TOWERS AND FORTRESSES - FRANKAPAN CITADEL

Ogulin, the Frankapan citadel, round the year 1500 The Ogulin citadel is the central and best-known building complex of this city, and at the same time also the fortification that marked the beginning, the starting point of the later settlement. When the Ottoman raids into these lands started being more and more frequent and cruel, and after the occurrence of the tragic battle of Krbava in 1493, and the no less tragic Turkish pillaging of the medieval city of Modruš, Prince Bernardine Frankapan started the building of a new fortification in the valley not far from Modruš (from round 1453 to round 1530). This means that its building started in the last years of the 15th century, and the new Ogulin citadel was first mentioned in the historical records in 1500. Though it was at first the property of the Frankapans, Ogulin, however, was soon to get the military frontier garrison (1553), and the new settlement was soon to become the seat of the military captaincy district (round the year 1570). Due to times of hardship, the presence of the military forces and the military influence upon the development of the settlement was going to last well into the 18th century. The Frankapan citadel was raised along the bed of the River Dobra which vanishes here in the deep abyss in the underground (Đulin ponor – meaning Đula’s abyss). However, when the river had risen above its banks, it would overflow into the canals round the citadel and thus protect it even better. The present-day citadel is actually the rest of the small fortified settlement, surrounded by walls of irregular shape and additionally fortified by several rounded towers. The original Ogulin settlement was situated within this irregularly shaped space, and, actually consisted of small wooden houses. The main entrance into the fortified space was in the south by means of a drawbridge across the canal and into the entrance tower. These parts were later pulled down as nowadays there is a road between the citadel and Đula’s abyss, but quite near the road we still find St. Bernardine’s chapel standing there, guarding the memory of its builder, Prince Bernardine Frankapan. The citadel itself is standing on the south-eastern side of the former fortification, in the spot that demanded stepped up protection. It is a single-winged, three-storey building with rounded towers on its end that are slightly higher than the building itself. Some time ago there was a separate yard on the inner side, surrounded by a wall which offered protection from the settlement, too. Two towers of the citadel are excellent examples of the time when they were built because the have a marked height on one side and thus save some part of the medieval defence concepts, and on the other hand they are rounded in shape, in this way indicating the presence of new Renaissance principles.