Koper / Capodistria: Port City with a Historic Old Town
Travel guide · editorialA vacation in Koper / Capodistria takes you to the largest city on the Slovenian coast. Behind the country's only seaport lies a Venetian old town with palaces and squares, while the hinterland offers vineyards and villages with famous frescoes.
Location and City
Koper lies in the Slovenian part of Istria, only about 20 kilometers from Trieste. The old town was once an island and was not connected to the mainland until the 19th and 20th centuries. Under Venetian rule, Capodistria was the capital of Istria, which is why Slovenian and Italian are both official languages. Today the Port of Koper is Slovenia's most important hub for containers and cars, and cruise ships dock here as well. The municipality extends far into the green hinterland, taking in vineyards and Karst hills near the Croatian border.
Sights in Koper
Titov trg is the city's most beautiful square. Here you'll find the Gothic-Venetian Praetorian Palace with its battlements and coats of arms, the Loggia with a café, and the Cathedral of the Assumption with its bell tower, which you can climb for a panoramic view over the harbor and bay. Narrow lanes lead to the Da Ponte Fountain and to the harbor with its waterfront promenade and a city beach. On the edge of town lies the Škocjanski zatok nature reserve, a lagoon where you can watch birds. A highlight of the hinterland is the Church of the Holy Trinity in Hrastovlje: behind a defensive wall, it displays frescoes from 1490, including a famous Dance of Death. On the way there, it's worth stopping in the wine villages of Šavrinija, with their farm shops and agritourism businesses.
Food, Getting There, and Best Time to Visit
Istrian cuisine combines sea and land: fish, squid, pasta with truffles, olive oil, and pršut, air-dried ham. The red wine Refošk and the white Malvazija grow on the hills around the city. Koper is a little over an hour from Ljubljana via the A1 motorway, and trains terminate here. The best time to visit is from May to September; in spring and fall the vineyards are especially beautiful, and the harbor is less busy.