St Lucy's Church, Jurandvor

A plain Romanesque church in a village on Krk, with a barn-like nave and the ruins of a Benedictine cloister beside it, would not draw visitors on its own. What draws them is what was found in the floor: the Baška tablet, a slab of white limestone carved around 1100 in the angular Glagolitic script, recording a land grant and naming a Croatian king. It is one of the earliest substantial texts in the Croatian language and is treated here as a founding document. The original went to Zagreb long ago; the church holds a full-size replica standing where the stone once stood, as a panel of the chancel screen.

What you actually see

• The replica tablet - a full-size copy of the Baška stone set in the position the original occupied.
• The Romanesque nave - a plain church with a wooden roof, small windows and very little inside it.
• The Benedictine ruins - remains of the abbey buildings and cloister immediately next door.
• The Baška valley - dry stone walls and bare sheep pasture running down to the sea.

When to go

The church is open through the warm half of the year and keeps reduced or by-request hours outside it, so check locally before driving out. Morning is cooler for the walk or cycle up the valley from Baška. Krk fills in July and August, but this corner stays quiet even then, because everyone else is on the beach.

Honest expectations

It is one room and a replica, and anyone who cannot read the script or care about the history will be done in ten minutes. Opening hours are irregular and the door is sometimes locked with a phone number pinned to it. There is almost no shade, and the walk up from Baška is exposed. Combine it with something else rather than making a special trip.

Nearby

Baška's long pebble beach is two kilometres away, and Krk town sits half an hour north.