The Small Theatre
Cut into the slope behind the building, included in the ticket.
Miroslav.vajdic โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Orlovic โ CC BY-SA 3.0 ยท Zde โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany โ CC BY-SA 2.0
The principal museum for the archaeology of the whole Istrian peninsula, on a hill between the Arena and the **Gate of Hercules**. The collection runs from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages, but its weight is in **Roman Istria**: sculpture, inscriptions, mosaic, pottery and tools from Pula and its territory, and a large group of **gravestones** carved with the names of ordinary individuals โ soldiers, traders, freedmen โ which is the clearest evidence of who actually lived here. The museum was closed for years for restoration and has reopened in stages, so check which sections are open before going. But its best part is not indoors. Behind the building is the **Small Roman Theatre** of the first century, cut into the hillside, its stone seating still in place. Entry is covered by the museum ticket. Note: directly in front of the museum stands the **Gate of Hercules**, carrying **Pula''s oldest inscription** (about 47 BC) with the names of the Roman colony''s two founders โ free, and missed by most visitors.
Cut into the slope behind the building, included in the ticket.
The names of ordinary people โ soldiers, traders, freedmen.
The city''s oldest inscription, free, in the street outside.
Carrarina 3, Pula
A plain-looking Roman gate at the north-eastern entrance to the old town that people walk past without stopping โ yet it is **the oldest dated monument in Pula**. At the top of its arch is a carved head of Hercules with a club, and beneath it a **Latin inscription of about 47 BC** naming **Lucius Cassius Longinus** and **Gaius Cassius Longinus**, the officials the Senate sent to found the Roman colony here. That inscription is therefore **the city''s birth certificate**: the oldest written evidence that it existed, and the names of the men who founded it. The carving is worn and hard to read, so look for the interpretation panel beside it. โ It is free and stands in a public street.
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