Plomin

Plomin

Plomin is a little town just at the foot of Sisol, set at the Great Gate and at the entrance in inner Istria. The substructure of the place is a town founded by the tribe of Histri which was later taken over by Romans. The Romans named the town Flanona and in fact the entire Kvarner got the name according to it, that name is Sinus flanaticus.
 It is a town of rich cultural and historical heritage. Here we have two highly valuable monumental structures.

At one edge of the place which is also a beautiful belvedere of the Plomin bay, is St George the old church that dates from the 11 the cent. On the south-east wall of the church is placed the famous oldest script in glagolista (old Croatian alphabet) dating from that period - "The Plomin script".

The script is written on the same stone on which is also saved an engraved picture of a man holding a branch of palm tree. The citizens of Plomin believing that this is the picture of St George gave the church the same name. But what we are dealing here is actually the roman god Sylvan. In the part which was added to the original building, is an altar dedicated to St Nicola, the protector of fishermen and sailors. The inhabitants of Plomin gratefully sacrified the altar with occasional gifts. The pride of the church is the Romanic 15m high bell-tower which is one of the three most important Romanic bell- towers in Istria.

The St Mary parochial church, known also as St George Jr. was built in 1474 and the proof to that are the inscriptions with the armors of the Venetian patrons in Labin and Plomin and also the armor of the bishop of Pula who consecrated the church.

The interior of the church is dominated by three baroque altars. The rich heritage is in artistic wood- engravings, liturgical plates, other silver and golden objects and a fresco with the image of Madonna the fostress. In 1994 the Institution for protection of cultural heritage in Rijeka - conservation department - decided to move the "golden retable" so the entire picture could be reviled and restored. This is a big altar picture on the wall dating from late Gothic period, which was originally made for the old "Virgin Mary" church, before it was rebuilt into today's new parochial church of Plomin. The author of this structure is Albert from Kostanz, Boden Lake. Albert's altar picture is a big composition with the Blessed Virgin Mary nursing little Jesus, in the central position , and in the fields right and left of that in two rows are placed the images of saints protectors - St John the Baptist, St John Evangelist, St Kuzma and St Damian.

In 1650 near the parochial church was built the town lodge in the name of the importance of Plomin, which after coming under the government of Venice in 1420, shared the common direction with Labin.