List of Istrians

This is a list of notable Istrians. People of Istrian descent born outside the geographical region of Istria have their place of birth credited. The nationality and ethnicity of people included in this list are not mentioned.^[a]

Historians

Josip Bratulić, philologist, historian, and the 22nd President of Matica hrvatska
Gian Rinaldo Carli, historian, economist, antiquarian, professor of astronomy and navigation
Petar Stanković (1771–1852), historian, archeologist, inventor and writer

Philosophers

Franciscus Patricius (Frane Petrić), philosopher and scientist; a known defender of Platonism and an opponent of Aristotelianism
Anton Mahnič, Roman Catholic bishop, theologian and philosopher, founder and the main leader of the Croatian Catholic movement
Hermannus Sclavus, 12th-century philosopher, astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, translator and author

Scientists

Josip Belušić, professor of physics and mathematics, inventor; invented the speedometer^[1]
Paolo Budinich, theoretical physicist
Lucija Čok, linguist and politician, former minister of education of Slovenia
Antonio Grossich, surgeon, introduced tincture of iodine as a way of sterilization in 1908^[2]
Andrija Mohorovičić, meteorologist and geophysicist, known for the eponymous Mohorovičić discontinuity and considered one of the founders of modern seismology^[3]
Stjepan Mohorovičić, physicist, geophysicist and meteorologist called "the father of positronium," whose existence he predicted^[4]
Fran Novljan, Croatian educator and andragogue
Herman Potočnik, rocket engineer, pioneer of astronautics; He is remembered for his work addressing the long-term human habitation of space, and for conceiving the first space station
Santorio Santorio, physiologist and physician who is considered the father of modern quantitative experimentation in medicine; his studies of basal metabolism introduced quantitative experimental procedure into medical research^[5]

Arts

Laura Antonelli (Antonaz^[6]), film actress, appeared in 45 films between 1964 and 1991
Joe Bastianich, American restaurateur, author, showman, television personality born in Queens, N.Y. to Istrian parents of Italian nationality but largely East European descent^[7]^[b]
Lidia Bastianich, celebrity chef, television host, author, and restaurateur
Karlo Bilić (Charles Billich), contemporary artist based in Sydney, Australia
Josip Crnobori, 20th-century painter
Jadranka Đokić, film, television and stage actress
Bruno Juričić, architect
Luka Juričić, stage, television and film actor
Orlando Mohorović, modernist artist
Antun Motika, 20th-century modernist painter
Bernardo Parentino, painter of the Renaissance
Renato Percan, modernist painter
Jakov Puljanin, architect
Rick Rossovich, American actor, born in Palo Alto, California, U.S. to a father of distant Istrian Croatian origins (his paternal great-great grandfather was from Mošćenička Draga)^[9]^[10]^[11]
Tim Rossovich, American actor, former NFL linebacker and 1969 Pro Bowl; brother of actor Rick Rossovich
Teresa Scanlan, American beauty pageant who was named Miss Nebraska 2010; won Miss America 2011 at age 17 and became the youngest Miss America since Bette Cooper in 1937;^[12] grandparents are from Ilovik, Cres-Lošinj archipelago^[13]^[14]
Sebastiano Schiavone da Rovigno, woodcarver and marquetry artist
Angelo and Francesco Trevisani, painters of the late-Baroque, active mainly in Venice
Alida Valli, actress who appeared in over 100 movies, including a number of American films

Literature

Mate Balota, poet, novelist and economist
Boris Domagoj Biletić, writer, literary critic and vice-president of the Croatian Writers' Association
Viktor Car Emin (1870–1963), writer, publicist, and revivalist of Croatian nationalism
Zvane Črnja, poet, prose writer, essayist, culturologist, screenwriter, playwright and filmologist, journalist, publicist, polemicist and publisher
Andreas Divus Justinopolitanus, Renaissance scholar who translated the Iliad and the Odyssey into Latin, and was the author of their first published version
Drago Gervais, poet, writer and playwright in the Chakavian dialect of Croatian
Simon Greblo, priest, Glagolitic writer and scribe; with Žakan Juri, one of the most important connoisseurs of the Glagolitic alphabet at the end of the 15th century
Antun Kalac, poet, writer, playwright, translator and revivalist of Croatian nationalism
Eugen Kumičić, writer and politician; one of the most prolific Croatian novelists of the realism era and a pioneer of naturalism in Croatian literature; with Ante Starčević, significantly contributed to the birth of Croatian nationalism^[15]
Giuseppina Martinuzzi, educator, journalist, socialist, and feminist
Božo Milanović, priest, historian, writer, antifascist
Daniel Načinović, poet, prose writer, essayist, journalist, and translator
Pier Antonio Quarantotti Gambini, writer and journalist, author of novels, poetry, and essays
Tone Peruško, writer and pedagogue
Fulvio Tomizza, writer
Žakan Juri, priest, Glagolitic writer and herald of the first Croatian printed book

Music

Andrea Antico, music printer, editor, publisher and composer of the Renaissance, who is regarded as the first significant music printer
Franka Batelić, singer and songwriter, who won the first edition of Showtime and represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Michael Bublé, Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer; grandparents were Istrians,^[16]^[17] Italian and possibly Slavic ^[c]
Tony Cetinski, pop singer, one of the most popular musicians in Croatia and countries of former Yugoslavia
Luigi Dallapiccola, composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions
Sergio Endrigo, singer-songwriter, won the Sanremo Music Festival in 1968, and represented Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968
Gustafi, Porin Award-winning folk rock ban
Tamara Obrovac, ethno jazz singer, flutist, songwriter and composer, won a total of four Porins; singer with second most Porins for best female vocal performance, after Josipa Lisac
Lidija Percan, singer, famous for her songs in the Italian Istroveneto dialect
Lea Sirk, singer who represented Slovenia at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest
Antonio Smareglia, opera composer born to an Istrian Italian father and a Croatian mother, Julija Štiglić^[19]
Luka Šulić, cellist born in Maribor to an Istrian Slovenian mother from Izola^[20]^[21] He is a member of 2CELLOS, along with Stjepan Hauser, who was born in Pula
Giuseppe Tartini, Baroque composer and violinist
Francesco Usper, composer and organist
Alen Vitasović, Croatian pop singer and songwriter, famous for singing and writing songs about Istria in the Chakavian dialect
Massimo Savić, pop singer

Military leaders

Mate Blažina, anti-fascist, Order of Bravery and Order of the National Hero
Gulfaris, Lombard duke of Istria
Wilhelm Ehm, WW2 Wehrmacht veteran and East German Admiral who was Deputy Minister of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic and head of the People's Navy (Volksmarine)
Epulon, king of the Histri
Joakim Rakovac, guerrilla, activist, anti-fascist; he was killed in an ambush by the Nazis in WW2
Licio Visintini, Italian naval officer during World War II; Silver Medal of Military Valor (twice) and Gold Medal of Military Valour
Mario Visintini, MOVM, Italian naval officer during World War II, Gold Medal of Military Valour, nicknamed cacciatore scientifico (scientific fighter pilot)
Ante Pavelić Croatian World War 2 leader of the Ustaše fascist, ultranationalist organization

Politics

Luciano Delbianco, Mayor of Pula; successfully negotiated the peaceful removal of Yugoslav troops in the 1990s, saving the city from destruction
Juraj Dobrila, Catholic bishop, printer and benefactor from Istria who advocated for greater national rights for Croats and also Slovenes in Istria under Austrian rule
Valter Drandić, politician, member of the European Committee of the Regions, former Mayor of Pula and long-time member of the Croatian Parliament; Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy
Fabio Filzi, Italian irredentist and patriot; Medal of Military Valor and War Merit Cross
Andrei Glavina, writer, professor and politician
Peđa Grbin, president of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia since 2020
Silvano Hrelja, leader of the Croatian Pensioners' Party since 2008
Ernest Jelušić, priest, revivalist of Croatian nationalism and politician
Veli Jože, Istrian giant native of Motovun in the local folklore, and the protagonist of Vladimir Nazor's novel of the same name
Radovan Juričić, Head of State Administration Office of Istria County, successfully negotiated the peaceful removal of Yugoslav troops from Pula in the 1990s
Ioannis Kapodistrias, 1st Governor of Hellenic State, whose ancestry can be traced back to Koper (Capodistria), hence Kapodistrias
Luka Kirac, priest, revivalist of Croatian nationalism and politician
Šime Kurelić, politician and revivalist of Croatian nationalism
Boris Miletić, Mayor of Pula and president of the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) since 2014
Francesco Neffat (Franjo Nefat), politician, anti-fascist, partisan, and Mayor of Pula
Rossana Rossanda, journalist, politician and feminist, who co-founded Il manifesto
Francesco Salata, Italian senator, Ambassador of Italy to Austria, journalist and author
Nazario Sauro, sailor and Italian irredentis
Vjekoslav Spinčić, author and politician, member of the Party of Rights and Croatian nationalist of the late 19th century
Igor Štoković, Mayor of Pula, who successfully negotiated the peaceful removal of Yugoslav troops from Pula in the 1990s
Vittorio Vidali, antifascist, senator of the Italian Republic

Religion

Saints, Beati and Venerables in the Catholic Church

Francesco Bonifacio, beato
Miroslav Bulešić, one of Croatia's beati
Egidio Bullesi (Bullessich), Venerable, the confirmation of his life of heroic virtue in 1997 allowed for Pope John Paul II to name him as Venerable^[22]
Saint Gaudentius of Ossero, bishop of Ossero and patron of the town and the island
Julian of Bale, one of Croatia's beati
Oton of Pula, one of Croatia's beati

Roman Catholic bishops

Maximianus, Bishop of Ravenna
Josip Pavlišić, Bishop of Rijeka
Isidoro Sain, the first Bishop of Rijeka
Antonio Santin, Archbishop of Trieste, and the second Bishop of Rijeka
Josip Ujčić, the second Archbishop of Belgrade

Reformers

Juraj Cvečić, Protestant reformer, translator and editor
Flacius (Matija Vlačić-Franković Ilirik), Lutheran reformer, pioneer in church historical studies, and "theological controversialist who created a lasting rift within Lutheranism"^[23]
Matija Grbić (Garbitius), humanist, classical philologist, translator and protégé of Luther and Melanchthon, dean of the University of Tübingen 1545–1557; helped and promoted Flacius in Tübingen
Stjepan Konzul Istranin, translator and reformer who translated the New Testament into Croatian and authored and translated religious books into Čakavian dialect.^[24]
Sebastian Krelj, Protestant reformer, writer, pastor, linguist and preacher born in Vipava, modern day Slovenia
Baldo Lupetina (Lupetino), reformer from Labin, who preached both in Chakavian dialect and Italian; was the uncle-in-law and mentor of Flacius; executed for heresy in Venice
Pier Paolo Vergerio (Vergerij), protestant reformer