Buzet's Terrible Secret

A picturesque Istrian hill town whose fame lies in its dark secret.

Some of the loveliest towns in Istria are set on hill tops - Motovun springs to mind as the permiere example - and Buzet is just such another. You have to park below the town walls and walk up the hill into the town square with its beautiful old church stuffed with bones and other oddments - relics of various saints.

You will have to turn left as you face the church and go down a narrow, cobbled street, then turn left again to find the terrible secret that Buzet hides - a post box for anonymous denunciations of those who might harbour rebellious thoughts against the Venetian government and its secret Council of Seven.

Using this as the illustration, we tell the story of Baldo Lupetino, Croatia's own Protestant martyr, who was drowned in the Venetian lagoon in 1556.