Historical overview

Vrana in the ancient period

From the earliest times, the Vrana Basin has been recognized as a locality that has always attracted the attention of landowners with its economic significance and beauty. Archaeological remains at the locality “Crkvine”, the source of Pećina, and in other places in the marginal area of Vrana blato, speak of several Roman agricultural estates “Vile rustica”. Fragments of Roman inscriptions embedded in the Maškovića han and others found on the route of the Roman aqueduct confirm the great economic activity of the Empire in this area.

The aforementioned aqueduct was built by Roman builders from Vrana to Zadar in order to successfully bring water to the sea level in Zadar itself. This water supply did not only supply Zadar, but also all the rustic villas along the way. According to preserved records and maps, the Vrana area was a very important route of Roman public roads in Roman times. The “Scardona highway” is particularly interesting, which is a very frequent road that led from Aenona, through Jader, Blandona to Scardona. The road is built in a straight line and, which is of particular importance for old roads, it passes by numerous springs. Some of these sources have preserved their pre-Roman names to this day.

Vrana in the Middle Ages

The ancient Croatian settlement of Ravni Kotar left even more data and finds. Vrana is surrounded by royal cities: Nin, Biograd, Knin and Šibenik. Kotari can still be called the metropolis of the old Croatian state, namely, it is known that all the Croatian nobles had a small property in the kotari that would have been used for their stay during the Parliament, which often lasted for a month.

Vrana also stands out due to its geopolitical position, being in the center between the fortresses of Nadin, Perušić, Ostrovec and Skradin, which is why the last one fell to the Ottomans in 1537.

The fortress “Castrum Aureanae” itself, around which the settlement later developed, is already mentioned in the 9th century. century. In XI. century there is a Benedictine monastery (St. Gregory), which the Croatian king Dmitar Zvonimir donated to the Pope in 1076. The Pope founded the papal freedom “pontifitiam libertatem” precisely on this circumstance, and then the Templars, who, after their origin from the Benedictines, took over the administration of the monastery and its property in 1136. With the abolition of the order in 1312, the monastery passed into the hands of the Ivanovac family.

The Vrana prior based his great social influence on the fact that the monastery was exempt from the jurisdiction of the local bishops, so neither the rulers nor the nobility could encroach on their rights without consequences.
The Templars are a new “chivalric order” that was founded in 1136 and united the two then most popular ideals: military and monastic. Their administration was organized in a completely military spirit, from the very beginning they were distinguished by great courage.

In Vrana there were also signs of royal dignity used by papal legates during the coronation of Croatian and Croatian-Hungarian rulers. Thus, during the time of Ivan Paližina (the priory), great ecclesiastical, political and military power was concentrated in the person of the Prior of Vrana.

Soon, however, local Vrana priories were appointed bans. The entire state political and ecclesiastical organization described was implemented due to the already launched Crusades against the coming Islamic expansion.
In that regard, Vrana had an extremely favorable geostrategic position. The most famous among the Vrana priests is the famous Ivan of Paližna, who distinguished himself in the rebellion of Queen Elizabeth and her daughter Maria, the heir of King Ludovic I. Croatian ban Ivan Paližna was involved in that conflict on the side of the Bosnian king Tvrtko Kotromanić.
Among the Vrana priors, it would be important to highlight the brave Petar Berislavić (1517-1520), who distinguished himself in the battles with the Ottomans. He was killed in an Ottoman ambush on Vražja gora near Korenica in 1520. The Vrana code is an important historical document from the 15th century, and was composed of 33 articles, was valid for the area of Vrana and its surroundings and shows the administrative-judicial organization of that fortress settlement with strong elements of Croatian customary law.
Among the historical figures in addition to the Ottoman period, we should definitely mention the brothers Francesco and Luciano Laurana, famous Renaissance painters from Vrana who studied and worked in Italy. Many of their works have been preserved.

Vrana in the Ottoman period

After the battle on Siget in 1526, there was no more organized resistance to the Ottoman invasion, and Vrana fell into Ottoman hands in 1527 until 1648.

Due to the fear of the unknown Asian army that was blazing and burning in front of them, the local population of Vrana leaves Vrana and flees to the village of Betina on the island of Murter, and partly to southern Istria. Even today, the people of Betin have large olive trees in “Modrava” on the isthmus between the sea and Lake Vrana, which did not fall under the Ottomans. The town of Vrana and its suburbs are inhabited exclusively by the Muslim population, and the surrounding area is inhabited by the Orthodox Vlach population. During the liberation of Vrana in 1648, three mosques were found in the town, which were immediately demolished together with the fort. The Ottomans thoroughly remodeled the fortress by occupying it, keeping a crew of 150 infantry and 100 horsemen in it.

Among the famous people from the Ottoman era, we must mention Jusuf Mašković, probably from Vrana or Pakoštane. Until recently, there was a lineage of the Maškov family in Pakoštane. Mašković, as a local gifted young man, was soon noticed by the Ottoman dignitaries, and at their request in 1643 he became a “silahdar” (army guard at the court, and not long after, second vizier and imperial adviser). A year later, he was appointed naval commander (admiral) of the Ottoman fleet.

He commanded the Ottoman fleet in the Candian War and managed to capture Crete (Kandia) from the Venetians. Due to his mercy towards the captured Venetian soldiers, he was beheaded in 1645 by order of the sultan himself. He left behind an important monument of Islamic architecture, the westernmost existing Ottoman monument in Europe. Namely, towards the end of his service, and fearing the fate of most of the dignitaries at the gate, he decided to build an important public building in his old neighborhood, where he probably thought he would live out his old age away from court intrigues. He entrusted Durakbeg with 16,000 reals in 1644 to build and oversee the khan. With his death, construction was stopped and the inn was never completed, but it has been preserved to a good extent to this day.