Description

St. John belongs to the Serbian Orthodox Church. It is at the east end of Benkovac, next to the main road that goes out of the town and on to Knin. It is a fairly large edifice, with some typically Orthodox features. It is a domed, one nave church with an iconostasis, a wall of icons, that separates the nave from the sanctuary. The inerior is also rich with frescoes in the Byzantine style. The neighbouring house was the seat of Simeon Končarević, the Orthodox Bishop of Dalmatia in the 18th century.

History


The church of St. John the Baptist was erected in 1885, in the time of Austrian-Hungarian emperor and king Francis Joseph I, as we can read on a stone tablet above one of the doors. It is worth noting that the present church stands on the location of a much older, Catholic church of St. John, which had originally been dedicated to St. Vitus. and built in the Romanesque style. This was replaced by the present church because "the old one was too small".

Bell tower and apse

Bell tower

Dome

Dome fresco

Iconostasis