I still have some nice stories from Istria to share… One of them is the story of wonderful fresco painting workshops in charming Roč town. Thanks to my Istrian partner Zdenka, of Istriana Travel, we are adding this great program to our list of private tours in Croatia.
And we had to check it in person.
Roč is a very lovely historic town primarily known for it’s great cultural heritage as the local Church of St. Anthony holds the precious Roč Glagolitic Abecedarium (13th century). Also, the first Croatian printed book was prepared in Roč by Jure Žakan: the 1483 Missale Romanum Glagolitice,
The town of Roč has well preserved city walls from the Middle Ages with two entrances and several important artifacts even from the Roman times although there was an earlier village on the place of the modern day Roč. The name Roč, comes from the Celtic Roz. Roč is also known for it’s churches: St. Anton from the 12th, St. Rok from the 14th and St. Bertol from the 15th century and it is also very well known for it’s important frescoes.
So, that inspired Zdenka and Hari to create this wonderful program! Hari met us in Roč dressed in his medieval attire of fresco painter! That was a very interesting presentation of the medieval traditions even before we entered the atelier.
Hari is a great instructor as he explained everything in great detail and in great passion. We learned a lot on the techniques and the original methods and tools of the trade. We also had an opportunity to see how it is done in Hari’s presentation.
We did not have the time to actually paint but the regular workshop, for guests and small groups include the creation of one fresco on your own. Of course, multi day programs are available as well!
The atelier is also a very unique souvenir shop in all of country offering very unique souvenirs inspired with classical Istrian heritage like those from Beram we visited earlier that day.
The regular program is about 2,5 hours long and is tailored for smaller groups although they can handle more on demand.
After the demonstration, we went to see the churches and traditional frescoes of Roč and our Zdenka gave us a great performance at St. Roko church just next to the famous frescoes! We learned a great deal of medieval acoustics as well!
Istria never stops surprising no matter if it is food, wine, art…