Pula
Port city at the southern tip of Istria, Croatia; Austria-Hungary’s naval base as Pola. See Croatia.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death in Venice | Thomas Mann | journey waypoint | Where Aschenbach boards the steamer to Venice and meets the rouged old fop. |
Death in Venice — Thomas Mann (1912)
Source: Death in Venice · Readwise highlight
on a day between mid and late May he set off by night train for Trieste, where he tarried only twenty-four hours, boarding the ship for Pola the next morning.
- Role: journey waypoint
- In the book: From Trieste, Aschenbach sails for Pola and on to an Adriatic island off Istria that disappoints him. After about ten days he returns by motorboat to the naval base at Pola and boards the Italian steamer for Venice, where he meets the goateed ticket seller and the rouged old man posing as a youth.
- Why it matters: The false youth on the Pola steamer is the second omen of age and death. Pola itself is a waypoint; the encounters could happen at any port.
- Real vs. fictional: ⚠️ The island is unnamed in the text, so it is not mapped.