Istria's hilltop town of artists — a medieval village adopted by painters after near-abandonment
Grožnjan (Italian: Grisignana) is a tiny medieval hilltop town in Istria of fewer than 200 permanent inhabitants, which was virtually abandoned after the departure of the Italian-speaking population in 1956–1957 and was adopted in the 1960s by the Croatian and Yugoslav art world as an artist colony. Today the village is occupied primarily by galleries, artists' studios, and music academies; the annual Jeunesses Musicales international youth music workshop draws young musicians from across the world each summer. The cobblestone streets, Venetian loggia, and Franciscan monastery of the old town…
Grožnjan was a Venetian municipal centre for four centuries (1358–1797) — the Venetian loggia and clock tower in the central piazza date from the 16th century. After 1945 the Italian-speaking population largely emigrated under the Istrian exodus, leaving the town at fewer than 50 inhabitants by 1966. In 1965 the painter Alexander Srnec proposed using the empty village as an artists' colony; the Yugoslav government agreed, providing studios in the abandoned buildings. The cultural colonization was so successful that Grožnjan was legally designated a 'Town of Artists' in 1970 and the process of…