Žminj

Zminj - a small town located in the region red Istria. Zminj will reveal the charm of Istrian scenery. And a glance at the landscape spreading around Zminj, especially when the fields are freshly plowed, will show you the dominant red color of the soil. The town ot Žminj is up on a low limestone hilltop. Žminj is a local center where, unlike most of the inland Istrian towns, the population is growing. It is easy to find on the map. Nine roads spread out from it in a ray-like fashion, heading to Pazin, Lindar, Gračišće, Pićan, Barban, Svetvinčenat, Kanfanar, Poreč, Sv. Petar u Šumi. The major thoroughfares are the regional roads that run through Žminj to Kanfanar and Rovinj. It is 5 km to the railway station of Sv. Petar u Šumi. All these traffic arteries make it easy to get to Žminj. The town has outgrown its medieval core, the walls and towers of which are only partly intact. In the Middle Ages it was part of the powerful Pazin country. Near Zminj a Slavic settlement, probably 10th century, has been excavated. In town the well preserved walls and defense towers surround a number of interesting buildings. The 14th century parish Church of St. Micah which was re-built in the 18th century, houses several 17th and 18th century paintings of the Venetian school and a wooden carved altar pall with the Devotion of the Shepherds. There are 15th century wall paintings in the Gothic Chapel of the Holy Trinity. In another Gothic chapel, St. Antony the Abbot's, from the 14th century, there are also wall paintings in patches, the work of an anonymous master from the Venetian school of painting from the glorious Trecento.