Elaborating an Idea of Emilij Laszowski: Krčingrad as the Possible Original Seat of the Drežnik County

Abstract

The medieval fortress of Krčingrad is situated on a wooded peninsula between the Kozjačko and Gradinsko lakes, within the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Archaeological investigations conducted so far have confirmed that the visible remains of the fortress date back to the late 13th or early 14th century, while a broad contextualization of the preserved written sources suggests that it was most likely built by the Babonić Counts to protect the entrance to their political and economic domain. Krčingrad occupied a strategic position along a significant traffic route that, transversing the Plitvice Lakes area, connected the territories of medieval Drežnik and Krbava Counties with Lika County. The paper explores Emilij Laszowski's hypothesis that Krčingrad was the original centre of the medieval Drežnik County, analysing the previous opinions expressed in historiographical literature while also taking into account medieval written sources, various later testimonies, and an assessment of the geostrategic importance of the Plitvice area during the High Middle Ages through the spectrum of the central functions of a settlement.