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THE COMPLEX OF SAINT LUCIA’S ABBEY

«In the picturesque countryside, on the outskirts of the fertile field of Baška, beside the today’s village Jurandvor, there is an area where the north-eastern wind bora does not blow so violently and where at the foot of a steep hill rises spring water. People have long ago chosen that area for residence.» (B. Fučić)

In the area of the complex of Saint Lucia’s abbey back in the Roman time, during the 4th century a villa rustica was built. This ancient rural estate consisted of a residential building and outbuildings. In the south-eastern part of the estate in the 6th century a small early Christian church was built. Some time later the whole complex was burned and abandoned.

In the 10th  century a graveyard was formed near the restored church, and in the 11th century the Glagolitic monks, adherents of the «Slavic Apostols» the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, settled in the complex. For liturgian duties and prayers the monks used books written in Old Slavic language and a Slavic script Glagolitsa. In the 12th century the monks of the St. Lucia’s abbey took over the monastic principle of St. Benedictine and became Benedictines.

Within the remains of the villa of late antiquity the monks built a sequence of irregular and humble buildings compacted around the central court-yard. A new, single-naved early romanesque church of St. Lucia was probably built at the turn of the 11th and the 12th centuries.

In the 14th century the church was completely renovated, and the bell-tower, in which a Croatian coat of arms is engraved, was built as an addition to it. The bell, which is still in the bell-tower, was casted in the year 1378 in the workshop of master Manfredinus. Under the corners of the belfry frieze there are four reliefs with the figures of the evangelists: an ox – St. Luke and an angel – St. Matthew (on the front), a lion – St. Mark and an eagle – St. John (at the rear).

In the 14th century on the commision of the Krk Princes Frankopan a St. Lucia’s altar polyptych was made in Venice, in the workshop of the famous master Paolo Veneziano. This gothic polyptych is considered to be one of the most valuable works of art on the island of Krk.

On the southern side, the gothic Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was added in the year 1498.

In the middle of the 15th century, the Benedictines left St. Lucia’s abbey.

Today’s St. Lucia’s complex is formed of:
• the church of St. Lucia with the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary
• the restored residential building of the monastery
• the archeological park (remains of the ancient villa and the monastery)