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Seven years later Simeon, archbishop of Ravenna, conceded his lands in Istria to Guido Michele and his successors, with the obligation to renew the contract every sixty years, and reserving the right of appeals. The Castropola bought the feud from the Giroldi about 1300 for 1,800 "lire piccioli."
Two members of the aristocracy were appointed captains of the people, but after a month they decided to give themselves to Venice; by the Act of Dedition the Castropola were banished from Pola, Istria, Friuli, and Schiavonia, though they were allowed to retain their property. Their principal adherents were also banished.
It is said to have been built by the Castropola in 1285, and a half-obliterated inscription by the door records the date of 1406, when a provincial Franciscan council was held in the church. On each side of the door is a window of two trefoiled lights with slender shafts, and above it a rose with Gothic tracery.
The town was part of the feud of S. Apollinare, and was destroyed in 1330 by the soldiers of the Patriarch Pagano della Torre. The castle belonged first to the Castropola, then to the Morosini, and finally to the Grimani. Low buildings used as harness and store-rooms, &c., still remain against the walls inside, but the stair to the suite of principal rooms is ruinous.
The double girdle of walls of the castle, with well-preserved battlemented towers, is the principal factor in the effect. The gateways are pointed: outside the walls, towards Castel Parentino, is the pedestal for the municipal standard; on the other side is an illegible inscription in which the date 1475 may be deciphered. The more important church, S. Sofia, still has its outside walls, the three apses, with traces of frescoes in the central one, and the walls of the sacristy. At the beginning of the fourteenth century it appears to have belonged to the Castropola, and then to the Count of Gorizia; but in 1420 the Venetians appointed a podest
The interior has a simple unvaulted nave, a choir of one bay with cross vaulting, and a small chapel, probably the sepulchral chapel of the Castropola, since their arms are on the windows. The only remaining piece of the cloister serves as entrance portico.
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