Stojan Janković's Castle, Islam grčki

Description

The Village of Islam Grčki is located some 20 kilometers to the west of Benkovac on what used to be called the Great Road in the MIddle Ages. This road linked two important places in the old Croatian kingdom, Nin and Knin. Stojan Janković, a noted military commander during the Venetian-Turkish wars in the 17th century, built his castle here, in the vicinity of a Romanesque church dedicated to St. George. One of the most important modern writers in Croatia, Vladan Desnica, was buried in this church in 1967. The castle is a unique example of a fortified palace in the region of Ravni kotari.

History

Stojan Janković, originally Mitrović, was, like his father Janko Mitrović, a military commander in service of the Venetian Republic in the 17th century, in the time when Venice was desperately trying to defend its properties in Dalmatia and to reclaim those that the Turks had occupied during their expansion in the 16th century. Janković disinguished himself as a warrior and was rewarded a large estate in Islam. The village was named Islam by the Turks who had built their great fortress, called Sedislam, there in 1577. Janković forced them out in 1647. Before the Turkish onslaught in the 16th century this location was called Vespeljevac. In mid-18th century Islam was divided into Islam Latinski (Latin Islam) and Islam Grčki (Greek Islam). The writer Vladan Desnica is a descendant of the Mitrović-Janković family.

BENKOVAC heritage