Hum

Hum is a tiny walled settlement in the interior of Istria, on a hill above the Mirna valley, and it is marketed, plausibly, as the smallest town in the world. It amounts to a single short street of stone houses, a parish church, a bell tower and a handful of alleys inside a small circuit of walls, with a permanent population you can count on your fingers.

Despite its size, Hum has been a town since the medieval period, and it preserves a handful of genuine Glagolitic inscriptions, the old Slavic script once used along this coast. The small parish church of St Jerome holds 12th-century frescoes with Glagolitic graffiti, and the approach to the town passes the “Aleja glagoljaša”, a row of stone monuments each carved with a letter of the Glagolitic alphabet.

The real draw is the atmosphere, a near-perfect microcosm of medieval Istria, with a konoba or two serving local wine, brandy and the biska mistletoe brandy the area is known for. It is the obvious pairing with nearby Motovun for a slow inland day.

For photographers, the single street and the town gate read best in soft light. Go out of peak hours, because the lane is narrow and a tour group fills it.

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