Today Brsec lives mostly from its tourism offer and once it lived from agriculture, wine-making, cattle breeding and fishing. The preserved architecture makes this place lovely and nice to visit. There are several interesting walks: the first one could be towards the Church of St. Magdalene, the second towards the send beach and the last one, and the longest, towards one of the Ucka mount peaks, Sisol (803 meters high).

BRSEC – HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

There are not many historical facts relating to this little town. It has followed a similar history to many Istrian towns. Brsec changed many rulers and authorities over the centuries.

Close to Brsec there is a prehistoric hill fort settlement. The place was inhabited during the Roman and Byzantine periods and since the Middle Ages it followed mainly the destiny of other cities of the Liburnia region.

Some of the rulers were: Pula’s Bishops (1028), Counts of Duino (1139), Counts of Gorizia (1275), Alberto IV Counts of Pazin (1342), Hapsburg family (1374), Febo della Torre (1443 or 1447), it was occupied by Venetians in 1509, Andrea de Durer (1511-1532), Alessio Mosconi (1533), Valvasor (1554), Venetians occupied it again in 1612 and from 1616 to 1618, Ferdinando Archduke of Austria (1618).

From this short overview of the historical rulers of this small town it can be understood that Brsec was for many centuries on the border between the Venice Republic and the Austrian part of Istria. It is also interesting to note that although Brsec had the city statute since the 17th century,  the document was never found.

Brsec was for many centuries Austrian dominion. Between the two World Wars it was part of Italy. After the Second World War it 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 Brsec 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 Brsec is today part of Croatia.

In 2013 Brsec 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.