What is hidden in the name?
Pican, Petina, Petinum, Pedena, Penna, Biben, Pyben, Piben, Piebn, Piebnn, Pitchann....
Sometimes it is not easy to follow the traces of Pićno in historical sources, because he hides under the most different names. Some attribute the origin of the name Petina to the assumption that the Diocese of Pićan was the fifth in order in the world, while in the word "five" they see a Celtic root.
Pićan is certainly inhabited in distant prehistory. The oldest parts of the Histrian hillfort were located on the hill of Calvary, north of today's settlement, and then it is assumed that the Celtic tribe Secusa lives there. In Roman times, probably in the same strategically well-chosen place, there was a military stronghold and the settlement of Petina.
There are authors who associated Pićan with the name Pucinum, which is what Pliny and Ptolemy call it fortress in the interior of Istria which was also known at the Roman court for its particularly good wine. The wife of Emperor Augustus, Livia, believed that she owed her longevity to the very fact that she drank only that wine. The only visible trace of the Roman presence today is an inscription on a stone embedded in the doorpost of the house opposite the bell tower, which mentions a certain Lucio Caonalia from the Pupinia family, which we also find elsewhere in Istria (Kringa, Pula, Poreč, Kopar, Trieste).
During the Byzantine rule, Pićan was the administrative center of the central part of Istria. From late antiquity until the end of the XNUMXth century, Pićan was the seat of the diocese of the same name, one of the oldest but also the smallest in the Christian world in general.
Legends about St. Nicofer
With the creation of the Diocese of Pićan and with its patron St. Numerous mutually exclusive and often intertwined legends are associated with Nicephorus. Finding our way around is made even more difficult by the fact that two Nicephoros are actually connected with Pićna - St. Nicephorus the martyr and St. Bishop Nicephorus.
The legend of St. Nicephorus the Martyr says that the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (the first to recognize and encourage Christianity and who built a new center of the empire - Constantinople, later Constantinople) had the remains of St. Nicephorus of Antioch placed on a ship in Constantinople and ordered to be at the place where the ship itself stop has this saint to dedicate the church. According to the extended version, after landing on the coast of Istria, the saint's body was placed on a horse that was released and stopped in Pićan.
The legend of St. Nicephorus the Bishop and the thorns
According to this legend, Nicephorus was the bishop of Pićan (in some versions the first bishop of Pićan and the founder of the diocese) whom the Pićans sued the patriarch of Aquileia for allegedly immoral life, because he lived with his nephew. In order to dissuade them from the accusations and to prove his divine mission, Nicephorus offered them to open a source of drinking water by hitting the barren and thorny ground with a stick. The drunkards refuse, justifying that they need thorns, which they later use in their vineyards. He responded with the words: that God danced barefoot on thorns, which is why the name Pićans has become commonplace to this day -thorn dancers.
And instead of in Pićan, Nicephorus on the way to the patriarch in Aquileia created springs in Gračišće, Krbune, Buzet, Trieste and elsewhere. Arriving before the patriarch, she had nowhere to hang her cloak, but stuck it in the ray of sunshine that peeked into the room, and that sign was enough to acquit him of all charges.
On the way back, Nicefor dies, and his remains are kept in Umag until 1379, when they are stolen by the Genoese. Nevertheless, according to the wish of the saint, his right arm was sent to Pićan as a sign of forgiveness, which is still kept in the Cathedral. Obviously, the bishops of Pičašan themselves tried to resolve the contradictions surrounding their two namesake saints, so Bishop Antonio Marenzi (1635-1646) wrote a book about their lives.
During the reconstruction of the cathedral, the statues of both saints were placed on its facade, and together they are shown in the picture on the altar of St. Nicephorus, where Nicephorus, an early Christian martyr and protector of the Diocese of Pićan, holds a model of Pićan in his hands.
Source: Municipality of Pićan
