Church of St Simon near Stancija Guran, Vodnjan

The archaeological site with the Church of St Simon lies in the area of the Town of Vodnjan in Istria County, not far from Stancija Guran. It is interesting because almost a thousand years of history can be read in one place, from an early cemetery to the late medieval alteration of the church.

The remains lie roughly 300 m south of the remains of the early medieval settlement of Guran. The Romanesque church was a hall church with a flat east end and three inscribed apses, and the sanctuary was separated from the nave by a continuous altar screen. In the late Middle Ages two pairs of masonry pillars turned the space into one with three aisles. Two older building phases preceded the present ground plan. Many pieces of stone furnishings and architectural sculpture were found in the church. Around it extends a cemetery with built tombs, in use from the 7th to the 14th century, and a trapezoidal area enclosed by a dry-stone wall in front of the facade also had a funerary role.

The site is a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-4474.

Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence.