Cultural monuments

PARISH CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

The present church was built in 1737, and it was devoted to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in 1739. It was constructed on the foundations of a smaller church from the 15th century, which was originally devoted to Nativity of Mary (Mala Gospa), and after the battle of Lepanto to Lady of the Rosary (Gospa Ružarica). During the Cretan War in the 17th century, this church was torn down, and the present parish church was built on its remains. On the external side of the apse there is an image of Madonna with a child from the 15th century with a Glagolitic inscription below it dating back to the 18th century. Above the script, there is a Ghotic relief of Our Lady with Infant Jesus. A smaller altar to the right is the oldest, and it has a Glagolitic inscription with a cross and indication of the year 1428. This text talks about construction of the first church. In the 20th century, the altar was partially restored and devoted to the Heart of Jesus. Opposite this altar, there is the altar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

CHURCH OF ST. ANDREW

A medieval church devoted to St. Andrew is located on the island of Babac, opposite Turanj. The architectural elements present in the church show late Romanesque style from the 13th or 14th century. The church is about 8.5 meters long from the front to the back façade, and 4.5 meters wide. It was built from non-stratified carved stone, placed in lime mortar. The church is located immediately along the coastline, therefore its northern wall was fortified as a protection against undermining. The façade is ornamented by a beautiful doorway, above which there is coat of arms of the Soppe family, and the church floor is paved by stone plates. The church was renovated at the beginning of the 1990s.

CHURCH OF ST. MICHAEL

The church was named after two apostles of Jesus, Philip and James. The original church bore their names, but was devastated by the Venetians in the 12th century. Petar Zadranin, the abbot of Rogovsko, built a new church in its place in 1370s and devoted it to apostles Philip and James, and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The church was devastated in the 16th century during the Ottoman incursions into this area.
A Latin script is visible inside the church, on a stone plate in the shrine, saying that Abbot Petar Zadranin restored the churches in Rogovo and in Sv. Filip i Jakov in 1347. The church was later on called the church of St. Michael, the Archangel (Crkva Sv. Mihovila Arkanđela) and the present church was built in 1707, after the Ottoman danger ceased.
UInside the church, at the entrance, there is a text written in Glagolitic script by Don Nikola Kužinović, who restored the church after the Ottoman danger ceased. The altar which replaced the baroque altar was installed in 1892. It consists of four marble columns, where the altarpiece is placed. The altarpiece was made by Countess Silvija Borelli, and it presents Virgin Mary with a child in her arms, St. Michael and Apostles St. Philip and St. James.
There are also side altars in the church: St. Anthony (Sv. Ante) with a statue, St. Joseph (Sv. Josip) with a statue, a gift by Seka Pelicarić dating back to 1937, and altar of Our Lady of Lourdes (Gospa Lurdska) with a statue from the end of the 19th century. Walls are adorned by oil paintings on canvas depicting Our Lady of Rosary (Gospa od Ružarija) and St. Nikola Tavelić.

CHURCH OF ST. PETER

The church of St. Peter is located along the road leading from Zadar to Biograd. Sv. Petar is a settlement mentioned at the beginning of the 17th century, along with the homonymous church making part of the parish of Turanj. The church layout is an elongated rectangle with double pitched roof covered in roofing tiles. After the place and the church were destroyed during the wars, the building was renovated on two occasions, in 1670 and in 1681. It was then that openings were made in side façades, shaped like a half-moon, and a small, spindle-shaped bell tower was built above the gable of the front façade. A panel ornamented by relief was installed above the front façade. There are remains of an old cemetery next to church of St. Peter.

CHURCH OF ST. ROCH

Rogovo is an estate bestowed to the Benedictine monastery of St. John (Samostan Sv. Ivana) in Biograd by the Croatian king Petar Krešimir IV. In Rogovo, a church was built for the monks and their serfs in the 11th century. After Biograd was torn down in 1126, the Benedictines moved their abbey to Ćokovac, and the church in Rogovo was probably demolished in that period. It was renovated later on during the time of abbot Petar Zadranin in the 14th century, only to be demolished again and abandoned during the Ottoman incursions.
The church of St. Roch (Sv. Roko) in Rogovo had a carved Gothic wooden crucifix with Christ in natural size. The crucifix has Romanesque properties, dating back to the period before the monastery was renovated in the 14th century. The original crucifix is placed in the new church of St. Philip and James (Crkva Sv. Filipa i Jakova) in Sv. Filip i Jakov, while its replica can be seen in the church of St. Roch.

CHURCH OF ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Church of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Crkva Uznesenja Blažene Djevice Marije) is located on the cemetery, next to the sea. It is believed that it used to be a parish church, build on the remains of a large Roman estate and port (the remains of the port are well-preserved and clearly visible during extremely low water), and in historic documents it was called Holy Mary (Sveta Marija) or Church of Immaculate Conception (Crkva Bezgrešnog Začeća), and in certain documents also “Stella maris”“.
It is a one-nave building with emphasized semi-circular apse on the east, 11 m long and 6 m wide. The church was repaired and divided several times since the medieval period, which is clear from the corpus of the building. The oldest remains of the church wall date back to the 9th - 10th century.