Priory of Vrana

The Priory of Vrana is associated with the ruins of the medieval Gradina fortress in Vrana, north of Lake Vrana. The Templars administered the site from the twelfth century until the early fourteenth century, on the location of an earlier Benedictine monastery. After the order was dissolved in 1312, the Knights Hospitaller took over and Vrana became the centre of an influential priory whose estates extended across Dalmatia, Slavonia, Međimurje and Bosnia. Its defensive ditch and traces of the drawbridge still evoke the former stronghold. Venetian artillery almost levelled the fortress during the Cretan War, so visitors today encounter chiefly its ground plan and surviving wall remains.