Koper

The sunny city

Once an important island stopover on the route from Aquileia eastward, Koper is part of the mainland and the most important city on the Slovene coast. 

Its beginnings reach back to the Greek and Roman period when it was first a Greek (Aegido) and the a Roman outpost (Capris).The migration of nations in the 6th century brought new rulers to the region. The old settlers retreated to the island where a fortified settlement was built that soon developed into a city. Its new Byzantine masters named it Justiniopolis. The famous Rižanski placitum document from 804 describes the steeling of its hinterland by the Slavs.

The great influence of various masters on the character of the city is evident. The Istrain border counts and the Aquileian Patriarchs raised it to Caput Histriae, the capital of Istria. After a period of independence, Koper became subject to the Venetian Republic, and in this period the city experienced its greatest economic and cultural rise. In the 19th century, Koper remained in the shadow of the development of Trieste, the main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It began to regain importance in 1954 when the Slovene coast was allotted to Yugoslavia. Today, Koper is a major part of Central Europe.

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