Tinjan

Tinjan has always been a border area town. In the time of the Romans Attinianum protected the borders of Poreč's ager (from Latin: state owned land for public use) from the poorly Romanized peninsular inland and it also monitored the route towards Tarsatica. During MiddleAges it became one of the pillars of Majnard Črnogradski's properties in Pazin-Pisino and along with the Pazin-Pisino castle got by means of a wedding liaison under the rule of the Gorica earls. It was for them that Tinjan fortress safeguarded the often attacked west borderline towards the Aquileia patriarch's properties. In the same way from 1374 till the Napoleonic rule it protected its new owners , the imperial family Habsburg, from the fervent borderline of the Pazin-Pisino county towards the Venetian properties. Despite being itself a borderline Tinjan has never been a solitary fortress but on the other hand since 1587 it has proclaimed itself –a town.

Today Tinjan is a place that proudly preserves its history and tradition whether it relates to the symbols of the area – stone dry walls and pools, Istrian traditional tools (kosiri and rankuni), folklore and architectural heritage, folk tales or legends, or relating to superior gastronomic specialities such as Istrian smoked ham (pršut).The tradition of the production of superb smoked ham is nowadays in Tinjan area preserved by numerous registered smoked ham manufactories and in 2006 Tinjan proclaimed itself the Municipality of Istrian smoked ham.

Another significant tradition of this region is the blacksmith trade with the wide known kosir (a miniature version of sickle always carried by the locals), so that during the festivities of St. Simon's Day in Tinjan there is the traditionally held festival of kosir and other blacksmith's craftworks where all the blacksmiths from Istra gather.