Skradin

Skradin sits where the Krka becomes tidal, at the head of a navigable inlet, and it is the usual water entrance to Krka National Park - boats run from the town quay up to Skradinski Buk. Its other claim is electrical: the hydroelectric plant built on the Krka at Skradinski Buk went into operation in August 1895, days after Niagara, using Tesla's polyphase system, and it lit the streets of Sibenik, making the town one of the first anywhere with public lighting run on polyphase alternating current. The town below is a small stone core under a ruined fortress, with a marina that draws yachts up the inlet.

History

In antiquity the town was Scardon or Scardona, named by Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy and Procopius; the Illyrian name probably comes from a word for "steep", and its ending, like Salona's in Solin or Albona's in Labin, turned into the Croatian ending -in. Under Rome it was the administrative and military centre of the region, still a municipium in 530; it was wrecked in the 7th century, restored under the Croatian rulers and in the 10th century was a fortified town and the seat of a county. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries it flourished as the capital of the Šubić bans Paul I and Mladen II, who built the Turina fortress above the harbour, made the town below a free commune with its own statute and endowed monasteries for the Dominicans, Franciscans and other orders. The Ottomans took Skradin in 1522 and held it, with interruptions, until 1684, when the Venetians took it; it recovered in the 18th century and became the centre of a municipality in 1705 (Wikipedia, Skradin).

What you'll find

• The water gate to Krka - park boats from the town quay.
• A hydro plant of August 1895 - built on Tesla's polyphase system.
• Sibenik lit from here - among the first towns anywhere on polyphase AC.
• A stone core under a fortress - the town itself.

When to go

May to September, when park boats run frequently. Half a day.

Things to know

Park tickets are timed and capped in summer, and turning up without one can mean waiting. Boats stop running early in the season's shoulder. The town is small and largely given to restaurants. Parking fills by mid-morning.

Nearby

Krka National Park is upstream; Sibenik is at the mouth of the inlet.

Key facts