Understand
Koper can trace its name back to the Roman town of Caprea. In 1278, the town voluntarily joined Venice and was later renamed Capo d'Istria — hence the Italian name. However, much of Koper's Italian inhabitants fled after WW2 when the town was assigned to the Free Territory of Trieste, administered by and later incorporated into Yugoslavia. The Communists built an unattractive sprawl of factories and warehouses to the south, but mercifully left the old town almost entirely untouched, and it's this that draws the comparatively few tourists who venture this way.
