Bale Things to Do

In the yard of another house, this one inhabited, the old well is still there. As the town is on the hill, either these wells are very deep or they are sitting on a cistern collecting water from the roofs. I have no data on that point.

The kaštel (castle) was originally called Soardo after the family of the same name who built it in the 15th century. It later became the property of of the Bembo family, by marriage, so that is why it has a dual name Soardo-Bembo.
Bale became the meeting place of palaeontologists in 1992, when the fossilized bones of the gigantic reptiles the dinosaurus were found in Kolone Bay.

The city gates and very characteristic Istrian type of underpass situated next to the Castle of Soardo-Bembo.
Right next to the gate there is a nice cafe-bar which offers drinks in the shadow of the medieval walls.

There are inhabited and deserted houses in the town, underpasses, round streets, "portuni" (doorways), "baladur" (small covered terrace) and an occasional Venetian lion and feudal crest as a symbol of the inevitable passing of time.

After the town was nearly deserted it is nowadays again inhabited mostly by the people who have reconstructed this old houses into vaccational resorts.