Ružić

Ružić is a Dalmatian hinterland village in Petrovo Polje, roughly 10 kilometres south-east of Drniš and 42 kilometres north-east of Šibenik. Although administrative descriptions can cause confusion, the municipal offices are in neighbouring Gradac; Ružić itself lies by the Čikola between the Svilaja and Moseć slopes. Its essential sight crowns Paraćeva Glavica: the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Ivan Meštrović’s family mausoleum. The building stands cadastrally within Ružić, although museum and visitor information commonly associates it with Otavice, the village of Meštrović’s childhood across the Čikola. Construction lasted from 1926 to 1930, with work on the interior and grounds continuing through the 1930s. Built with stone from Svilaja, the church contains the remains of Meštrović and members of his family. Ružić is not a seaside settlement; its scenery consists of fields, river country, rocky hills and agricultural villages. The meeting of Meštrović’s architecture with the broad view over Petrovo Polje gives this small place its distinctive identity.

Ružić belongs to inland Dalmatia rather than the Šibenik coast, occupying the south-eastern side of Petrovo Polje at about 279 metres above sea level. The Čikola separates Paraćeva Glavica on the Ružić side from Otavice, where Ivan Meštrović grew up and where his family house stands. This explains why the mausoleum is often labelled as an Otavice attraction, although land and conservation records place it within Ružić cadastral territory. Svilaja and Moseć frame the wider municipality, while the Čikola crosses the field after rising near Čavoglave. Ružić’s Chapel of Saint Mary, originally built in 1900, was demolished during construction of the Drniš–Split road and rebuilt in the late 1980s.