Still together after 2,000 years: faces of a Roman couple stare out from their reused gravestone below an inscription recording the building in 1407 of a seafront bastion at Krk Town, Krk island, Croatia, by Nikola Frankopan, a member of the local ruling dynasty.
Krk Town, Krk island, Croatia: faces of an ancient Roman couple who have watched over visitors to Krk ever since 1407, when their gravestone was reused by a member of the powerful Frankopan dynasty that ruled the island to record the year when he ordered the building of a seafront hexagonal bastion or tower. The couple were 1st century AD citizens of the Roman town of Curicum, which evolved into a municipality after Rome defeated the Liburnians, a tribe occupying a lengthy strip along the Adriatic coast. In modern Krk Town, Curicum has left many traces, including columns, inscribed tombstones, walls, mosaics, a Temple of Venus and the remains of a baths complex. A 15th century inscription above the couple records Nikola Frankopan's instruction to build the bastion, part of a comprehensive defence system that included a fortress, various towers and stronger town walls. The Frankopans, who claimed Italian aristocratic heritage, came to prominence after Dujam Frankopan defeated a force of pirates off Krk in 1133 and achieved local autonomy for the island under the overall control of Venice. His descendants played a leading role in the regional power struggle between the Venetian Republic and the kingdom of Hungary-Croatia. At Krk, they expanded the castle to ward off naval attacks and maintained their position as Croatia's leading feudal family until 1671, when the last of their line was executed by the Austrians.
Size: 2682px × 1784px
Location: Krk Town, Krk island, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Croatia.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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