Bribir, Šibenik-Knin County

The village is located at the foot of the hill of Bribir, in the Ravni Kotari geographical region. It is 12 km from Skradin.

In the Roman period, the town (municipium) of Varvaria was created in the 1st century AD at the hill of Bribir (Croatian: Bribirska glavica), which is now an archaeological site. Up until the Roman conquest, the Liburnians had inhabited the region, giving their name to the Roman province of Liburnia. Pliny the Elder mentioned Varvarini as one of 14 municipalities under the jurisdiction of Scardona (Skradin). In the Migration Period, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the region switched hands, being occupied by the Ostrogoths, Byzantines and then Croats.

In De Administrando Imperio (950s), Berber is one of the counties part of Littoral Croatia. Bribir achieved its peak in the 13th and 14th century, during the period when the members of Šubić family ruled over Croatia as the Bans of Croatia. Šubićs were called nobiles, comites or principes Breberienses (Princes of Breber, Croatian: Knezovi bribirski). They built a large palace on the hill of Bribir, an ideal place to control the surrounding territory, overseeing all roads and approaches from the sea to the hinterland.

The town was settled by Orthodox population in the 16th century. It was part of the war-time Republic of Serbian Krajina (1991–1995).

• Serbian Orthodox Church (Temple) of St. Joachim and Anne, built in 1574
• Remains of St Mary church and Franciscan monastery from ca. 1300
• Late antique rotunda (below SS Joachim and Ann) and Early Christian mausoleum with sarcophagi
• Remains of Gothic-style church from ca. 14th century
• Remains of Romanesque-style church from ca. 13th century
• Early medieval cemetery Vratnice from ca. 9th century
• Remains of Roman-era city-walls, with medieval defensive tower
• Remains of Ottoman-Venetian defensive tower
• Roman-era nymphaeum with mosaics
• Remains of Roman and medieval buildings

In the 2011 census, the village had 103 inhabitants.[1]

The town was prior to the Yugoslav Wars inhabited by 10 larger Serbian Orthodox families: Bijelić, Gnjidić, Milošević, Ostojić, Pavić, Stevelić, Šarić, Šimpraga, Šuša, and Šušić.

• Srećko Bijelić (1930–2004), politician
• Katarina Kotromanić (1294–1355), Bosnian princess, daughter of Elizabeth of Serbia who held Bribir

• Zlatni vijek Bribira (in Croatian)
• A. Milošević, Bribir: Past and the Monuments
• Bibliography of works on Bribir on Varvaria-Breberium-Bribir website

• Bribir at tz-vinodol.hr