THE CACHE
This cache is situated at the end of a road that once was, with the main road to Koper-Capodistria, the only ways to reach the land. Until the middle of the last century, Koper-Capodistria was still an island. If you would like to take a look at the photo gallery below, you will find several vintage photos, documenting how this city has been transformed over the last century (a little tip from a computer guy: if you remove the letters _l before the .jpg in the address bar, you will be able to see the images in high resolution). Nowadays on that promenade you can have a nice and relaxing walk fom Koper-Capodistria to Izola-Isola. This place is loved by autochthonous and it's usually crowded, please try to be very discreet while taking the cache. The cache has already been destroyed several times because of the lack of discretion. If you are lucky, the day is sunny and the Bora (local wind) just stopped, you can admire Alpes and the Grado's skyscrapers just above the skyline.
Below you can find historical information about the place where the cahe is hidden, taken from the internet page: https://zusterna.si/zgodovina-zusterne/
THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC
The countryside of the island city of Koper-Capodistria (the city still had the appearance of an island in the first decade of the 20th century) was divided into contrade. Among these, the Semedela contrada played a special role, starting at the colonnada (the mile stone near today's police station at Bonifika), climbing Markov Hill and descending to the sea at Viližano in front of Izola-Isola, and in distant times to the salt marshes. The contrada is probably named after the narrow road - a track (semita = semitella = semedella) that crossed it in Roman times. Historical traces in the area date back to the pre-Roman period, with traces of the castle-fortress on Markov Hill (St Mark's Hill), and then to the Middle Ages, when a beautifully decorated stone fragment from the Carolingian church on Markov Hill was found. During the Venetian Republic, the Semedela contrada was home to the noble families of Koper-Capodistria, who came for holidays to the villas on their estates. Thus, on an Austrian military map from the beginning of the 19th century, we can find the houses of famous noblemen of Koper, such as Tacco, Madonizza, Gravisi, Totto, Gavardo and others, marked. Semedela was one of the most fertile and best cultivated areas of Koper-Capodistria, known for its lush vegetation. This hilly area, which was the garden of Koper-Capodistria, was densely interspersed with fields, olive groves, vineyards and orchards. The land was cultivated by paolani (farmers living in the town) and coloni, who worked and lived on their masters' estates. In the Venetian period, after the last plague in Koper-Capodistria in 1831, the Semedelian church was also built in 1840, dedicated to the patron saint against plague, Blessed Virgin Mary of Health. At that time, the victims of the plague were no longer buried in Koper-Capodistria, but in Semedela, on the site where the church was built. They continued to be buried here until 1811, when a new cemetery was built in Škocijan.
THE TIME UNDER THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE
At the end of the 19th century, during the Austro-Hungarian period, the area was given a new tourist development line. With the discovery of the healing effects of the sea and the sun, and thanks to the favourable climate, the coastal area of the Semedela Contrada - that is Semedela, Žusterna-Giusterna and Prove - was gripped by a real building frenzy in the first decade of the 20th century until the First World War. New houses were built by holidaymakers, mostly from Trža, who lived in them from June to October; private hotels - guesthouses for tourists from other parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, restaurants and shops also sprang up. Telephones and electric lighting were also installed at that time. The development of tourism was also linked to the development of transport links. From antiquity until the mid-19th century, the main road link from Koper to Izola and onwards via Markovac. At Kolona, a road branched off from Koper's only road connection to the mainland, passing through the salt marshes to the foot of Markovac, rising to the top and descending to the sea before Izola-Isola. It was not until the mid-19th century that a coastal road (called the Riva Lunga) was built, which became the main link between the coastal towns and Trieste-Trst. In 1826-27, the Semedelian Road was also built on wooden stilts, the second link between Koper-Capodistria and the mainland. In 1902, a railway link between Trieste-Trst and Poreč-Parenzo, known as the Poreč-Parenzo or Parenzana railway, was built, with a stop in Semedela and possibly later in Žusterna-Giusterna (oral source). From the 1850s onwards, a maritime link was also established between Koper-Capodistria and Trieste-Trst, then Valdoltra and other places frequented by holidaymakers. In 1908, land and house owners in Žusterna-Giusterna built two bridges for the landing of local steamers, shortening the connection with Trieste-Trst, where most of the holiday home owners came from. Two piers were also built along the Semedela road.
UNDER THE KINGDOM OF ITALY
From the end of the First World War in 1918 until the end of the Second World War, Italy ruled the area, changing the appearance of the area and the quality of life of its inhabitants through public works. The abandoned salt pans were bonified, an Italian school was opened in Semedela in 1933 (still active today), the Istria water pipeline was built in 1934 (from the source of the Rižana to the Mirna river, running along the Koper-Capodistria - Izola-Isola coast - still active today), and a small harbour (moletto) was built in Proveo for the mooring of the boats of the families who lived there. The area is still called Molet (instead of Prove) after him. During this period (1935), the railway link with Trieste-Trst was closed because it was unprofitable. There were also changes in terms of population and agriculture. The hilly areas in particular were largely populated by peasant families working the land as colonials or free farmers. This process began in the previous century, including with the disappearance of the Paolans, and continued with various public works, starting with the construction of the railway, when the workers employed there also settled in these places. As a result, there are a number of surnames of Slavic origin or from the Slovenian hinterland villages, which were Italianised in the Italian environment. The severe winter of 1929 also destroyed the olive groves in Semedela, but it was still known for its first vegetables, fruit and wine (until 1930 or 1940, only black wine was made here).
Fascist policies left their mark on Semedela too. It turned the former boarding house (where the road starts to climb up to the Semedeli Castle, today there is a memorial marker) into a carabinieri station where, in 1930, members of the Slovene Trieste-Trst underground organisation Borba were interrogated and tortured, and sentenced to death at the first Trieste-Trst trial in the same year. During the Second World War, the Germans used Markov Hill as a strategic point and built bunkers there. In the summer of 1944, they also used the Bay of Koper-Capodistria as a hiding place for the Italian cruise liner Rex, which the British nevertheless tracked down and bombed in early September. It burned for a few days, and after the war was over, it was towed out of the sea in pieces for more than ten years, its iron supplying the Jesenice ironworks. To this day, locals call the area between Koper-Capodistria and Izola-Isola, where the Rex sank, "By the Rex".
UNDER YUGOSLAVIA
The period after the Second World War is known for its rapid and numerous changes, especially in border and ethnically mixed areas. Until November 1954, this part of Istria was administered by the Military Administration of the Yugoslav Army (VUJA), which introduced the new Yugoslav system and legislation. The building of the Italian primary school in Semedela was also used for a Slovenian primary school for some time, and in 1947 the Maritime and Commercial Academy was opened in Žusterna, the forerunner of today's Maritime Secondary School, which was housed there for two school years. The accession of the new state to Yugoslavia in 1954 forced Italian inhabitants to emigrate, and theirs farms and houses were occupied by new inhabitants, first from the surrounding Slovenian villages and, with the new buildings in the 1960s, from elsewhere in Yugoslavia. Semedela, Žusterna-Giusterna and Prove have completely changed their appearance. A few old houses, villas and farmhouses remain, scattered all over the hill and along the coast; in the last thirty years, the former contrada Semedela has been densely built up into a dormitory village, while only Žusterna-Giusterna, with its hotel facilities and bathing beach, has been left for tourism, thus transforming the area from the former rural area into a suburb of Koper-Capodistria.
