Hum, the 'smallest town in the world', and the Glagolitic Alley

On a ridge in the north of Istria, above the green valley of the Mirna, there is a town you can walk around in ten minutes. Hum has walls, a gate, a parish church and a council loggia, yet only a few dozen people live inside. It has adopted the title smallest town in the world, and it wears it with humour.

What to see in Hum

• The town gate. Heavy copper doors with handles shaped like oxen horns and decorated with a calendar of farm work through the year. The gate is also the last monument of the Glagolitic Alley.
• The streets. Two short lanes of stone houses inside the walls. Look for Glagolitic inscriptions carved into old stones.
• The parish church and the small cemetery chapel of St Jerome just outside the town, known for its medieval frescoes and graffiti in Glagolitic script. Opening is irregular, so ask locally.
• The views across the hills towards the Učka mountain and the Mirna valley.

Hum keeps one old custom: once a year the men of the parish elect a local župan (prefect) by carving notches into a wooden stick in the loggia.

Biska, the local brandy

Hum is linked with biska, a brandy flavoured with white mistletoe and herbs. It is golden-brown, sweet and herbal, and you will be offered a small glass in the konoba inside the walls. Bottles make a good souvenir.

The Glagolitic Alley

Glagolitic is the oldest known Slavic script, used in Istria and the Kvarner region to write Croatian church texts and legal documents for centuries. Between 1977 and 1985, the sculptor Želimir Janeš and literary historian Josip Bratulić created a series of 11 monuments along the 7 km road from Roč to Hum to celebrate it.

You can drive it slowly, stopping at each piece, or walk or cycle it. The monuments include:

• a stone pillar shaped like a Glagolitic letter,
• the Table of Cyril and Methodius, the missionaries linked to the script, with two cypress trees,
• a lapidarium with copies of important Glagolitic inscriptions,
• and finally the copper gate of Hum.

Roč, at the start of the alley, is a small walled town worth a short walk itself.

A day route from Poreč

Hum is in the far north-east of the peninsula, so it makes a full day:

1. Drive inland via Motovun (see our Motovun guide) or via Pazin.
2. Visit Roč, then follow the Glagolitic Alley to Hum.
3. Have lunch in Hum or continue to Buzet, a hilltop town known for truffles.
4. Return along the Mirna valley.

For a gentler loop through hill towns closer to the coast, read our hilltop towns day trip.

Good to know

• Park outside the walls; the town is pedestrian.
• Wear shoes with grip: the stone paving is smooth and steep in places.
• Autumn is lovely here, with truffle season in the nearby forests. See truffle season in Istria.

Where to stay

From Villa Bina and Villa Cvita Domenica in Labinci, you are already a little way inland, which saves some driving on days out to Hum and the Mirna valley. Villa Duga, near the beaches north of Poreč, suits families who split their time between the sea and the hills.