Histrokozmos, “the fair within the fair", which was successfully launched last year, sparking great interest among the audience as a preview of the anniversary theme Mikrokozmos, is an important program component of this year's 30th edition of the Book Fair(y) in Istria as well. The second Histrokozmos, which will take place from 29 November to 8 December, will expand from the Mozart Café to all stages of the Fair, where visual artists, musicians, theater artists, writers, and authors will reflect on issues that mirror the character of Istria today and seek models for connecting genuine breakthroughs in the culture and art of our peninsula. Through the Histrokozmos program sections Sakramenske, Istra ispod kore, Saga o vinu, and Lukežijana, esteemed authors will also engage in the search for fragments of a cultural unity, which is nowadays fragmented by new globalising and bureaucratic trends. This year's Histrokozmos also features its first guest country - Konavle, whose microcosm is connected to Istria through the new program La gente di frontiera. 

"Our microcosm is Istria, the history of Istria, its traditions but also its current moment. Reflecting on Istria today, we decided to showcase the strong women of Istria and, in their honor, we have shaped the Sakramenske program. We selected four women from many strong ones around us, and our Sakramenske will be there with us - the powerful poet and scholar Evelina Rudan, the amazing athlete and bronze medalist at the 2024 Ironman World Championship, Đurđica Orepić – the Ironwoman, the distinctive art historian and head of the Fresco House in Draguć, Sunčica Mustač, and the great diva Tamara Obrovac. The program will be hosted by an interesting pair: the Istrian bard Milan Rakovac and Iva Đorđa Nemec, a scientist and a theater pedagogue who got her start at the Fair and is, among other things, the author of the project Neistražene (Unexplored), focusing on the invisible Istrian women's history. Sakramenske, the strong, talented, distinctive, and rebellious women, will within this program be accompanied by the ‘melancholic knights,’ the Istrian winemakers”, as announced by Magdalena Vodopija, the director of the Book Fair(y) in Istria. Vodopija emphasizes that the second Histrokozmos also features a guest country – Konavle, and that the people of Konavle will arrive in Pula led by the writer and lexicographer Vlaho Bogišić.

"The Konavle program – the guest country of this year's Histrokozmos – emerges from the parallel of two bordering lands, Hellas and Istria, the famous Terra Magica and its southern, pocketed imprint, Konavle, Terra Eterica. Konavle, like Istria, has a coastline and mountains, fields and rivers, cheese and wine, olive oil and malvasia, so this festival cycle includes almost all the familiar, now jubilant program highlights: exhibitions and presentations, a tribute to Luko Paljetak, and a lively wine selection with a taste of prosecco and black nectar. Konavle is expressed through words, images, sounds, and scents, and perhaps for the first time, a more complete selection of Konavle books will be available on the fair's shelves," announced Vlaho Bogišić, the program curator for Konavle - the guest country.

"I am thrilled with the fact that at the 30th edition of the Book Fair in Istria, Konavle will be presented by our artists and cultural workers through an art exhibition, book presentations, a representative display of books by Konavle publishers, and our most renowned winemakers showcasing their wines. Together with Istria, we are perhaps the most recognizable region in Croatia for preserving our tradition and heritage while interpreting it in a modern way. We are proud to present this distinctive program to the Pula audience at this celebratory 30th Book Fair in Pula", pointed out Božo Lasić, the Mayor of the Municipality of Konavle.

The program Konavle - the guest country will be officially opened at the Cvajner Gallery, which will host an exhibition of the academic painter Antonija Rusković titled “Let s vilama” (A Flight with Fairies), presenting the enchanting landscapes of Konavle. Among the guests will also be the distinctive gallerist Ljuba Gamulin, another special collaborator of the Book Fair in Pula. The people of Konavle are also bringing the precious "Rječnik zaljubljenika u Konavle" (Dictionary of Konavle Enthusiasts) by Vlaho Bogišić (published by Fraktura), which is currently in print and will have its grand premiere in Pula.

In memory of a dear friend of the Fair, a beloved author of the Pula audience, the great artist and gentleman Luko Paljetak, who was supposed to be a guest at the 30th Fair, but sadly passed away in May, an hommage to him will be held in the Red Salon. The great Tereza Kesovija, undoubtedly the most famous native of Konavle, will be speaking about our friend and will also be one of the guests within the Breakfast with the Author program.

The microcosm of Istria and Konavle, where the beginnings of one and the endings of another world’s identity simultaneously reflect and intertwine, will be examined in the program La gente di frontiera, rooted in Tomizza's idea of the border as the destiny of both man and space. The themes of cultural identity shaped by borderlands will be considered by literary interpreters and Fair authors – the novelist Nada Gašić, the philosopher, journalist and essayist Dragutin Lucić Luce, and Egidio Ivetić, a historian of the Mediterranean from the University of Padua (originally from Pula). The program will be hosted by the actor and poet Nikša Kušelj and will also include Istrian winemakers led by Moreno Coronica and Ivica Matošević, as well as Konavle winemakers Niko Karaman, Petar Crvik, Vlaho Ivaniš, and Niko Zore.

The Histrokozmos program, created as a tribute to Franko Lukež, continues this year with Lukežijana, which puts the rich heritage at the center, the one that was left behind by one of Croatia's most esteemed enogastronomic experts. At this year's Histrokozmos the book “Poslovice o iću i piću“ (Proverbs about food and drink) by Franko Lukež, published by the Croatian Univeristy Press in the new Lukežijana series with Pula's Castropola as the co-publisher and Anita Šikić as editor, will have its first promotion. The book was compiled by Franko's daughter, Petra Lukež, whereas the foreword was written by Boran Kalčić, Franko’s longtime friend and one of Histrokozmos’ initiators, and the afterword by Dragutin Lucić – Luce.

"A writer, critic, and guardian of Istria's oral tradition, Franko Lukež preserved the regional uniqueness of Istria by collecting linguistic treasures: proverbs about food and drink. He thus recorded and left us a rich lexicographic heritage based on the layered history and microhistory of Istria, bearing witness of its multiculturalism and the interweaving of Croatian and Italian, or rather Venetian, culture and traditions. “The material is authentic, presented in Croatian and Italian, as well as in the Istro-Venetian dialect”, writes Kalčić in the foreword to the first book in the Lukežijana series.
Histrokozmos also reveals the artistic side of Istria, always somewhat mysterious and often modest, along with its exceptional achievements in culture, through the program Istra ispod kore. A special place here is reserved for Professor Ivan Matejčić, one of Croatia's most prominent art historians and conservators, a distinguished university professor, who is the central figure of the event titled "Istarska baština: Noblesse oblige" (Istrian Heritage: Noblesse Oblige). Joško Belamarić and Robert Matijašić will also participate in the event. Additionally, Professor Matejčić will be one of the guests at the Breakfast with the Author event. Istra ispod kore brings three more premieres. In addition to the book “Zidovi pamte” (The Walls Remember)  (Srednja Europa), authored by the cultural theorist and director Eric Ušić, which explores graffiti from World War II and its aftermath, the Fair will also host the first promotion of “Istarska freskočašća” (Istrian Fresco Honors) (Ibis grafika), a collection of essays by the renowned Pula scholar Igor Grbić, as well as that of the new CD by Tamara Obrovac, “Apoxyomenos Recomposed” (Cantus). 

A special event at the closing of the Fair will be a lecture held by the esteemed Professor Egidio Ivetić titled “Portreti Istre, Jadrana i Mediterana” (The Portraits of Istria, the Adriatic, and the Mediterranean). The entire Histrokozmos program and the 30th Book Fair will close with the true Istrian party, hosting the voices of kantaduri. The project Kantaduri by Edi Cukerić, Daniele Pernić, and Mauricijo Ferlin, produced by the Tondak Association, will have its premiere presentation in the Red Salon. Saga o vinu continues at this year’s Histrokozmos. At the heart of the program is the story of Istria as the land of wine. The sommeliers from the Croatian Sommelier Club and the Istrian winemakers will through guided tastings be “narrating” this saga to the audience on the main stage of the Fair’s central hall. 

The program’s sponsors include the County of Istria, the Istrian County Tourist Board, the Pula Tourist Board, the Croatian National Tourist Board, and the Municipality of Konavle.