Medieval walls of Fortress Badanj

In the immediate vicinity of Crikvenica, along the Dubračina river, there is a small but strategically well-placed hillfort - Badanj, the oldest monument of medieval fortification construction in Vinodol. The original name of the fort, abandoned after a great earthquake in the 14th century, is unknown. Part of the military crew probably moved to the nearby settlement of Kostelj, and the functions of controlling the mouth of the river Dubračina were taken over by ancient Kotor. Badanj Fortress has an irregular circular layout, and consists of a spacious central tower, which houses the crew's living quarters and reservoirs. Along the winding access road there is a suburb with several rectangular residential buildings. Individual finds of ancient bricks built into the walls of Christmas Eve may mean that the core of the fortress was built during the twilight of antiquity, or the early Byzantine era, between the 4th and 6th centuries. At the foot of Badnje, above the left bank of the Dubračina, are the ruins of the Church of the Holy Spirit on Duševo, built in the 12th century and restored in the 15th century.
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