Description of the attraction
The uninhabited islet of St. George, or Sveti Juraja, as the Croats themselves call it, is located in the Adriatic Sea near the city of Vrsar. The island serves as a natural protection of the Vrsar port from sea storms. Its area is 0, 112 sq. Km. The island of St. George was first mentioned in historical documents of the 3rd century. Historians believe that in the past centuries there was a quarry on the island. The stone quarried here was used to build the monumental monolithic dome of the mausoleum of King Theodoric the Great in Ravenna.
The main attraction of the island is the Church of St. George. This simple stone structure, erected on a rock, with two typical early Christian semicircular apses, was probably built in the 14th century on the site of an earlier sacred structure. Some of the architectural details of the temple, such as the windows on the southern façade, indicate that the new building was modeled on the old one.
Once the temple, like the island itself, belonged to the brotherhood of St. George. In the 19th century, the church began to collapse. In the second half of the 20th century, only walls with a height of 1-3 meters remained from it. The restoration of the Church of St. George began in 1996. This was the first restoration project of a historic building supported by the young mayor of Vrsar F. Matukin. The renovation of the temple lasted 2 years and cost 20 thousand German marks.
According to local historians, before the Second World War, once a year, on April 23, the inhabitants of Vrsar went to the island of St. George, where they walked around the island with songs, and then listened to Mass in a stone church.
