Fortress of St Damian, Barbat on Rab

On the hill above Barbat on the island of Rab, in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, rise the remains of the Fortress of St Damian. It attracts visitors because it is an early Byzantine castrum from the time of Justinian's conquest, that is, from the 6th century.

The complex structure served as a refuge, a lookout and a defensive stronghold. Its plan is an irregular triangle, and the northwestern apex lies at the very top of the hill. The perimeter is almost entirely preserved, and where walls no longer exist the line is easily recognised. Inside the fortress stands the little Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, a single-nave late antique early Christian building with a semicircular apse, a biforate window, lesenes and shallow niches on the outer wall. Later, in the Romanesque period, the church was altered and reduced in size. It was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century.

A protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-829.

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