Dajla Abbey: A Former Benedictine Monastery in Croatia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Croatia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page7 sections
History
Dajla Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Croatia, located in the hamlet of Dajla within the town of Novigrad. Benedictines established it in the early Middle Ages on the site of an earlier Basilian monastery, and the complex was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist within the Diocese of Poreč-Pula. Another tradition places its foundation in the fifth or sixth century by Greek monks and says that Benedictines took it over in the ninth century, but these earlier dates remain traditional rather than firmly established.
From monastery to private estate
Dajla became inactive in 1273, when the bishop of Novigrad granted it to Almeric Sabini, a knight from Koper. The Sabini family enlarged its possessions around Novigrad and Brtonigle and kept the former monastery until 1736, when the family’s male line ended. Santo Grisoni of Novigrad, a cousin of the Sabini family, then inherited the property.
In 1841, Santo Grisoni’s son Francesco donated Dajla and its surrounding possessions to the Benedictines of Praglia Abbey near Padua, a Benedictine abbey in northern Italy. The donation followed the tragic death of his son and also included property around Piran and part of the salt-production ponds at the Piran saltworks. The complex therefore returned to Benedictine ownership after centuries as a privately held rural estate.
The nineteenth-century Benedictine revival
The Benedictines established a hospice at Dajla in 1858 and occupied the monastery. After Italy passed legislation dissolving religious orders and confiscating church property in 1866, almost all the Benedictines from Praglia moved to Dajla during 1867 and 1868.
The community’s principal economic activity was the export of agricultural products, especially olives, grapevines, and grain. Dajla was also an important breeder of the Istrian Podolica, a cattle breed from Istria. Economic activity reached a peak in the 1890s, stagnated during the First World War, and intensified again in the 1930s.
Nationalization and changing uses
After the Second World War, several show trials preceded the Benedictines’ departure from the monastery. Yugoslavia nationalized the property in 1947 in connection with the Paris Peace Treaties, the postwar settlements that reorganized territorial and financial relations between Italy and the Allied or associated states. Under those arrangements, nationalization of Italian-owned property was used to offset damage caused by the Italian military. A separate settlement in 1983, following the 1975 Treaty of Osimo between Italy and Yugoslavia, equalized the value of the nationalized property and the war damages.
After monastic use ended, the complex served as an old people’s home and poorhouse until 1989. It then stood empty. The buildings became strongly dilapidated during the period of state ownership and afterward.
Ownership dispute and modern ecclesiastical history
During the 1990s, the Croatian government reversed the nationalization and assigned the monastery to the Diocese of Poreč-Pula, a Roman Catholic territorial jurisdiction governed by a bishop. In 1999, the Republic of Croatia transferred ownership of the monastery and its associated possessions to the diocese.
In 2006, the Benedictines of Praglia and Bishop Ivan Milovan agreed to divide the monastery’s property into two equal parts. The Benedictines nevertheless began civil litigation over ownership that year, first before the Municipal Court in Buje and later before the Municipal Court in Pula. Pope Benedict XVI established a three-cardinal commission in 2008 to implement the agreement. In 2010, the commission, which included Archbishop of Zagreb Josip Bozanić, proposed returning the entire property to the Benedictines and requiring the diocese to pay 500,000 euros in damages, a further 3.5 million euros, and procedural costs.
Ivan Milovan refused to sign the proposed settlement, so the Holy See, the central governing authority of the Roman Catholic Church, appointed Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló as a special representative authorized to sign on his behalf. Because implementation threatened the diocese with bankruptcy, Milovan sought support from the Croatian government. In August 2011, Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković declared the transfer of the real estate to the Church invalid and placed it under state ownership, arguing that Italian owners had already been compensated and that the property had never properly belonged to the diocese. The Papal Secretary of State, acting in the name of the local parish, challenged the decision.
The Croatian High Administrative Court annulled the government decision in April 2013. The dispute heightened tensions between the Croatian government and the Vatican and created conflict within the Catholic Church in Croatia. Milovan requested retirement on 14 June 2012 and was succeeded by his coadjutor, Dražen Kutleša. In 2015, the Municipal Court of Pula dismissed the Benedictines’ property lawsuit, and the County Court of Pula upheld that decision on appeal. The monastery’s institutional status is now defunct, while the property remains associated with the Diocese of Poreč-Pula and its ownership dispute remains a defining part of its modern history.
Remains
Dajla Abbey survives as a former monastery and later land villa near Novigrad. Its buildings were repeatedly altered by Italian private owners after the Benedictines abandoned the monastery in the thirteenth century, with the latest changes carried out in French Historicism, a nineteenth-century architectural tendency that revived earlier historical styles. The complex formed part of a wider rural estate rather than functioning solely as a religious house.
Monastery and agricultural estate
The physical complex was connected to agricultural possessions around Novigrad and Brtonigle, as well as to property around Piran and part of a salt-production basin in the Piran salt mines. These associated lands formed part of the estate’s later economic and architectural setting. The buildings are strongly dilapidated, reflecting their period of state ownership and their subsequent vacancy after 1989.
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