March the 30th, 2023 - A Rovinj Napoleonic prison is being transformed into a modern business-residential building, the doors of which will open only in a few years' time.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, although it might seem like a long way off yet, in the spring of the year 2025, the completion of a business-residential building is planned on the site of the former Mirna cold storage facility. This facility was built in a converted Rovinj Napoleonic prison, which was completed during the later era of the Austrian Empire.
The people of Rovinj know this location as ''Napoleon's prison'' or ''Napoleon's fortress'', because there is a legend that it was during the French rule that two oil mills were demolished and the construction of a fortified building on Valdibora began, which was completed by the Austrians when they took over Istria following French rule.
The Rovinj Napoleonic prison will be transformed into a business-residential complex which will be built after the demolition of the existing building whose walls are more than 200 years old, writes local portal Glas Istre/The Voice of Istria. The very interesting thing about this particular investment is that one of the most important investors is a construction, catering/hospitality and hotel entrepreneur from the City of Split who ended up in Split prison two years ago himself, allegedly as a result of something to do with his business.
If you're at all familiar with these things in Croatia, you'll more than likely know that we're referring to Zvonko Kotarac here. In many of his media appearances, he called himself "the greatest builder from Split after Diocletian", and whom Slobodna Dalmacija called the "king of construction" in Split and across Dalmatia.
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