Kaštelina Fortress, Vir

The Kaštelina fortress was built on the cape of the same name, on the southeastern coast of the island of Vir in Zadar County. It is attractive for sightseeing as a rare remnant of the Venetian system of refuges along the Dalmatian coast, and the tower still rises high above the cape.

Construction falls in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Venetians governed Dalmatia. Fortresses of this kind served as a refuge for the population when danger threatened. The eastern tower, square in plan, is preserved to a height of about ten metres, and traces of intermediate floor structures show that it had a ground floor and two storeys. To the west are the remains of an entrance tower and of a building in which people fleeing danger stayed, so the whole complex is almost forty metres long. On the northwest side of the main tower, at a height of 7.50 metres, a partly preserved high relief of a winged lion is carved, the symbol of the Evangelist St Mark and of the Republic of Venice.

The fortress is a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-3025.

Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: DGU (centre of the settlement).