In 1420 the Aquileia Patriarchs lost their power in Istria and Porec started to live its prosperity cultural and artistic period when many beautiful houses were built but plague continued to kill many people. In the 15th century it happened four times: in 1456, in 1467, in 1473 and in 1487.

In 1508 Porec suffered from the war between Venice and Austria and other plague years happened. Porec lived a very hard times and even the Bishops escaped from Porec to Vrsar.

During the 16th century Venetian Senate decided to accept new immigrants from the Balkan area that were escaping from the Turks in order to re-establish the economy and the life in the area. Unfortunately the war time continued at the beginning of the 17th century between Venice and Austria, better known as Uskoci war. The colonisation was interrupted by another plague year in 1631 and only few hundred people remind in Porec.

The immigration continued and Porec significantly increased the number of its inhabitants in the 18th century during the succession war in Spain because Venice used Porec’s harbour as military port. In that period Porec had important Bishops that help to support the cultural development of the town like Bishop Negri and in 1771 Bishop Francesco Polesini from the Noble Istrian family.

Another important Porec Bishop was Giovanni II that helped cultural development of Porec in the 15th century. There were other that apparently did little for the good of the town like Bishop Bonifacio that was elected in 1283 and three years later he proclaimed that the whole town was belonging to the church. After this decree the Bishop was forced by the population to escape from Porec.

With the fall of Venice, Porec became a part of the Austrian Empire and for a short period of time was under Napoleon domination (1806-1814) and than again was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.It is interesting that Porec during the Napoleon period had: streets improved, the postal office reorganized, free elementary school, religion orders dissolved and only the civil marriage existed. In end during Napoleon period the brigandage activity was repressed. In 1861 Porec became the capital of the Istrian province and it had its Regional Parliament seat in it. Porec was the capital of Istria until 1923 when the capital seat was transferred to Pula. Later on, at the beginning of the 1990’s, the capital seat of Istria Region was transferred to Pazin.

After the First World War and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Porec, 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 Porec 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 Porec is today part of Croatia.

In 2013 Porec 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.