Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.21857/yk3jwhx8j9
Rakitnica; Dazlina and Velim- the remains of the one-time defence of the western area of Šibenik district
Josip Pavić
orcid.org/0000-0003-2549-381X
; Fortress of Culture - Šibenik, Department for cultural and historical heritage, Šibenik, Croatia
Ivo Glavaš
; Šibenik, Croatia
Andrija Nakić
; Šibenik, Croatia
Abstract
In the last decades of the 15th century, there were frequent Ottoman incursions into the district of the Šibenik municipality. To defend the fertile fields and population in the east and west of the area, the noblemen of Šibenik built a set of fortifications. In the late 15th and the early 16th century, the fortresses of Rakitnica, Dazlina and Velim were vital points in defence of the western part of the Šibenik district against the Ottomans. With time, these aristocratic fortifications were taken over by a much stronger and better-organized state, Venetian government. Reliable information about how the fortifications in the west of the Šibenik district passed into state hands is in the request of the noblewoman Benvenuta Vojnović from October 1527. She was asking the Venetian Senate to pay her compensation because the fortress of Velim, which had been built by her late husband Petar, passed into state hands. Already by the end of the Cyprus War (1570-1573), all three fortifications had been conquered by the Ottomans. During the Ottoman rule, they were used continuously, but only Rakitnica had a sufficiently large and equipped garrison to be a serious defence and administrative centre. At the beginning of the Candian War in the spring of 1647, they were reconquered for a short time and then demolished by the Venetian army under the command of General Governor Leonardo Foscolo. By moving the Ottoman-Venetian border inland and establishing the Grimani line in 1699, Rakitnica, Dazlina and Velim shared the fate of other fortifications in the depths of the Šibenik district. The Venetian army once again did not use them as military installations, and they were left to decay, which is evident from the graphic illustrations through the centuries. Today, the remains of all three fortifications are visible in the field, and only after comprehensive archaeological excavations will it be possible to say something more about their location and the basic fortification elements. The last of them which was used, Rakitnica, is the best-preserved, and the research has yet to separate the military from the civilian part accurately, that is, the citadel from the rest of the settlement, i.e. the suburbium.
Keywords
Šibenik district; Ottomans; fortress; Rakitnica; Dazlina; Velim; Cyprus war; Candian war; Leonardo Foscolo
Hrčak ID:
248489
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2020.
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