360° Virtual Tour of the Castellieri/Hillforts
The digital guide takes visitors through six prehistoric archaeological sites that have been researched and presented as part of the KAŠTellieri Interreg Italy–Slovenia project: Sv. Kvirik, Elerji, Monte Carso, Rupinpiccolo, Tabor pri Vojščici and Grmača. Each of these castellieri/hillforts tells its own story from the distant past, from a time when the heights overlooking the landscape became places of settlement, defence, control and community life.
Castellieri, or hillforts, are characteristic prehistoric fortified settlements of the northern Adriatic region. They developed mainly during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, when communities chose strategically important elevated sites that offered a good view of the surrounding landscape, natural routes, cultivable areas and access to water sources. Their stone ramparts, terraces and defensive walls still bear witness today to remarkable knowledge of stone construction techniques and to the close relationship between people and the Karst and Istrian landscape.
During the Bronze Age, approximately in the 2nd millennium BC, a period of significant social change began across the wider European area. Communities became increasingly organised, the first social elites emerged, long-distance trade intensified, and settlements acquired an increasingly structured and carefully planned internal layout. In Istria, the Karst and the wider northern Adriatic area, fortified hilltop settlements also developed during this period, controlling important passages, routes and economically valuable areas.
During the Iron Age, in the 1st millennium BC, these sites continued to develop as important centres of local communities. Thanks to the first written sources from antiquity, we gain a clearer understanding of the peoples who inhabited the northern Adriatic region, including the Histri, the Carni and other related tribes. The castellieri/hillforts remained key points of settlement, defence and exchange, while also forming part of a broader network of contacts between the hinterland, the Karst, Istria and the coastal world.
Today, the castellieri /hillforts of Sv. Kvirik, Elerji, Monte Carso, Rupinpiccolo, Tabor pri Vojščici and Grmača invite us to rediscover these ancient landscapes. Although their walls are often preserved only in the form of stone ramparts, uneven terrain or barely visible traces in the landscape, they still offer valuable insight into the lives of the communities that, several thousand years ago, shaped the cultural identity of this cross-border area. The KAŠTellieri project restores visibility and meaning to these places, connecting them in a shared story of heritage, landscape and memory of the Upper Adriatic.
360° Virtual tour of individual castellieri/hillforts:
