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Istria
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 A much quieter road heads southeast from Pazin towards Labin, passing through rolling, vineyard-covered hills and a succession of quiet hill villages. The fortified settlement of GRACISCE, 6km out of town,
is perhaps the most interesting of these, its main gate leading through to a knot of gravelly streets and grey houses. Just inside the gate is the porticoed Church of St Mary-on-theSquare (Crkva svete Marije na Placu), whose fifteenth-century frescoes are usually visible through grilled windows even when the door is locked. The centrepiece is a stunning Adoration, in which mounted figures in medieval garb are greeted by a radiant Madonna and Child. A building behind the church sports a trio of Gothic windows, all that's left of the summer palace of the bishops of Pićan, a now-insignificant village 3km down the road, which was an important ecclesiastical centre in the Middle Ages (quite why its bishops chose to spend their summer holidays here must remain a mystery).A few steps beyond, the terrace behind the parish church provides terrific views of the surrounding countryside, with the western flanks of Mount Učka presiding over a landscape of sandy hills and mixed evergreen and deciduous forest.
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