Lim Bay - Kloštar - Kontija - Dvigrad

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Kloštar

The town above the Lim valley is known for the Benedictine monastery of St. Michael above Lim from the 10th c. which is presently in ruins. Soon after its founding, it became the center of the large property constantly increased by deeds of gifts of Istrian noblemen. The monastery was for a while the residence of St. Romuald who spent his reclusive days in the nearby cave named after him, even though it was much older and recorded the first traces of life in Istria. The Benedictines remained in the monastery until the 17th c., after which the property became a fief, and in the second half of the 19th c., the state property of Austria. Of the entire complex, only the Early Christian chapel from the 6th c. was preserved, with a three-sided apse and barrel vault. It still bears traces of mural paintings with figural representations and inscriptions. Beside it is a larger monastery church from the 11th c., built in the early Romanesque style with a semi-circular apse bearing preserved frescoes of an unknown Benedictine master of the Ottonian school, also from the 11th c. Among the remains of the monastery are parts of the walls with a cloister and a Romanesque crown of a cistern.