Portorož

A seaside resort and spa whose modern life began in the late nineteenth century with the vogue for health resorts, and which by the early twentieth was one of the grandest on the Adriatic, ranked with Opatija, the Lido and Grado in what was then the Austrian Littoral. The Palace Hotel at its centre was among the most important resorts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The name is borrowed from the Italian Portorose, port of roses, recorded in the twelfth century as Porto di rose and taken from Santa Maria delle Rose, patron of a former church here.