During the time of Venice the Islands were mainly used for the stones exploitation. Many beautiful buildings in Venice and also the famous palace of the Duke in St. Mark square was built with the stones taken from the Brioni islands.

Not far away from the Church of St. Germaine you can find a small walking area dedicated to Robert Koch where you will see a small part of Brioni preserved quarry.

The Church of St. Germaine was built in the 15th century. In 1896 was burned and severely damaged and its current aspect dates back from 1911. The nearby Chapel with typical Istrian porch was added in 1912.

The Church of St. Germaine is located nearby the castle that was built in the 12th century by the Counts of Pula. This castle was fortified and owned by the Venetian Noble family Dona’ in the 16th century.

The successors of the family Dona’ was the Noble Antonio da Canal. His family remained the owners of the islands until the 17th century. Later on the islands were owned by the Counts Frangini that moved in Portugal but continued to own the islands also after the fall of Venice in 1797.

Later on they sold Brioni to Wildiche from Switzerland and in turn he sold it to Paul Kupelwieser in 1893 when Brioni Renaissance restarted.

Life on the islands totally ceased at the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The islands were hit several times by plague but it had also huge malaria problems.

When Austrian Empire decided to built in Pula its main military harbour for the Empire also the Brioni islands were fortified. The islands were supposed to protect the sea approach into the Bay of Pula and seven fortifications were built on the islands.

The largest fortification, named Tagetthof, was built, in 1862, on Big Brioni’s hilltop named “Vela Straza”. At the time this construction was considered the strongest fort in the Mediterranean.

In 1893, a Viennese industrialist, Paul Kupelwieser, bought the islands with the intention to create an exclusive tourist centre. Before that experience Paul Kupelwieser was the Managing Director of an important Austrian company active in the steel business, named Witkonitz.

It is his merit that Brioni became again one of the loveliest destinations in the Mediterranean for the cosmopolitan society of the Austro Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century.

When he bought the islands there were many malarial mosquitoes on the islands so he invited the famous German bacteriologist and Nobel prize winner, Robert Koch, to exterminate malaria from the islands. Robert Koch was assisted in his work by the doctor Otto Lenz that later on continued to live on the island until 1938 and by  Antonio Berlese.

Paul Kupelwieser built a high class hotel complex, as well as swimming pool with heated sea water. He proceeded to clear the maqui, to bring the necessary land, plant the woods and put parks in order. Paul Kupelwieser’s wood and nature expert was the talented Alojz Cufar.

In 1911 the zoo was also founded on the island by Hagenbeck and animals from all over the World have been brought to the island. Safari is on Brioni also today because later on Tito, the former Yugoslav President, received animals as gifts from many Statesmen. Most of these animals continued to live on the island and today you can see the successors of those animals.

The island became also a botanic garden with lot of new species of plants that were brought to Brioni thanks to Paul Kupelwieser and Alojz Cufar passion.

At the time Brioni had over 630 different plant species, of which 80 were imported. Paul Kupelwieser brought a huge amount of new land to the island that was more suitable for the botanic garden development.

Later on the botanic garden became a suitable area for fauna development and over hundred of different bird species lives on the islands. Like with the plants some species were imported.

In end of Kupelwieser’s development programme on the islands there were over 80 kilometres of roads that today can be enjoyed taking a walk or riding a bike or also driving an electric golf car. You can enjoy and visit most of its 17 natural bays and its over 35 kilometres long coast.