Pazin

Pazin (German: Mitterburg, Italian: Pisino) is the administrative seat of Istria County in Croatia. The town had a population of 8,638 in 2011, of which 4,386 lived in the urban settlement. In 1991 it was made the capital of the county for its location in the geographical center of the Istria peninsula and in order to boost the development of its interior territories.

History

Pazin was first mentioned as Castrum Pisinium in a 983 deed regarding a donation by Emperor Otto II to the Diocese of Poreč. It then belonged to the Imperial March of Istria, which had originally had been under the suzerainty of the newly established Duchy of Carinthia in 976, but separated together with the March of Carniola in 1040.

In the 12th century Mitterburg Castle was in possession of the Lower Carniolan count Meinhard of Schwarzenburg, who held the office of a Vogt of the Poreč bishops (in Latin documents he is known as Cernogradus), and established the Pazin County (earldom). Upon his death, Pazin was inherited by his son-in-law Count Engelbert III of Gorizia (Görz) in 1186.