Discover the Millennia-Old History of the City of Koper

The grand opening of the new permanent exhibition, created as part of the INTERREG project Terra Gothica Incognita, will take place in Koper on Monday, June 8, 2026, at 7:00 PM, in front of the entrance to the Town Tower on Tito Square.

The City of Koper, as the host and project partner, invites all citizens, visitors, and history enthusiasts to the grand opening and two expert guided tours through the exhibition display, starting at 7:30 PM and 8:00 PM.

The exhibition, titled "Pokončna zgodovina / La retta storia / Uspravna povijest / Upright History", takes visitors through more than two millennia of Koper's development. It starts from prehistoric hillforts and the Roman Aegida, moving through Justinopolis and the Venetian period of Caput Histriae, all the way to the Napoleonic era, national movements, world wars, integration into Yugoslavia, and the modern city. Alongside major historical turning points, special attention is dedicated to the everyday life of the inhabitants, cultural creativity, architecture, and economic development, which has been most strongly shaped by the port and industry over the last century.

Since the exhibition is set inside the Town Tower itself, its concept is also highly symbolic. The path through the tower does not just represent a physical ascent up 204 steps, but also a kind of journey through time that provides visitors with a unique insight into the city's development through the centuries, offering them a view from the very top of present-day Koper, where traces of all past eras remain visible.

A unique feature of the exhibition is reflected in its quadrilingual concept, as all texts are available to visitors in Slovenian, Italian, Croatian, and English, faithfully reflecting the multicultural and cross-border history of the city.

As a reminder, the main goals of the Terra Gothica Incognita project are to preserve the shared cultural heritage from oblivion and decay, to valorize it for tourism through the development of a cross-border cultural-tourism destination and cross-border products, to implement various methods of heritage interpretation and promotion in order to raise awareness among the local population about its importance and potential, and to revive a shared cultural identity. Read more about the project here.

Source and photo: City of Koper