Grožnjan is a settlement and municipality in Croatia. It is part of Croatia's Istria County, which takes up most of the Istria peninsula. It is the only Croatian settlement to have an ethnic Italian majority.HistoryEarly historyIn Grisignana are found ancient roman artifacts and near Grisignana is the remains of a roman house, but the first mention of Grisignana dates from 1102, when Margrave of Istria Ulric II and his wife Adelaida granted their land to Patriarch of Aquileia. In this document the fort is called Castrum Grisiniana. In 1238 Grisignana was the property of Vicardo I. Pietrapalosa. In 1286 Grožnjan fort was lent to the Aquileian patriarch during war with Venice but changed sides in 1287 and Grisignana was given to Venice.Vicard’s son Pietro inherited Grisignana after his father’s death in 1329, and when he died in 1339 it again became the patriarch’s property. The patriarch rented it to a Friulian noble family, de Castello. In 1354 Grožnjan's new owner became Volrich, or Ulrich, Reifenberg, who in 1358 sold it to Venice for 4,000 ducats in order to pay his debts. Volrich was a son of Deitalm, a descendant of Aquileian patriarch Volcher, and in 1356, during the war between Venice and Hungary, his army, entrenched in Grisignana, strongly resisted the Hungarian army. Yet it seems that at the same time Volrich negotiated the surrendering of Grisignana in Venice.