Attracitons

The Monastery of Saint Nicholas 

One of the cultural attractions of Ankaran is the Benedictine monastery of St. Nicholas from the 11th century. The monastery has not been active as an abbey since 1641. In the building, there is a four-star hotel nowadays.
St. Nicholas with its park and the swimming area was founded as an affiliated branch of the Venetian monastery San Nicolò al Lido. In winter, only a small number of monks lived here, during summer, however, numerous visitors from the Monastery of Lido joined them. In the first half of the 17th century, the plague considerably reduced the number of local people and monks. The last monk left the monastery in 1641. Over a hundred years later, the family Madonizza from Capodistria purchased the monastery along with its property. In the time of Napoleon's Illyrian provinces, there was a military hospital in the monastery. In the 19th century, St. Nicholas and its surroundings became a very popular summer resort for the Trieste citizens.

Foto: Jaka Ivančič


World War II monuments

In 1943, after the capitulation of Italy, the territory of the Ankaran’s peninsula belonged to Germany under the then established operational area. The German army mobilized all its inhabitants to build bunkers, firing nests and trenches because they expected allied forces to disembark during the Operation Overlord in the Gulf of Trieste. Visitors can discover preserved remains of a part of the defence line in the vineyards on cape Debeli rtič.



Technological heritage of Ankaran
On the outskirts of Ankaran, where the Ankaran's peripheral canal flows into the sea, there is an interesting building that hides the true treasure of technical heritage. It is a pumping station for meteoric waters, built in 1933 in the typical industrial architecture of the time. The pumping station is a real technical feature. It consists of two two-cylinder diesel engines and two pumps of the famous Italian machine factory Franco Tosi. The specialty of these engines is that they are made of single-cylinder diesel engines, so the two two-cylinder diesel engines have each two factory numbers (each cylinder its own).



The Emperor Franz Joseph’s visit to Lazaret 

The Gulf of St. Bartholomew (Sv. Jernej) represents the extreme northern point of the coast of the Slovenian sea. The sea in the bay is shallow. The depths in the port do not exceed 2 meters, and only 200 meters from the coast reach a depth of 5 meters. A half-mile north of the bay, on the surface of 30 hectares, the Mari culture farming area extends also to the Italian side of the border. An inscription on the framework of the portal reminds us that in 1869 Lazaret was visited by the emperor Francis Joseph himself. The construction of Lazaret hospital for infectious diseases began in 1867. Due to various epidemics and numerous ships that landed in the Gulf of Trieste, the need for the construction of a quarantine facility arose. For safety reasons the facility was built far from the town of Trieste.


The only fully preserved old farm

On the southern edge of cape Debeli rtič stands the only fully preserved old farm on the Slovenian coast. The farm, 33 and 33 a Adriatic road, is from the second half of the 19th century. In the middle of the cultivable terraces, there are two joined rectangular buildings with a dwelling, a cellar and a stable.

The interior of the building is well preserved, including the equipment and a high open fireplace in the kitchen. Since 2010, the farm has been protected as a monument of local importance. (Source: Register of cultural heritage)


Archaeological heritage

In the Municipality of Ankaran, on cape Debeli rtič and on its coast there is a series of archaeological sites from Roman times. There is a flooded pier, which is visible on some of the older maps, near the Youth and Health Resort SRC Debeli Rtič. Archaeological finds are also on land near the coast. Remains of ancient settlements can also be found in the bay of St. Bartholomew (Sv. Jernej) on land and in the sea. It is believed that, there are remains of the villa rustica on land, and of the port piers in the sea. Archaeologists assume that the ancient fish farm was located here.

Foto: Jaka Ivančič