“Oriondo dalla diocese di Zara… habitante in questa città”: Immigrants from Zadar and from the Zadar Region in Pula (1613–1817)

Na temelju detaljne analize arhivskog materijala autor razmatra nazočnost doseljenika iz Zadra i šireg zadarskog područja u Puli. U matičnim knjigama grada Pule (u razdoblju od 1613. do 1817. godine) spominje se devet mjesta i područja: Biograd, Ist, Kaštel Žegarski, Kornati, Obrovac i Premuda jedanput, Nin dvaput, Pag šest puta, a Zadar čak 112 puta.An analysis of the data of the city of Pula’s registers of births – located in the Pazin State Archive – proved very beneficial in researching and understanding the past of the southernmost Istrian city locality during the Modern Age. Namely, these historical sources enable a broad insight into the process of continual immigration into this region. At that time Pula was a very significant harbor on the Venetian maritime routes towards Dalmatia and the Levant. However, in the city the number of deaths constantly exceeded the number of births so that it could continue to be a city settlement only owing to immigration. As the seat of the Venetian general proveditore for Dalmatia and Albania, Zadar at that time had an important political, strategical and economic role. The presence of people from Zadar was strong and continuous. There is no mention of them in the records only from 1736 to 1760 and from 1790 to 1805. In the period covered by the research project they were recorded in all the Pula registers from 1613 to 1817. Such a conclusion does not, however, hold for the settlements of the wider Zadar region which are also mentioned in the registers but most frequently only once (Biograd, Ist, Kaštel Žegarski, Kornati, Obrovac and Permuda). Only Pag and Nin are mentioned more than once. 50 immigrants are recorded in the register of the dead, 37 in the register of baptism, 22 in the list of those who took Confirmation and 17 in the register of marriages. 126 persons moved to Pula on a temporary or permanent basis from the Zadar region. Migrations from the broader Zadar region to Istria and Pula doubtlessly represented a very interesting and substantial contribution to a better understanding of the total connections of regions which at the time were very distant from one another. Indeed, they directly confirm the existence of significant migratory currents within the Venetian provinces on the Adriatic as well as of connections between Istria and Dalmatia