May Day Square

Why it is worth your time

Freedom Square is the main square of Umag's core and the place where one best sees how the town came to be: a narrow rocky peninsula that the sea rounded on three sides and people closed with walls on the fourth. The square is rectangular, closed by facades in pastel colours and open toward the sea, so it functions at once as a town salon and as a viewpoint. Around it are the town hall, cafés with terraces and streets that descend like ribs toward the shore, all within two minutes' walk.

In summer the square is a stage: concerts, fairs, screenings and the performances of the Umag Summer, and in winter an advent market and an ice rink. Every walk through the core begins here and ends here, for the whole old town fits within a circle of three hundred metres. Sit with a coffee facing the sea and look at the facades: Italian and Croatian inscriptions side by side are the best summary of this town's history.