Alpen Adria Novigrad

Along the western coast of Istria, the sheltered inlet of Novigrad hosts an October swim in calm waters pointing toward the estuary of the Mirna River. Alpen Adria Novigrad is an open-water sea swimming race held in Novigrad, in the region of Istria in Croatia. The event takes place on a Saturday in October, taking advantage of the sheltered bay that keeps the sea calm and water temperatures pleasant for autumn swimming. Swimmers gather on the shore of the Adriatic Sea as the morning settles over the water, finding protected conditions rarely matched so late in the season. The staging area and race hub are set up at Sirena Beach, located at the Aminess Sirena Campsite directly below the Aminess Maestral Hotel.

Both the start and the finish line for all distances are positioned directly on Sirena Beach. The program accommodates a wide range of swimmers, offering short sprints of 250 metres and 500 metres alongside intermediate distances of 1,500 metres and 2,500 metres. These middle-distance courses follow a triangular route laid out along the stretch heading toward the river before looping back to the beach. For endurance swimmers, the marquee distance is the 5,000-metre race. This course follows a wide circular loop that heads out across the bay toward the mouth of the Mirna River and the Lanterna peninsula before returning to Sirena Beach. The event forms an integral stop on the Alpen Adria Swim Cup, an open-water swimming race series launched in 2019. Novigrad was selected as a host venue for the cup in 2019 by its organizer, an Austrian swimming club based in Klagenfurt, precisely because of its exceptional conditions for open-water competition.

Novigrad: a medieval peninsula town and the cup's season finale

Novigrad is the only Croatian stop on the Alpen Adria Swim Cup calendar. The Alpen Adria Swim Cup closes its open-water season in Novigrad, directly on the Croatian Mediterranean. Set on a peninsula, Novigrad has kept its medieval structure and layout, with narrow, winding streets and small shops. Novigrad's medieval town wall still stands with its battlements and two round towers. The present church in Novigrad was built in the 15th and 16th centuries on the foundations of an 8th-century basilica of Saint Pelagius. From the early Middle Ages until 1828 Novigrad was the seat of the Diocese of Novigrad.

Luka Mirna: the tidal bay beneath the Lanterna peninsula

The long-distance course extends eastward across the water toward Luka Mirna, a marine bay situated three kilometres east of Novigrad where the river meets the Adriatic Sea. The turn takes swimmers toward the Lanterna peninsula before directing them on the return leg. Navigating this outer stretch, the rhythm of each stroke carries you toward the mouth of the Mirna. In this lowest section near the bay, the river water becomes salty and brackish due to tidal waves penetrating inward from the Adriatic. Even with this tidal movement entering the channel, the bay of Novigrad retains its sheltered position, maintaining the calm sea surface that attracts open-water swimmers in early autumn. The lower course of the Mirna was canalized in 1631.

The Mirna River: karst canyon and underground freshwater springs

The water flowing into the bay arrives via the Mirna river, which begins near the small town of Hum at an altitude of 250 metres below the Ćićarija mountain range. The river passes through the Buzet valley and cuts a canyon 200 metres deep. Throughout its descent, the river's steady flow is fed by three distinct karst springs. These natural springs are St. Ivan near Buzet, St. Stjepan near Istarske toplice, and the Gradole spring situated in the river's lower course. From these underground karst sources, water emerges and travels westward through the canalized channel into Luka Mirna bay.

Novigrad: the historic fishing harbour on the western Istrian shore

The municipal territory of Novigrad spans a significant portion of this coast, extending from Dajla in the north down to the mouth of the Mirna River in the south. Historically, Novigrad developed as a traditional fishing town intimately connected to the surrounding marine waters. Because of its strategic coastal location, the town endured frequent attacks from both sea and land over the centuries. Today, the sheltered harbour welcomes swimmers to its quiet autumn shores. Along this intricate stretch of western Istria, open-water swimmers return each autumn to race through the sheltered waters of Novigrad.