esided in Capodistria to look after it. Another stipulation was
that the city should always be at peace with Venice, even if the rest of
Istria were at war. The Venetian representative or consul had the right
to sit with the Capodistrian judges whenever a Venetian had cause to
appear before them. In 1145, envoys had to go to Venice to swear on the
Gospels true and loyal fidelity to S. Mark, the Doge Polano, and all his
successors, and to the commune of Venice, undertaking to renew the oath
on the election of each new doge. In 1186 the commune was represented by
a podesta and four consuls, the year in which the bishopric was founded
on the strength of their promise to provide sufficient income. Eight
years later they were obliged to decree that if any one did not pay his
dues by the usual time he should have his vineyard taken away, and if
the tithe of oil was not paid by the Purification, it should be doubled.
It was the first Istrian city with a fully formed commune, and the
notice of the meeting of the council on July 5, 1186, is the earliest
notice preserved of such a meeting. The first statute appears in
1238-1239.

When Venice had acquired the city the senate commanded Tommaso Gritti
and Piero Gradenigo to build Castel Leone; it was constructed astride
the road which crossed the marshes, so that all travellers and vehicles
entering or leaving the city had to pass through it. The walls, for
which the Patriarch Gregorio Montelungo was responsible, were damaged in
1278, when the city swore fealty to Venice, and were thrown down on the
sea side after the insurrection of 1348. They were not completely
repaired till the sixteenth century. In 1550 Michele Sanmicheli, and
subsequently his nephew Alvise Brignoli and others were sent by the
senate to report, and finally the repair of the walls of many of the
Istrian towns was committed to Constantine and Francesco Capi. A hundred
years later they were in such a state that Stefano Capello reported that
it was useless to guard the gates, for entrance was easy through the
ruinous part of the walls. The only portion now remaining is the Porta
della Muda, built by Sebastian Contarini in the seventeenth century. It
bears an inscription of 1701 stating that the sea then no longer flowed
round it.

The Palazzo Comunale was burnt after the revolt of 1348, when the city
had to surrender unconditionally, the clergy carrying crosses, and the
citizens in procession, followed by the sold