The visit of Gracisce is always nice and recommended, but there is a special atmosphere in the village on the St. Vito’s Day, celebrated on 15th of June, also named “Vidova”. On “Vidova” the fair and the race on donkeys is held.

In May there is a mouth-organ festival that is another particular date for the visit of Gracisce.

Gracisce area is also famous for very nice walking paths and I am pleased to share the following video registered during a downhill mountain bike freeride.

GRACISCE – HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Like most other Istrian towns and villages also Gracisce was inhabited since prehistoric times. It was a prehistoric hill fort settlement and during the Roman period was a castrum named Callinianum.

Later on Gracisce followed the destiny of the most other Istrian towns and after Romans was part of Byzantine Empire, Carolingian kingdom and later on was under German Emperors. Later on the Aquileia Patriarchs gave Gracisce to the Bishops from  Pican.

In the 13th century Pican Bishops gave the feud to Counts of Gorizia and in 1342 Gracisce, at that time named Galiae, was part of Alberto IV properties and part of the County of Pazin.

In 1374 Gracisce passed to the Hapsburg family that gave it in feud to various lords. It is known that in 1498 was named Galiann.

In 1508 was involved in the war between Venice and Austria, and occupied for a year by Venetians.

In 1555 Gian Battista Valvassor obtained the feud and some other villages as a guarantee for a loan that he gave to Cristoforo Mosconi, the owner of County of Pazin at that time.

Gracisce was also involved on the Austrian part in the Uskoci’s war against Venice in 1616 and 1617. In 1653, due to an insolvency of County of Pazin, the feud passed to Count Giovanni Balbi of Wolfsdorf.

At the time people were several times complying for too high taxes that they were paying and an administrator of the Balbi family was killed in Pican because of that.

Later on the village followed the destiny of other Istrian towns and villages that were under Austrian dominion and after a short period of Napoleon was again part of Austria and later on part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until the end of the First World War. Between the two World Wars was part of Italy and 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 Gracisce 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.