Vizinada in Istria – Untouched by tourism

Istria’s Vizinada – Aesthetical humbleness amidst an impressive five minutes of fame!

The village of Vizinada on the western side of Istria, 17 kilometres to the northeast of Porec, is likely to be one of those places that unless you have visited personally you have probably not heard of.

Having said this, this traditional, atmospheric and untouched by the wares of mass tourism town, was given its ‘five minutes of fame’ by being used in the filming of the 1970 classic war movie, Kelly’s Heroes.

In the film Vizinada is disguised as Clermont, where a German occupied bank contains $16 million in gold bars.

Despite being filmed more than 44 years ago, nothing much has changed in Vinizada since it enjoyed it’s albeit fleeting notoriety. Vizinada’s church remains its most central focus, as it does in Kelly’s Heroes, being the place where two of the film’s leading characters, Cowboy – played by Jeff Morris – and Gutowski – played by Richard Davalos – were positioned to keep an eye on the village’s main square below and, most importantly, the bank! Vizinada’s church square was also where the confrontation with the Tiger Tank took place, one of the most famous scenes of the film.

This ancient parish was first mentioned in 1177, in a document that granted a privilege to the bishop of Porec. By contrast to Vizinada, Porec is one of Istria’s and Croatia’s as a whole, most popular tourist destinations, which owes much of its popularity to the many beautiful beaches that line Porec’s coast.

Despite its relative anonymity, its staunch refusal to follow the tourist trail and its aesthetical humbleness, Vizinada enjoys a vibrant year-round calendar of events, including the Verso na sterni – the Festival of Poetry – and the folk festivals of St. Valentine and St. Mary.

If all this appeals as a destination, why not have a look at Olivia (pictured), one of Vintage Travel’s luxury villas in Vizinada?