Description
The Gravisi family, descended from the Florentine Peroni clan, settled in Piran around 1280 and became famous under the leadership of Nicolò Gravisi, who in 1435 exposed the Carraresi conspiracy in Padua. For this service, Venice granted him the castle and fief of Pietrapelosa in 1440, a pension and the hereditary title of marquis – the only such title in Venetian Istria. By 1466, the Gravisi family had moved to Koper, where they were accepted into the nobility and given a hereditary place in the Grand Council. The story of their rise, however, was not without its blemishes. In 1456, Vanto Gravisi – together with his brother Michele and the Koper nobleman Antonio de Tobro – killed a peasant in the vicinity of Buzet, which early on undermined the reputation of their lordship.
In the following centuries, the Gravisis consolidated their position as one of the most important noble families in Istria. But at the same time, they also became involved in the patrician culture of revenge, characteristic of the noble circles. The most famous case occurred in 1686, when Marquis Leandro Gravisi shot Giuliano del Bella in the main square of Koper to avenge the death of his nephew. After the act, he fled to Trieste and sent a letter to the Doge of Venice in which he presented his deed as an expression of knightly honour. His brothers Giovanni Battista and Nicolò, however, ended up before the strict Venetian Council of Ten. Despite such violent events, the story of the Gravisi family was not limited to bloody revenge. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it also produced famous intellectuals, including Giannandrea Gravisi, who ensured that the family name was written not only in politics and feudal honour, but also in the cultural life of Istria.