The Wall at Oštrica, Grebaštica near Šibenik

Driving along the Adriatic coastal highway on the southern approach to Šibenik, you will pass the village of Grebaštica, which is set in the deepest part of a 5 km deep bay. The northern part of the bay is formed by the Oštrica peninsula.

When you first catch sight of the great rampart on Oštrica from the road, you are taken aback, because you do not expect something like this here in the middle of nowhere. Most people have heard of the Ston Walls, but Ston is far to the south, so a structure like this one, 12 km before Šibenik, leaves people amazed. The entire peninsula is cut off by the wall.

The Grebaštica area was already inhabited in antiquity. From the 13th century, the name of the village of Grebac begins to be mentioned, which over time became one of the most important settlements in the Šibenik district.

Because of the ever-growing threat of incursions by Ottoman soldiers, at the end of the 15th century the Šibenik commune, with the help of the Venetian government, financed the construction of a rampart that walled off the entire Oštrica peninsula, and its area was turned into a safe refuge for the inhabitants of this region against the Turkish conquerors. As early as the summer of 1499, the defenders on the wall, with the help of four ships from Šibenik, successfully repelled an attack by 3,000 Turks. And that was only the beginning!

The wall thus became part of the fortification network in the wider Šibenik area.

After the Turkish threat ceased, the area behind the wall was for a time used to house patients infected with the plague. After that, the inhabitants of this region used it for defence against the British, who raided and plundered these parts right up until the first half of the 19th century.

The wall is about 300 m long and between 3 and 4 m high. Today it is a protected cultural heritage site, and the area behind the wall, because of its preserved nature, has been included in the Natura 2000 ecological network.

You can drive all the way to the wall, but we advise parking a couple of hundred metres before it, at one of the widened spots along the road. The road is, incidentally, mostly gravel.

Before the wall, an educational trail has been laid out that climbs to the top of a nearby hill, from which a beautiful view of the surroundings opens up.

Next time your travels bring you to this part of Dalmatia and you catch sight of this wall, turn off and visit it. During our visit the turn-off was not signposted (?!?), and it is located here 43.64006333681357, 15.959920529838799