Novigrad Castle: A Medieval Fortress in Croatia
Site at a Glance
- Country
- Croatia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Croatia, Roman, Venetian
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page4 sections
History
Novigrad Castle, locally called Fortica (Croatian for “small fortress”), is a medieval fortress above the village of Novigrad in Zadar County, Croatia. A Liburnian hillfort is thought to have occupied the site during the Bronze Age. The Liburnians were an ancient people of the eastern Adriatic. After Rome conquered the area, it remained under Roman rule until the empire fell in 476. The Ostrogoths, a Germanic people, controlled it afterward, until the Byzantine reconquest under Justinian I, emperor from 527 to 565. Following the Peace of Aachen in 812, an agreement between the Frankish and Byzantine empires, the area came under Croat control and acquired strategic importance. In 1220, the Croatian noble Kurjaković family built the castle by reconstructing an older Roman fortification. The complex was known as Castrum novum, meaning “New Castle,” or Novigrad.
Medieval strengthening and royal imprisonment
By late 1282, Juraj Gusić Kurjaković, Count of Krbava, had substantially reinforced the castle to protect his holdings around Novigrad. In 1386, amid the anti-court movement, a series of late-fourteenth-century feudal struggles against royal-court authority, Mary of Hungary and her mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia, were imprisoned there. Mary ruled as queen in her own right, while Elizabeth was queen through marriage. Elizabeth was later strangled by her captors.
Venetian and Ottoman rule
The area became part of the Republic of Venice in 1409. The Venetians used the castle as a residence for their governor, and their rule in the area lasted until the Republic ended in 1797. During the Cretan War, a seventeenth-century conflict between Venice and the Ottoman Empire over Crete, Ottoman forces briefly captured the castle. Venice retook it in 1647. Novigrad Castle is protected as a cultural property in Croatia.
Remains
The castle survives as a ruined defensive complex on a hilltop. Its defenses were enlarged through successive fortification works, with further additions under Venetian rule.
