Description of the attraction
On Okit Hill, 135 meters high, near the town of Vodice, the locals built a church in honor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel between 1590 and 1660 between 1590 and 1660. In 1909, forty residents of Vodice, who moved here from Australia, at their own expense built 14 stations of the Way of the Cross, which are located on the path leading from the foot of the hill to its top.
The Church of Our Lady of Carmel has been rebuilt several times. In 1942, an Italian plane bomb completely destroyed this temple. After World War II, the communist authorities did not allow the church to be rebuilt. Permission to restore the Temple of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was obtained only in 1967. The new church was built in just two months. True, it did not last long. Probably, few sacred structures can be found on the territory of Croatia, which were destroyed twice over the past century.
During the recent war, in the fall of 1991, the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was destroyed by enemy formations. They also paved the way to the top of the hill. It was unpaved, broken, but this did not prevent the local residents after the war from using it in order to deliver the construction materials necessary for the restoration of the temple to Okit Hill. Preparations for the construction of a new sanctuary of the Virgin Mary began immediately. The project of the church was developed by the Zadar architect Nikolai Bašić. On May 3, 1995, the first stone laid in the foundation was consecrated. With financial support from local residents, an imposing white-painted stone building was erected. This church is still under construction.
