Istra at the Time of the Napoleonic Conquests

The bourgeois French revolution and Napoleon, the product of it, led to radical changes in social life in many areas. After a few victories, some real and others imaginary, Napoleon consolidated his grip on power in France and began his military campaigns in Europe. His first targets of some substance were the small Italian States, weak militarily but prosperous economically. With skilful diplomacy he succeeded in obtaining the consent of the Austrians with whom he had reached a secret accord at Leoben on 18 April 1797, allowing Austria to take Venetian Istra in the subsequent partitioning. With the peace treaty of Campoformio (17 October 1797), which also marked the downfall of the Republic of Venice, Austrian jurisdiction over these lands was acknowledged.


The First Austrian Period in Istra (1797-1805)

The new rulers did not alter the existing administration, but limited themselves to transferring the power of the Venetian city rectors of the preceding period (podesta') to specific civic bodies which were first nominated and then elected. At Koper in 1797 a provisional government (Magistrato) was created for the former Venetian Istra. At the head of the magistrature there was a president who was, as in the Venetian epoch, also the president of the appeal tribunal. A great change was the fact that the new rulers had put on an equal footing the rights of the people and those of the nobles. Another important change was that carried out in the field of administrative divisions of the territory: many Venetian city communes, without alteration in their coverage, were aggregated into larger administrative units-the departments. Until 1805 Istra had the following departments: Koper, Piran, Poreč, Rovinj, Pula, Labin and Buzet (where the first-degree tribunals were located).

In 1803 the system of Governments (Gubernium) was introduced for the third time in the provinces of Austria Interior, whilst in Trieste the joint Triestine-Istran government was established for the first time. Koper became the seat of the Istran district, while the seat of the court of appeal was transferred to Klagenfurt. Austrian Istra, also known as the county of Pazin, was included as a district commissariat in the district of Postojna and in the government of Ljubljana, which comprised the provinces of Kranjska and Goriška.


Istra as a part of the Kingdom of Italy

The Austro-French wars which followed had substantial consequences for the provinces, as Austria was compelled to make some territorial concessions. On the basis of the peace treaty of Breslau (December 1805), the province of Trieste lost the territory of former Venetian Istra which was included in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. In the framework of the provisional organisation of the territories of the former Venetian Istra a province by the same name was established headed by the civil magistrature of Koper. Angelo Calafati became the president of the magistrature, that is of a kind of Istran government. He was a central figure in Istran political life in the period of great changes between the end of the 18th and the start of the 19th centuries.



On the first of May the laws of the Kingdom of Italy came into effect in Istra and the Napoleonic Code (Code civile or Code Napoleon) was introduced, which brought about radical changes. The new authorities proclaimed that the administration and magistrature of the newly acquired territories of Venetian Istra would have to conform with those of the rest of the kingdom. This also invalidated the statutes of the Istran cities. The province of Istra became transformed into a department headed by a prefect (Angelo Calafati), while the lower administrative units were the districts (of Koper and Rovinj with the border on the Limski Channel) headed by vice-prefects. The districts were broken down into smaller units called cantons or 'districts': Koper, Piran, Buzet, Poreč, Vodnjan, Rovinj and Labin. The cantons in turn were subdivided into communes. The head of each commune was the podesta', who was assisted by a special administrative council, while the head of the rural communes was the meriga. The district tribunals of the first degree were abolished and the civil and military tribunal of the first degree in Koper was given the responsibility of administering justice in the whole of Istra. In 1808 Napoleon raised Istra to the status of a duchy and Marshal Bessier was appointed as its Duke.


The Province of Istra in the Illyrian Provinces (1809-1813)

After the French victory at Wagram and the peace treaty of Schönbrunn, Austria lost the territories which Napoleon on the 14 October 1809 formed into the Illyrian Provinces centred on Ljubljana. In 1810 the Kingdom of Italy ceded the Department of Istra to the Illyrian Provinces and the Province of Istra was established with Trieste as its main centre. This comprised the territory of the city of Trieste, part of the territory of Gorica, the former Venetian Istra and, from 18 September 1811, the territory of the former Austrian Istra as well.

The province was equated to departments in France and the superintendent (Angelo Calafati, at the start and end of the Illyrian Provinces) had the same responsibilities as a French prefect. He was in charge of all fields of administration. Each province had an engineer for bridges and roads, an inspector of the register for taxes and of public properties, an inspector of mortgages, a director of the treasury, an inspector of forests, customs and lotteries.

The lower administrative units were the districts headed by a vice-delegate. There were four districts in Istra: Gorica, Trieste, Koper and Rovinj.

In August 1813 Austria declared war on France, with the result that the Illyrian Provinces were conquered by them in the very first year, and after the Paris peace of 1814 Austrian power was reestablished, even though the organisational structure was not entirely identical to that which had existed before 1805 or 1809.


Internal Conditions at the Time of the French Reforms

The French to begin with gave all citizens equal rights; they set limits on the power of the church and dissolved numerous monasteries and confraternities, and soon after, together with their administrative reforms, they also brought into the province their fiscal system. Notwithstanding the introduction of many freedoms, for instance tolerance of concubinage (de-facto marriages), and the discharge of some peasants' obligations, they did not completely abolish the feudal system.

The largest Istran city at the time was Rovinj with about 9000 inhabitants; it was, however, also the main centre of opposition to French rule. The Anglo-French clash spread to the Istran coast as well, causing serious damage to fishing, the shipping fleet and the economy in general. The English navy persistently attacked and disturbed with its guns the towns on the Istran west coast (Rovinj, Vrsar, Poreč) and it supported piracy against the French. Brigandage too was a relevant factor in the life of interior Istra. The governor-general of the Illyrian Provinces, Marshall Marmont, wrote in his memoirs: 'Lawlessness was so great and so widespread that the people of southern Istra and Rovinj did not dare leave the towns without first paying the brigands a toll consistent with their wealth.'

The continued military campaigns required much money, livestock and soldiers and since all of it had to be paid for by the population, discontent was growing amongst the people. When France was at war with the coalition of European States in 1813, the peasants of central Istra joined the Austrian detachments engaged in fighting the French.


Istra under Austrian rule (1813-1918)

When the Illyrian Provinces were returned to Austria the name of Illyria was retained and, after a period of provisional government, separate governments were recreated as organs of power in the provinces. The government located in Trieste covered the city and its surrounding area, Gorizia and Gradisca, the whole of Istra (the former Venetian and Austrian Istras), the islands of the Kvarner and-until 1822-Rijeka and civilian Croatia which in that year were included in the Austro-Hungarian Empire as part of the Habsburg monarchy.

The provinces grouped administratively under the government of Trieste were referred to by the term 'Littoral'; therefore the Triestine government was also called the Government of the Littoral, or the Austro-Illyrian Littoral.

The Government of the Littoral consisted of four lower levels of administrative units: that of Istra, with its seat in Trieste (the natural continuation of the gulf of Trieste up to Aquileia was also part of it), that of Rijeka (with the county of Pazin, the future district of Podgrad and the islands of the Gulf of Kvarner) and that of Gorica. In 1816 Karlstadt was added to the Littoral as a further unit. After the transfer of Rijeka and civilian Croatia to Hungary in 1822, the unit of Pazin was formed from what remained of the Rijeka administration. However, by 1825 the government of the Littoral was reorganised into only two units: that of Istra with its seat in Pazin (which comprised former Venetian and Austrian Istra, the nearby Slovenian districts with Podgrad and the islands of the Gulf of Kvarner) and that of Gorica. Trieste and its environs as an administrative unit came under the direct control of the Royal Authority; hence it was outside the local administrative structure.

Administrative Organisation from the Revolution of 1848 to the Second World War

On the basis of the constitution imposed on 4 March 1849, the emperor appointed governors of the individual possessions of the Crown. As organs of the executive power, the governors had to control the application of State and provincial laws and in addition to manage the internal affairs of the territory entrusted to them. The territory of the Littoral was defined as a unitary administrative territory with the seat of the governor in Trieste.

With the newly imposed constitution, and bearing in mind the constitution of 1848, the previous administrative levels were restructured into provinces with provincial legislatures and the foundations were thus laid of the autonomous provincial administration. Although in 1848 the margraviate of Istra was formally constituted with the usual territorial coverage, it was envisaged that it would have a provincial assembly in common with Gorizia and Gradisca, centred in Gorizia. Of all the anticipated provincial arrangements, only the one for Trieste was implemented.

Only in 1861 did Istra obtain her administrative autonomy, with the provincial assembly located in Poreč. Naturally she was part of the group of provinces constituting the Austrian Littoral, with the imperial administration in Trieste. This administrative organisation was maintained till 1918-20, when the territory of Venezia Giulia, excluding a minimal part of north-east Istra and the island of Krk/Veglia, went to Italy on the basis of the Rapallo treaty (or until 1924 when Italy also annexed the city of Rijeka). Istra was then divided into three provinces of the Kingdom of Italy: The major part of the peninsula remained in the province of Pula, the north-east part was incorporated into the province of Fiume/Rijeka, while Muggia and San Dorligo/Dolina became part of the province of Trieste. This arrangement was maintained until after the Second World War and the decline of Italian power in these territories at that time.