The Historical Overview of the City of Krk

Life in the city of Krk can be continuously traced for over 2000 years, dating back to the Copper Age. At the end of the Bronze Age, almost when the Iron Age began, we find the Illyrian tribe, the Liburnians, in today`s City of Krk. Grave monuments with Latin inscriptions or cipusi, are the evidence that the Liburnians were under Roman influence in the first centuries A.D. Liburnians had been the founders of the city around which they built walls in order to defend it. Archaeological excavations confirm that underneath the oldest visible layer of walls there is an Illyric one built using the dry stone technique with no chipped stone. Therefore, it is safe to say that today`s walls were in the same place where the ones from the earliest period had been. Moreover, the city itself is where the Liburnians’ settlement once was. We don’t exactly know the name of the Liburnian town because the first historical information about its existence was brought to us by Greek geographer Strabon between the end of the 1st century B.C. and our era. He calls it Kuriktike or Kiriatika, deriving its name from the Illyric Kar-ikt which means “the stone island”. Roman writer Pliny called it Curictae or Kurikta in 1st century, and the 2nd century Greek geographer Ptolomy called it Kurikon. The aforementioned ancient writers are named on a stone tablet from the 4th century which tells of the City of Krk as the “splendissima civitas Curictarum” or of the “splendid City of Kurikta”.

Roman period in the City of Krk started in the 2nd century B.C. Today we can see the material evidence from that time: fragments of city walls, thermal baths, mosaics, recently discovered remains from the Temple of Venus, and a lot of stone fragments from Roman grave monuments. The latter example of a Roman grave monument from the 1st century which Nikola IV Frankopan had built into a six-sided tower on the sea front in 1407 has an old coat-of–arms of the Counts of Krk in the central part. Other fragments had been built in some newer buildings, thus serving as capitals or lunettes in churches or private houses. Since Krk was a municipality, highly ranked Roman officials, magistrats (city administration) and decurions (city councils) lived here. There is a gravestone of Decurion Pitius Marullus on the Vela placa (ancient Platea Magna or the Big Square) which today witnesses of the ancient heritage. During the Roman period the urban city complex was further developed using the existing Liburnian plan and adjusting it to its tradition. The city had been divided into four parts by two main streets. The main cardo is laid from the north Upper City Gate to the south Small City Gate thus dividing the city into west and east part. The main decumanus street connects Porta Magna city gates and Vela placa on the west with the Porta Pisana on the east thus dividing the city into north and south. Cardo and decumanus cross each other on Plathea Antiqua or the Old Town Square, “pjaceta”, which obviously existed even before the Roman arrival. Today the streets are laid as they were laid in the Roman times. Inside the city walls everything stayed the same. Only the city walls went through some reconstruction works between 50 and 30 B.C. and the old stone which we can see today in the Frankopan castle (Kaštel) is the evidence of that. The Christianity came to the City of Krk during the Roman rule in the 3rd and 4th century and the first church was built in this period. In the 6th century (579 A.D.) Krk became a bishopric. In 680 A.D. Andrija became the first known Bishop of Krk. Through time, St. Quirinus, the first Christian martyr, became the patron of the City of Krk and is celebrated on 4th of June. Krk Cathedral was built on the remains of Roman thermal baths from the 1st century. The Bishop’s Church had been later adapted and consecrated to the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary. The Romans had been probably calling Krk Vecla or the Old City. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. the City of Krk was ruled by Byzantium as a part of Byzantine region Dalmatia. Therefore, its name was changed into Vekla (Greek: ?????) and the later Venetian name, Veglia, of the city and island was derived. Croatians (Slavs) came to island at the beginning of the 7th century. Roman inhabitants found their shelter inside the city walls, and the newcomers, Croatians, erected castles on the island. They had named it Krk after Kurikum; they called the Roman urban centre the same, whereas in everyday speech they called it Veja (deriving it from Vecla and later Veglia). That is how Krk continued to live as a Roman city till the late medieval period. During the time a lot of social and political changes occurred that influenced the city of Krk as well. This is the period when Glagolitic script appeared on the island. The local Vejas held on to Latin for private and public correspondence as well as the church service, despite the spread of Croatian influence to the rest of the island. Still, Glagolitic script found its way inside the Krk city walls and the evidence for that is the Krk inscription from the 16th century.

After a brief and often interrupted Croatian governing, in 1000 A.D. the island and city of Krk came under the Venetian rule for the first time. Even though Croatian kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir regained the rule of the island in the second half of the 11th century, at the beginning of 12th century Arpad dynasty lost it to the powerful Republic of Saint Mark and the winged lion. Croatian noble family, that became the Counts of Krk, had been given the responsibility to govern the island by the Venetians. Count Dujam, who was first mentioned in 1118, was the founder of the family. Dujam governed the island and the City of Krk as a Venetian vassal. His sons, Vid and Bartol, had been given the island by Venice for life-long governing.

This is how Frankopan`s rose to power. They often used the animosity between Venice and Croatian-Hungarian rulers, pretending to be double vassals, receiving new lands on the mainland in return for their loyalty. Thanks to the Counts of Krk, the courthouse (1191), Kaštel in the Kamplin Square (14th century) and defensive towers (1407) had been built in the City of Krk. Furthermore, they were generous patrons. Thanks to them, Cathedral in Krk had been renovated by adding the side chapels (chapel of St. Barbara, chapel of St. Cross) and, just to mention, a silver altar piece from 1477. Furthermore, the Church of St. Margaret and the Church of St. Quirinus had been built. In the 17th century those two churches became a part of one cathedral complex.

Krk was the last Croatian island ruled by Venice from year 1480. The Frankopan family had used their surname from 1430. Ivan VII Frankopan, the Count of Krk, had been deceived by Venetians and taken to prison. From that point on, one of the Venetian noblemen governed the city and the island acting as a Venetian provveditore i.e.ruler. Besides him, a Big and Small Council had the authority to govern with certain autonomy towards the provveditore. At the beginning of the 16th century many refugees from the mainland came to the island, as well as in the city of Krk, because of the great Ottoman conquest of the time.

After the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 the city and island had been a part of Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces for a short period of time (1806-1813). The French closed down the monastery of the Poor Clares, and opened a high school and elementary school for girls, which was led by Benedictine nuns. After the fall of the Illyrian Provinces authority of the island was taken over by the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1822 the island was officially annexed to Istria which was its province. Very soon after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city had been under Italian occupation (1918 to 1921). During the period, D'Annunzio's Arditi destroyed bishopric’s printing press "Kurykta" and Bishop Antun Mahnić was deported. A relatively peaceful city life continued within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which was the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from October 1929). Between the two World Wars tourism started to develop slowly in relation to the pre-war time, but the Second World War hindered further development - the new Italian occupation (1941 to 1943), was followed by the German one (1943 to 1945). After the war the island became a part of Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (from 1963 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and the focus on tourism in the City of Krk intensified. The construction of Rijeka airport near Omišalj in 1970 and the road bridge connecting the island to the mainland (1980) furthered the development of tourism. During this period the first island highway was built thus providing connection with the Adriatic Highway and the interior of the country. Today the City of Krk is the economic and religious centre of the island.