Review article
New Insights into the Lopar Fort in Novi Vinodolski Preliminary Results of Archaeological Research from 2011-2013
Andrej Janeš
orcid.org/0000-0003-0683-3364
; Croatian Conservation Institute, Department of Archaeological Heritage, Department of Land Archaeology
Abstract
The remains of the Lopar fort are located on the eastern edge of the town of Novi Vinodolski, right on the shoreline, between the cove of Lišanj on the west and Muroska on the east. The sole mention of the fort is the date of its destruction by the Venetian forces of Admiral Giovanni Bembo in 1598. Although the fort remained largely intact after long centuries of use and the Venetian bombardment in the 16th century, it experienced the greatest devastation in 1936 when a great part of it was destroyed due to the mining for the construction of the hotel Lišanj. The fort had a pentagonal floor plan, divided into a central square courtyard and a northern triangular space. The department for archaeological heritage at the Croatian Conservation Institute carried out trial archaeological research in September 2011, and continued with the excavations in the autumn of 2012. In the first season of the research the remains of architecture in the northern part of the fort were confirmed, while in the southern part of the fort an area of great destruction was established, but also noted were the existence of cultural layers of rich Late Antiquity material. In the continuing research the area of the partitioning wall between the central courtyard and the northern section of the fort with an interconnecting passage was investigated. At the same time also investigated was the southern part of the eastern wall of the northern section of the fort by which the full width of the wall was established as being 2.5 m. In the 2013 works the south-east part of the triangular, northern section of the fort was investigated. Upon that occasion the existence of a tower in the northern end of the whole complex was confirmed and a fireplace/oven which was used by the military garrison. During these excavations a hefty quantity of movable archaeological material was collected amongst which coarse textured Late Antiquity ceramics were prevalent. Along with this also found were fragments of imported Northern African ceramics and amphorae, fragments of glass and iron objects. A layer of Early Middle Age settlement, from the 9th – 10th century period is also evident.
Keywords
Lopar fort; Novi Vinodolski; archaeological research; preliminary results
Hrčak ID:
147500
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2014.
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