Draguć Guide

Draguć sits on a hilltop ridge in Istria County, Croatia, halfway between Pazin and Buzet, and the first thing you notice is how little of it there is. Grey stone houses line a single main street, the old castle has been swallowed by later buildings, and the hills fold away in every direction.

That main street is edged with Baroque and Classicist facades, among them the house of the Captain of Draguć. Walk it slowly and it opens into a roomy square with a bell tower from 1844, a fountain from 1888 and old hackberry trees shading a stone table. It is a good place to sit before you go looking for the churches.

From the south-western corner of the square the view runs out over Grimalda and Butoniga Lake. The best spot is the Renaissance tower that the Venetian provveditore Francesco Basadonna built in the 15th century. Across the water you can pick out Kašćerga, the village that comes up again when you look at the frescoes.

Film crews found all this long before visitors did. The preserved stone architecture has made Draguć a regular location for domestic and foreign films and TV shows, and people call it the Istrian Hollywood. You will see why as soon as you step onto the lanes.

There are four churches here: St. Elisha, the Lady of Rosary, the Holy Cross and St. Rocco. St. Eliseus stands in the cemetery among cypresses, its bare facade made of alternating rows of darker and lighter sandstone, a bit like a miniature Tuscan Romanesque church.

The Istrian coast fills with package tourists in high season, while the interior is quiet and dotted with walled hill towns. Draguć belongs to that inland side. Istria is good country for hiking and biking, in the hills as much as along the sea, so the village slots easily into a day of wandering.