and two 280mm L/35 guns. The fort was capable of making crossfire with the other fort Brioni Minor (located on the island) in order to defent the Fazana channel.
Forno would be just another boring fort, if not for the fact, that the western part of the building was completely destroyed, literally turned into a sea of debris.
Almost one fourth of the fort's internal space was occupied by the engine room, where gasoline generators and the batteries were located. The official story states, that sometimes in 1944 the machine hall was suddenly and completely destroyed by a devastating explosion of unknown origin. The massive concrete ceiling fell down, effectively burying everthing and everyone below. I guess no visitor would be left emotionless by the looks of the iron shutters bent outwards by the blast, along with the other metal shutter hanging soleily in mid-air. That's just epic.
They say the access to the destroyed part is still very challenging.
Today the complex is used as a venue, and honestly, by the looks of it, the restricted part of the building seems highly unstable and unsafe to visit, being ready to fall on the heads of some unlucky visitors.
It was smart to find the fort a new meaningful purpose, at least this way the buildings weren't left to rot.
Even though we couldn't get inside, my kid had a great time throwing rocks into the moat, while me being worried about him falling down the wall. "Don't stay back towards the cliff!" - I nervously kept repeating.
The Forts Paravia West and Ost are essentially two identical structures built in 1907, located several kilometers apart and meant to cover the area from the the invasion from the land using four M99 100mm mortairs each. Both forts are in quite a terrible condition, almost no metal parts remained, the concrete ceilings were leaking rain water. In my opinion, you don't have to visit both of them, probably Ost would be enough, as it seems to be in a slightly better shape.
The gun platforms look as if they were torn apart by the local marauders who probably used the metal parts for scrap.
The photo below looks especially fishy, as if the destruction happened not so long ago, because the rough concrete edges look really fresh and there isn't any vegetation around. The metal ring seems to be missing, which is still present around a similar gun platform seen on the other photo above.
Solid metal pieces that support the platform top definitely caught my attention. For how long will they remain here, before someone decides they need some scrap metal to sell for a bottle of Rakija?
Pity. At this rate it will only take some time before the forts turn into a simple and boring pile of concrete rubble.
Inside the forts I took a few dramatic shots, that gave me instant flashbacks to the first level of the game "Far Cry 1". The concrete ladders lead to the gun platforms on the roof.
There is a typical mess inside, you'd be extra careful and watch your step.
As the forts were identical, it was easy to compare the sheer scale of the mess happening inside. The same ladder was missing in the Fort West, but still in place in the Ost:
Someone was in a desperate need of having some bricks for their flower beds. You can still make out where the door passage had once been.
Some internal passages of the Ost fort were "sealed", I wonder why someone would do that.
A very distinct room with the remains of something that was once definitely a toilet. That's where the soldiers took s**ts and perhaps forced the newly arrived to clean toilet pans with toothpicks.
The shaky staircase without any handrails invited us to explore the first level of the fort. Someone has carefully placed a tree branch just at the edge of the foor in attempt to make the place safer.
After crossing the staircase we entered the grim murky first floor. At the far end of the corridor we saw bats, that weren't quite happy to see us.
One thing really puzzled me while exploring the interiors of the first floor: windows facing the solid rock of the stone basin that was cut to fit the fort in.
I guess, the reason for that was the fact, that the blueprints the forts were built from were not unique, there was perhaps sort of a serial construction that wasn't really adapted to each specific location.
Below the first floor there seems to be a flooded basement, as I've seen in the other places.
I wonder just how deep the basement really is?
Finally, we've have managed to escape through the door on the other side. It was a bit of a relief.
In conclusion I must admit the experience was a mix of adrenaline, disappointment and disgust, especially comparing with the outstanding (to a certain extent) condition of the Benedetto fort we saw earlier.
Leaving the forts behind, we were on our way to the last point of interest: the Paravia Barracks. Our path went through a private road laided through the vineyards.
After driving on a dirt road for good 5 kilometers, entering a well-developed asphalted road was like stepping on a red carpet wearing a pair of hiking boots. The road even had signs branded: not red, as they should be, but suddenly black. Was it even legal? - I thought.
The barracks turned out to be just a two-story building, again stripped off the most of the metal parts.
Interestingly, the building wasn't touching the rock when it was built, there was a gap of about 1 meter wide.
The interiors turned to be surprisingly clean, however in some places massive cracks in the roof allowed the rain water to pour inside.
In some places there were the Monier vaults on the ceilings. These type of vaults were exteremly popular back in the days.
The most remarkable feature of the interiors was of course the toilet room, with the toilet holes sealed all of a sudden.
On the first floor we've discovered a carcass of a sheep at the later stage of decomposition. I took no photos of course, but honestly it would be a huge disappointment to explore so many abandoned buildings and not find someone's dead body.
As we were running out of time, we deliberately skipped some other fortifications in the area. I was slightly disappointed by the condition of Fort Paravia West/Ost, so after looking at the photos on google maps I thought it wouldn't make too much sense to check the rest out. However now I think it would be still worthy to visit at least the Caluzzi Battery. Even though there were mostly concrete debris in the area today, huge artillery platforms and the rounded railings around them could still be of interest, especially taken from the drone. Alas, I'll have to visit the battery in another life, as it's clearly not big enough reason to re-visit the area in the future.
There were some minor outposts around the main military objects, but they were completely swallowed by the forest, and I've unfortunatelly left my machete in the other country.
The forts of Barbariga, as mentioned earlier, are just a small part of the whole defense system in the region. Just look at this map below, the green rectangles cover the forts we had a chance to explore, the rest is a mystery:
Barbariga isn't only famous for its fortifications, but is also known as a site of wonderful archeological finds! In a year 2024 a team of archaeologists has discovered an oil mill from the Roman times, probably the largest one in the area.
The olive oil production process was rather simple: the olives were crushed by a stone wheel, and the oil was extracted by pressing. The oil would then be separated from the solid parts and water, and then stored in large clay amphorae.
Among the debris a visitor can see stones with square holes where the wooden shed support has once been, the remains of olive presses, oil ducts and shattered basins.
The scientists believe the complex could be even larger, so probably additional finds are still to be discovered nearby. Some parts of the mill are covered by the protective textile, as the process of the excavation is still ongoing.
This mill was also the first place I've tested the drone above. It was a bit unease to fly it in the middle of the supposedly closed olive grove above the excavation site, supposedly-government-protected, but noone came after us with a shotgun, so I guess it wasn't such a big deal after all.
The mill turns to be a rather important piece of the puzzle in the history of the area, along with the remnants of a villa located a few hunded meters away, and the nowadays sunken Roman pier discovered under the waters of the Peroj Cove.
On our last day I've discovered another ruin basically just around the corner from where we lived. Of course, I couldn't leave it unexplored.
The monastery complex was built in the 5th century, and abandoned in the 13th. After several centuries of decay, only the the lines of the walls remained. The place is sadly fenced off, and totally missed a good observation promenade above the excavation site. Alas, I doubt the ruin is worthy enough to invest into it as a tourist attraction, as it is basically located on the outskirts of the town in a curl-de-sac.
Not only the ruins are not open to public, there were also signs the nature slowly taking back what belongs to it, as I saw the vegetation growing on the site.
Well the fence didn't stop me from taking a few aerial shots. The proximity of the residential area nerved me a bit, so I went behind the trees where noone could see me. It was an early morning, and all the windows were shut tight. So, I took a few photos and buckled up before they knew it.
I was driving by on my way to the forts when I've spotted "The Ruins of Ancient Civilizations ©". I had little time, so I took a few photos of the site, as well as the info board.
Turned out it was a early christian chapel discovered in 2005 and built somewhere in the 5th century on the place of a ancient (probably roman) mausoleum. The info board said the remnants of a cornice and column capitals were found on site, as well as stone coffins with the remains of dead people inside. The church had two sections: the main one and the ossuary, and today partially hidden below the road.
The inhabitants of the residential area around the church had the best neighbors: good and quiet. The building was probably abandoned many centuries ago, quickly falling into disrepair and later being dismantelled for raw materials by the go-ahead locals. Usual story, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the houses around have stones from the church in their walls.
When we've chosen Barbariga as a place to book a hotel in Croatia, I didn't expect much. But in the end, I never regretted the decision. Not all forts are perhaps worthy of a visit, but for me it was a great adventulre. It reminded me of playing the Elder Scrolls "Oblivion" game, where you are offered a chance to descend into ancient underground elvish dungeons. I had exactly that feeling, and I had a great time exploring.