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A town in central Istria; elevation 361 m; population 5,285. The old part of the town, Kastel, lies on a hill about 130 m above the abyss called Jama (Fojba), in which the Pazincica river (the Brook of Pazin) descends. The abyss represents a unique natural monument, a specific hydrographic and morphologic phenomenon of the Istrian karst landscape. The perpendicular fall of the abyss exceeds 100 m. An interesting fact is that the abyss never runs dry, not even during severe droughts. The part of the abyss explored so far, in a horizontal length of 215 m, ends with three siphon-shaped lakes: Malo, Mitrovo and Veliko. During heavy rains the water gathers in the canyon upstream of the abyss to such an extent that it sometimes forms a lake attaining a length of almost 3 km. Chief occupations include farming, viniculture (the Pazin surroundings), textiles, plastics processing, working of ornamental stone. Situated at the intersection of the main road (M2-1) and regional roads to Zminj and Vodnjan, and Labin. Pazin is located on the railroad Divaca - Pula. Pazin is the central town in Istria and the seat of Istrian County. Pazin's favourable traffic and geographic position has spurred the development of transit tourism. The town also disposes of natural and social attractions which have given rise to excursion tourism, and hunting tourism develops thanks to the efforts of the "Wild Boar" Hunting Club. Of the natural attractions one should mention the famous Pazinska Jama, 130 m deep, with an abyss in the cave and several small lakes under Pazin, to which the first path was laid as early as 1877, and the first person to explore it was the French spelaealogist E. A. Martel in 1893, probably inspired by the imagination of his countryman Jules Verne, the author of SF novels. Namely, in Verne's novel Mathias Sandorf (Paris, 1885), which is set in Pazin, Hungarian rebels manage to escape from the dungeon of the Pazin Kastel by descending through the underground labyrinth to the Limski Kanal Fjord. Important sites from the social life of Pazin include a building in which the writer Vladimir Nazor used to live at the beginning of the 20th century, and the Unification and Freedom Memorial Home, which commemorates the session of the Diet held in Pazin on 25th September, 1943, which resulted in the decision to unite Istria with the mother country Croatia. One can say with certainty that country tourism in the villages around Pazin has its future, as well as in the whole continental part of Istria. Some of the villages have already started to develop this selective form of tourism. Already in 1574 Pazin obtained the permission to organize a fair where farm products and livestock from the surroundings were offered for sale, and this tradition lasts till now. The fair is held every first Tuesday in the month. Pazin has a variety of catering objects, among which the Lovac motel deserves a special mention, where a guest can taste venison and indigenous Istrian specialities.
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Pazin