Marcana – Marzana: “The old Roman Marciana and the native place of Eduard Calic ”
Later on Marcana followed the destiny of other Istrian towns and in the Middle Ages it suffered several plague and war years. Many times the immigration was necessary to maintain the life in the village.
During the 16th century Marcana was hit again with plague and Marcana was among the few villages, out of 72 villages around Pula, that survived that plague year.
In 1558 Ser Nicolo’ Caliga’ from Greece came with 180 families in Istria and the Count of Pula and the Venetian Senate allowed them to settle down in the village. They proposed to him to choose between Medulin and Marcana and he decided for Marcana.
In 1583 various other families from Zadar in Dalmatia settled down in Marcana and according to the old documents the integration with the older inhabitants was not easy. In the last centuries Marcana’s administration belonged to Pula, Barban and also Vodnjan.
After the fall of Venice in 1797, Marcana was part of the Austrian Empire and for a short period of time was under Napoleon domination. After the First World War and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Marcana, was part of Italy. After the Second World War became part of Yugoslavia (Croatia).
During the Italian Fascist period in Istria many Istrian families suffered from the regime or had to leave Istria. Fascism in Istria applied various repressive measures mostly towards Slav populations and this created the Antifascist Movement. The Second World War was a very painful experience for the Istrian population and many innocent Istrians, both Slav and Latin, died during that war.
After the second World War Marcana became part of Yugoslavia (Croatia). There were three agreements between Yugoslavia and Italy which established that Istria would become a part of Yugoslavia: Paris Agreement of 1947, London Memorandum of 1954 and the Osimo Agreement reached in 1975. In the first decade after the Second World War many Istrians, especially those living in towns and villages that for centuries were part of the Venice Republic, decided to leave Istria.
In 1991 with the fall of Yugoslavia and the founding of the Republic of Croatia, the internal republic boundaries were recognised as the state boundaries and Marcana is today part of Croatia.
In 2013 Marcana became part of the European Union. You can not change the past but you can try to learn from it. The main aim of the European Union founders was to build a system that could avoid future wars and future refugees in Europe as I explain in COSMOPOLITE.
Eduard Calic, a very important European and World recognized historiographer, was native from Marcana.