Sv. Anton

Istria is a land of sun, wine and olives. But also of sweet Mediterranean fruit, such as cherries, peaches or kaki, as well as other vegetables grown by good and caring people. Their home is the hinterland of the three historic townships of Koper - Capodistria, Izola – Isola and Piran – Pirano.

A number of flysch ridges and hills rise inward over the coastline where these three cities are perched. And between these, in the valleys, rivers and streams flow. Many of these run dry during summer's seasonal draughts. This is Šavrinja region, where sweet grapes and oil-rich olives grow on terraced slopes. A landscape with many villages and settlements connected by vineyards, olive plantations, and fields runs from Varda over Dvori, at an elevation of 390 metres above sea level, steeply and then more gently downwards between the valleys of the river Rižana and Badaševica. People here have been growing the vine and the olive tree since thousands of years. The cellars of many homestead are filled with tasty treasures: Refosco wine as pitch black as night, golden Malvasia, sweet Yellow Muscat or the tantalizingly scented local specialty – Cipro, a wine that has been practically resurrected from abandon right here, in Sveti Anton, Pobegi, Čežarji and Bertoki.

Right next to these wines, the same cellars also hide another treasure – olive oil, the unique Istrian gold, that people come to savour and purchase from near and afar. The centre of Sveti Anton (Saint Anthony), a village with several surrounding settlements, is by the church entitled to St Anthony of the Desert and by the Zadružni dom with its' inn and restaurant, where on the first or second Saturday of every February the members of the local winegrowers association Vinol hold their main event, the yearly Wine & Olive Oil Tasting. Inside the church, consecrated in 1582, three altars and a valuable painting from 17th century can be noticed. Close to the overlook of Kavaliči stands a refurbished house where in 1944 the Committee of popular authority for the Lopar (later for the entire Koper) district.

The somewhat remote settlement of Kocjančiči is itself protected as Cultural Urban Heritage. From Sveti Anton, the roads lead to Marezige, Dvori and Kubed, Potok, into the Rižana valley and of course to Koper – Capodistria.