TZ Vodice

Velika Mrdakovica - Arauzona

On this rich archaeological site from the pre-Roman and Roman times about a hundred tombs have been discovered, out of which some date back from the 4th century B.C. According to the found artefacts and records of the Roman writers, experts identify this settlement as Arausona, a Liburnian-Roman settlement mentioned by Pliny.

Tombs of the older layers of necropolis date back from the 3rd to the 1st century B.C., and they were made under the Hellenistic influence.
A complex of blocks of hauses made of fine carpented stone, joined with clay, and later with mortar was also found here. The settlement was surrounded by defensive walls, made from the fractal stone, and was divided by streets. Some buildings had water tanks incised into the bedrock for collecting the rain-water.

Roman cistern

Nearby Arauzona there is still a natural catchment, coved in Roman times, which domestic people today call Roman cistern and which served for the water supply of the local inhabitants, while the livestock watered in a puddle in the field, north of the settlement..

Rakitnica

Rakitnica settlement was mentioned in1311 and today are still discerned the remains of the former houses and walls built in a dry-wall.
A local church of St. John the Baptist, located close to the village, was built in 1445 when the parish of Rakitnica was founded.

Noblemen from Šibenik, the owners of Rakitnica, along with peasants, began building the Gradina castel on the steep ridge above the settlement in 1509, for the purpose of defence against the Turks. Throughout the 17th century severe battles were fought for Rakitnica between the Turkish and Venetian army. The truce was set in 1699 when the Turks left this area.

Brick kiln

In the beginning of 2008 thanks to a notice of Mr. Vladimir Roca to the employees of the City Museum of Šibenik about “some strange bricks” that appeared while ­digging holes for young olives in his field, it came to a sensational discovery. At the foot of the old Rakitnica town, at Three wells site, the remains of the Roman brick kiln were found which served for the production of the parts of the roof structure – baked-clay tiles and channel tiles.

This is the first discovery of a Roman kiln in Dalmatia, although a friar Lujo Marun and Karl Patsch, in the transition from the 19th into the 20th century, wrote about the kilns near the village Smrdelji, but later they have never been fund again, and a ravine itself through which a stream flew and the surrounding area with a place for kiln is now overgrown with dense plants and it is almost impassable. Therefore the Rakitnica discovery has a special meaning, and by its preserved condition it is a curiosity in the Mediterranean.

Srima - Prižba

Archaeological excavations on this site, under the leadership of Zlatko Gunjača, were carried out from 1969 to 1974, and there was a preservation afterwards. Two one-nave basilicas built in different times were found. Therefore we call them basilicae geminatae or “the twin churches” - double churches. The reason and a purpose of these buildings have not been explained to the end. One of the thesis is that the basilicae geminatae are a conjunction of the congregational churches that serve for the public worship mass and memorial ones intended for the cult of relics. There is a great number of such examples in the area of the Roman Dalmatia, and in the Mediterranean. They were erected in Episcopal centres and more often outside the town areas, such this one in Srima.

These double basilicas are the most completely explored in the area of Dalmatia as well. Although the opinions on the time of their construction have not been fully conciliated, it is said that both churches date back from the 6th century. A style analysis of the stone furniture confirmed it, whereas some adaptations of the inventory was done in the 7th century. A northern church is older, and a southern one was joined later.