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Piran (; ) is a resort town in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. A bilingual city, with population speaking both Slovene and Italian, Piran is known for its medieval architecture, with narrow streets and compact houses. Piran is the administrative seat of the Municipality of Piran and one of Slovenia's major tourist attractions.
The Piran peninsula was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 178 and 177 BC and settled in the following years with rural homes ( Villa rustica).
The decline of the Roman Empire, from the 5th century AD onward, and incursions by the Pannonian Avars and Slavic peoples at the end of the 6th century, prompted the Roman population to withdraw into easily defensible locations such as islands or peninsulas. This started local urbanisation and by the 7th century, under Byzantine rule, Piran had become heavily fortified. Despite the defences, the Franks conquered Istria in 788 and Slavs settled in the region. By 952, Piran had become a part of the Holy Roman Empire.
The earliest reliable records of the area are in the 7th century work Cosmographia by an anonymous cleric of Ravenna. The name of the town most probably originates from the Greek pyrrhos, which means 'red', because of the reddish flysch stones commonly found in the town's area. Some historians also refer it to pyros, meaning 'fire', due to ancient lighthouses which were supposed to be on the edge of the marina.
From 1283 to 1797, the town became part of the Republic of Venice, where it was governed in a semi-autonomous way, with a council of local noblemen assisting the Venetian delegate. Several enemy (e.g. from the Republic of Genoa) and pirate assaults were repelled during the late Middle Ages; a great pestilence hit the town in 1558, killing about two thirds of the population. The last decades of Venetian rule were marked by decadence, due to the competition with the nearby Austrian Empire port town of Trieste.The town was annexed to the Austrian Empire in 1797; but during the years from 1806 to 1814, it was ceded to the Napoleonic Empire. On 22 February 1812, the Battle of Pirano was fought between a British and a French ship of the line in the vicinity of Piran. This was a minor battle of the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Piran was an Austria-Hungary town with over 15,000 inhabitants, roughly the same size as nearby Koper. Around 80% of the population was ethnically and culturally Italian, with a Slovene minority of around 15%. It was a flourishing market and spa town with good transport connections. The first trolleybus line in the Balkans was introduced to public service on 24 October 1909 in Piran. In 1912, it was replaced by a tramway that operated on the same route till 1953.
After the First World War, together with Trieste and all Istria, the town was ceded to Italy. There were no particular events in those years, until Italy entered the Second World War in 1940. With the defeat of the Axis powers and the rise of Tito's rule, Piran was assigned to the Free Territory of Trieste, Zone B, under Yugoslavian administration, changing the official name in "Piran". The town was annexed to Yugoslavia in 1954, according to the London Memorandum signed together with Italy. A significant part of Piran's population chose to emigrate to Italy or abroad in the final phase of the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus, rather than stay in socialist Yugoslavia. The annexation to Yugoslavia was finally ratified with the Osimo Treaty in 1975, with the municipality becoming part of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Until the mid-20th century, Italian language was the dominant language, but it was replaced by Slovene following the Istrian exodus. Since 1991, Piran has been part of independent Slovenia.
On 24 October 2010, Slovenia became the first country of former communist Europe to elect a black mayor. The physician Peter Bossman, who came from Ghana in the late 1970s, was elected the Mayor of Piran. He officially took office at the first constitutional meeting of the Municipal Council on 12 November 2010, succeeding Tomaž Gantar. He represents the Social Democrats.
The territorial claims of Croatia and Slovenia in the Gulf of Piran remain an important matter of debate in the Croatia–Slovenia border disputes that began after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Piran is the seat of the Euro-Mediterranean University of Slovenia (EMUNI), founded in 2008 as one of the cultural projects of the . The Piran Coastal Galleries, a public institution encompassing a group of six public contemporary art galleries, is based in Piran.
The municipality's festival is 15 October, which celebrates the foundation of the first Slovenian partisan naval detachment, named Koper, in 1944.
To the east of the town, along the northern coastline (in the direction to Strunjan) there is a small tourist settlement named Fiesa. Piran and Fiesa are connected by a promenade along the beach. Piran has a humid subtropical climate with warm summers and cool rainy winters. Snow is rare (usually 3 days per year, almost always in traces). There are 22 days a year with maximum temperatures of or higher; on one day a year the temperature does not exceed . Fog appears about 4 days per year, mainly in winter.
The first trolleybus line in Slovenia entered public service on 24 October 1909 in Piran, then part of Austria-Hungary. It ran from Tartini Square along the coast and the shipyard to Portorož and Lucija. The town authorities bought five trolleybuses manufactured by Austrian company Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft. In 1912, it was replaced by a tram system that operated until 1953, when it was superseded by buses.
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