Church of St John the Baptist, Podaca

In the old village of Podaca, in the municipality of Gradac on the Makarska littoral, stands the church of St John the Baptist. For travellers along the coast it is interesting as a pre-Romanesque little church with later Gothic and Baroque additions.

The single-nave building was created in the 11th or 12th century. The long walls are articulated on the outside by shallow lesenes, and the apse is shallow and rectangular. On the west façade above the entrance is a quatrefoil rosette, and on the axis of the gable a Baroque-style bell gable. Inside, pilasters and transverse ribs divide the space into three bays, covered by a barrel vault, and on the walls Gothic consecration crosses and a Gothic inscription with the year 1409 can be seen. The façades are plastered, and the roof is of stone slabs.

The church is a protected cultural good, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-4893. It is located in Split-Dalmatia County.

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 hr, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: DGU (centre of the settlement).