Piran

Piran Pirano (Italian)
From top, left to right: Piran from the town wall, Town Hall, St. George's Church, St. Clement's Church and Lighthouse, Piran's harbour at night, Town center with Tartini Square
Slovenian Littoral
Statistical region	Coastal–Karst
Municipality	Piran
Area [1]
• Total	0.70 km2 (0.27 sq mi)
Elevation	16 m (52 ft)
Population  (2019)[1]
• Total	3,733
Vehicle registration	KP

Piran (Slovene pronunciation:

History

In the pre-Roman era, the hills in the Piran area were inhabited by Illyrian Histri tribes who were farmers, hunters and fishermen. They were also pirates who disrupted Roman trade in the northern Adriatic.^[2]

The Piran peninsula was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 178 and 177 BC and settled in the following years with rural homes (villae rusticae).^[3]

The decline of the Roman Empire, from the 5th century AD onward, and incursions by the

From 1283 to 1797, the town became part of the Republic of Venice, where it was governed in a semi-autonoumous way, with a council of local noblemen assisting the Venetian delegate.^[6] Several enemy (e.g. from the Republic of Genoa) and pirate assaults were repelled during the late Middle Ages; a great pestilence hit the town in 1558, killing about two thirds of the population. The last decades of Venetian rule were marked by decadence, due to the competition with the nearby Austrian port town of Trieste.

The town was annexed to the

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Piran was an Austro-Hungarian town with over 15,000 inhabitants, roughly the same size as nearby Koper. Around 80% of the population was ethnically and culturally Italian, with a Slovene minority of around 15%.^[8] It was a flourishing market and spa town with good transport connections. The first trolleybus line in the Balkans was introduced to public service on 24 October 1909 in Piran. In 1912, it was replaced by a tramway that operated on the same route till 1953.

After the

On 24 October 2010, Slovenia became the first country of former communist Europe to elect a black mayor. The physician Peter Bossman, who came from Ghana in the late 1970s, was elected the Mayor of Piran. He officially took office at the first constitutional meeting of the Municipal Council on 12 November 2010, succeeding Tomaž Gantar.^[11] He represents the Social Democrats.^[12]

The territorial claims of Croatia and Slovenia in the Gulf of Piran remain an important matter of debate in the Croatia–Slovenia border disputes that began after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

Culture and education

Piran is the birthplace of the composer and violinist

Piran is the seat of the Euro-Mediterranean University of Slovenia (EMUNI), founded in 2008 as one of the cultural projects of the Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean. The Piran Coastal Galleries, a public institution encompassing a group of six public contemporary art galleries, is based in Piran.^[13]

Cultural events

Musical evenings have taken place for decades in the

The municipality's festival is 15 October, which celebrates the foundation of the first Slovenian partisan naval detachment, named Koper, in 1944. ^{[citation needed]}

Geography and climate

Piran is located at the tip of the Piran peninsula on the Gulf of Piran.

To the east of the town, along the northern coastline (in the direction to

According to the Austrian language census of 1910, there were 7,379 inhabitants in the town proper,

Piran was heavily influenced by the

Communications and transport

There is an international airport and a marina in the vicinity of the town. The medium-wave transmitter of Radio Koper is in Piran. It transmits on 1170 kHz and has a 123.6-metre-tall guyed mast with cage antenna. The town is connected with Koper, Izola, Portorož (the location of the airport), Sečovlje and Lucija by a cheap bus line. The lines of other coastal settlements operate mostly during the tourist season.^[19]

The first

Twin towns and sister cities

Piran is

Gallery

• 
  Piran's harbour
• 
  Piran's lighthouse
• 
  Piran's town hall on Tartini Square
• 
  Panoramic view of Tartini Square
• 
  Cape Madonna, the westernmost tip of the peninsula
• 
  Tartini Square at night
• 
  Red roofs of Piran seen from St. George's Cathedral
• 
  Side view of St. George's Cathedral

References