Bale in Istria – Home to beautiful coastlines, artists and….Dinosaurs!

Istria’s Bale – A dinosaur stronghold and where artist’s easels gather! Bale is a beautiful old historic town 13 kilometres to the south of Rovinj on the coast of the Istrian peninsula.

Artists have gathered here over the years, their easels poised amongst the narrow cobbled streets, capped with inspiring fine old stone arches. The town is situated on one of the least spoiled coastlines of the whole Mediterranean.

In Roman times Bale was a fort, which was built to defend the salt route. Back in those days Bale was known as Castrum Vallis. One of the most photogenic buildings is this truly photographic town is its magnificent palace, which is rumoured to be one of the places where Casanova took some of his many lovers to have his wicked way with them!

There are over 400 species of butterflies in and around Bale and the town is sometimes referred to as the “City of butterflies.” The beautiful and clean coastline also has a bird sanctuary at nearby Palud, which is home to 217 different species of birds.

Bale hit the news in the eighties and then again in the nineties after some remarkable discoveries of dinosaur skeletons. It was well-known that dinosaurs tramped around the Istrian peninsula because fossilised foot prints had been discovered in 1934 by the amateur palaeontologist, Adolf-Bachofen-Echt, but it was in 1985 that real genuine dinosaur bones were discovered.

Italian divers emerged from the sea with the remains of what was thought to be a Brachiosaurus and later in 1992 the bones of 10 different types of dinosaur skeletons were discovered including a massive Brachiosaurus. This firmly established Bale as the leading European centre for dinosaur discoveries.

The climate and vegetation must have been absolutely ideal for the dinosaurs living on the Istrian peninsula. Nowadays you can see the dinosaurs in a specially built museum in Bale.

One can only wonder what the occupying Roman soldiers made of dinosaur bones, because it’s highly likely that they had seen some, especially with the lower sea levels of that time.

Go to Bale if you get the chance, as there is a host of reasons why you should visit this fascinating Istrian town.