Prehistoric Hillfort Vela Straža, Gornje Selo

The Vela Straža hillfort is located near Gornje Selo on the island of Šolta, in Split-Dalmatia County. It is a prehistoric fortified settlement from which, as its name says, the surrounding sea and islands were once watched.

At the top is a plateau with defensive walls built in the dry-stone technique, and on the northern side a natural rock was used as part of the wall. The diameter of the hillfort together with its walls is about 100 metres. The position was of great geostrategic importance: from here one could control the sea passage of the Split Gate and communicate with other hillfort settlements on the island and with the Rat hillfort near Ložišća on Brač. It was inhabited by the Illyrians, who chose for their dwellings elevations above the fields, in this case above the field near Gornje Selo. The hillfort was probably in use from the Bronze Age to the late Iron Age. It has never been archaeologically investigated, so only future work can bring more knowledge about the life of its inhabitants.

The site is a protected cultural property and is entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-5802.

Photo: Draceane, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: Wikidata (CC0).