From Trieste to Poreč, 123 km on narrow-gauge tracks: how the Parenzana was born, died and was reborn.
You can almost still see it, that puffing little train, appearing at the mouth of one of the tunnels in the middle of the woods: a narrow-gauge locomotive hauling a few carriages of goods and people along the Trieste–Poreč line in the early twentieth century. This is the Parenzana, the former Istrian railway decommissioned in 1935, which today traces an extraordinary cycling and walking route through north-western Istria. Where trains once ran, cyclists and hikers now pass through, in search of an authentic experience spanning three countries: Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.
Inaugurated on 1 April 1902, the railway was 123 km long and used the 760 mm narrow gauge known as "Bosnian gauge", widespread in the Habsburg Empire for its lower construction costs and times. This winding, spectacular line was built with one fundamental purpose: to bring inland Istria out of isolation and connect it to the hugely important trading hub of Trieste.
The route included 33 stations and stops, running along a daring alignment with 9 tunnels and 17 bridges and viaducts. The most spectacular stretch was between Grožnjan and Vižinada, where, to overcome the elevation change of the Mirna valley, the track took on the character of a true mountain railway, climbing from 2 metres above sea level at Trieste and Koper to 293 metres near Grožnjan.
The little train covered the line in 6-7 hours, bringing life and development to the towns it passed through. It carried both passengers — in oil-lit carriages with 30 seats — and goods valuable to the local economy: wine, oil, timber, worked stone and salt from the Sečovlje salt pans.
After its heyday before the First World War, the annexation of Istria to the Kingdom of Italy and the subsequent competition from road and sea transport led to a slow decline. The line was shut down at the end of August 1935. Later, the post-war period and the drawing of new borders divided the territory, leaving long stretches of the railway abandoned.
Its revival came at the end of the twentieth century: thanks to far-sighted cross-border European projects (Interreg), the railway bed was restored, the tunnels made safe and lit, and the whole route recovered and signposted. Today the Parenzana enjoys a second youth: a 118 km route (3 km in Italy, 35 km in Slovenia and 80 km in Croatia) connecting places and people, known throughout Europe as the "Road of Health and Friendship".
We reconstructed this story with the Trieste Railway Museum, in a documentary filmed with the collaboration of Davide Raseni.