Urban morphology of Koper in the late Middle Ages

Urban morphology of Koper in the late Middle Ages Social, economic and urban history of Koper (Capodistria) in the late Middle Ages is not researched due to inaccessibility of the archives od the Commune of Koper between 1944 and 2016. They are now accessible at the State Archives in Venice, reasearch of Koper’s history is once again possible. Preliminary research of the documents from the 14th century has shown, that on the east coast of Adriatic only Zadar was bigger than Koper. It has also shown that late medieval Koper used to be a vibrant and important economic center. The bulk of very intensive Koper’s late medieval economic life was associated with the provision of basic supplies to Venice, one of the largest European medieval cities. Undertaking a research in urban morphology of such a city is a necessity. The accesability of the series of the records of Koper’s vicedomini (from the year 1382 onwards) as the most important historical source for it, is finally making this task possible. In our project we will strive for cathcing up with similar research in other Adriatic cities in the scope of urban morphology and to put late medieval Koper in the adequate place in the history of Adriatic realm in the late Middle Ages. The analysis of Koper’s urban morphology will be performed from three different viewpoints. First is historiographical, based on the forementioned archival sources. Art-historical approach will be based on analysis of the material remains still present in the historical city center of Koper or traceable in palaces, built in the early modern period, often joining several medieval buildings together, The third viewpoint is spatial, we will analyse the changes in the dimensions of the city and its island using relief maps, orthophoto, Lidar, data on archaeological excavations, historical maps and cadastres. All three data sets, historiographical, art-historical and spacial will be united with GIS tools. Using mapping, we will join all available information on urban morphology of late medieval Koper in an integrated GIS database. The joint data in it will be analysed and interpreted. At the very beginning of the project we intend to develope and introduce a methodology on mapping a very heterogeneous data types. That methodology is going to be useful for the analysis of the medieval cities with historical urban tissue still present and traceable and with preserved archival sources of similar character. The adapted methodology, that will be presented at the symposium on mapping of medieval towns within the project, will form a basis for a wider cooperation with experts in urban history of the Middle Ages. Information on the results of the project will be available via our internet site: They will be disseminated also via different channels and events targeting scientific, academic community as well as local public (participative science). We expect that the knowledge on late medieval Koper will reach a completely new level with the completion of our project. With our research undertaken, late medieval Koper will be put in adequate historical context in the history of medieval Adriatic. Our reserch will also be a solid basis for future cultural heritage preservation activities in historical city center of Koper. It will also provide a solid basis for its successful management.