Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mwo1vcj8vy
The Stronghold (Castrum) of Kamičac
Krešimir Regan
orcid.org/0000-0002-1457-5126
; The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The remains of the town of Kamičac are located on a steep stone hill that rises almost vertically above the left bank of the river Krka, in the canyon Med gredama between Roški slap and Visovačko Lake. In the documents, it was first mentioned in 1345 as a newly built hillfort of the noblemen Nelipić at the place of their older 13th-century fortress. After the death of Nelipać II, Nelipić's management of the hillfort was taken over by a collateral line of Izan's family. When Nelipac of Nečven, the last male descendant of Izan's line, died in 1396, all the family estates along the Krka river, including Kamičac, were taken over by the Cetina prince Ivaniš Nelipić. He held them until he died in 1435. Kamičac and other family estates were supposed to belong to the crown at that time because Ivaniš died without a male heir. However, his daughter Katarina, the wife of Ivan VI. Senior Frankopan, refused to return her father's property.
For this reason, the Hungarian-Croatian king Sigismund of Luxembourg declared Catherine and Ivan rebels and sent an army against them under the leadership of the Talovac or Talovački brothers, who defeated them militarily by the beginning of 1437. In that conflict, the Talovac brothers, among other things, captured Kamičac, which they soon ceded to the aristocrat Martinušić's family on the king's orders. This fort was in their hands only until 1445, when as a dowry it passed into the possession of the noble family Utišenić of the Lapčani lineage. Their descendants then held Kamičac until 1490, when the Hlapčić brothers were mentioned as its new masters. In unknown circumstances, they were soon replaced as new owners by the Mišljenovićes of the Kolunić lineage. They held Kamičac until 1522 or 1523 when it was conquered by the Ottomans and left to the ravages of time. At the beginning of the 19th century, its ruins looked striking, but they were soon dismantled by the local population, which is why only modest remains have been preserved to this day. Nevertheless, based on them and the archival and graphic material, we can still describe it as a small and straightforward defensive medieval complex. It was a stronghold (castrum) with a longitudinal or elongated ground plan, consisting of a small Romanesque nucleus of a polygonal base with a fortified palas tower in the northeast half of the fort and a fortified suburbum with a tower on the south-western half of the fort.
Keywords
the stronghold of Kamičac; (castrum); nobles Nelipićes; Martinušićes; Utišenićes; Mišljenovićes; the Krka river; 13th – 16th century
Hrčak ID:
248401
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2020.
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