SUMMARY FROM THE HISTORY OF BIBINJE BY ANTE GVERIĆ, 1999

Bibinje is located in a very favorable position on the sea, six kilometers southeast of Zadar. As in Zadar, the old historic center in Bibinje is also a small peninsula going from northwest to southeast. The region of Bibinje is exceptionally rich with fertile land and a large number of underground waters, wich are primary requirements for the live and labor of people in this area even before it is mentioned in written documents.

The territoy of Bibinje was surely settled in the earliest centuries after the arrival of Croatians in this area, that is, in Roman times.

The name Bibinje originated from the proper Roman name Vibius. Namely, Vibius was a Roman patrician who owned property on the territory of present/day Bibinje (praedium, fundus Vibianum). In Roman times an aqueduct passing by Bibinje supplied Zadar with water from lake Vranski (the remains are still visible today [photo above]). Northwest of Bibinje, near Gaženica, is the locality Banska punta where lay the remains of structures from the Middle Ages, more accurately from Roman times. In that time Bibinje belonged to the Zadar city ager.

At the dawn of the second millenium we find Bibinje to be important property of Croatian kings. However we should mention that at that time Bibinje doesn´t appear as Bibanum, but rather as Tochinia (Točinja). Namely, in the year 1066 with the founding of the Convent of Benedictines iz Zadar, Croatian King Petar Krešimir IV, at the wish of abbess Čika, gave the royal property of Točinja (today Bibinje) to the Convent as a gift to keep in permanent possession. Since then Bibinje has stayed in close contact with the Benedictines of Zadar whose largest property was right in Bibinje and the people of Bibinje were mostly their peasants.

In written documents Bibinje is first mentioned in the year 1214.

Through the late Middle Ages till the first Turkish invasions, under the protection of the Convent of Benedictines, Bibinje experiences envious economic development.

In the middle of the 15th century Turkish invasions into our regions begin. At that time Bibinje goes through the boodiest period in all its history. In the year 1468 the Venetian government fortifies Bibinje with a strong defensive wall, a tower and tree doors. The Turkish then consecutively burn and destroy the village and capture people who weren´t able to escape. Bibinje suffered the most during the Cyprus War (1570-1573) and the Candian War (1645-1669).

From the time of the Candian War in the northern Dalmatian region we know of a people´s hero in the fight against Turks, priest Stipan Sorić, from Bibinje. He is responsible not just for the freedom of the wider Zadar region, but for all of Dalmatia and Lika. He perished in 1648 in Ribnik, in Lika.

Throughout history Bibinje was always a Glagolitic parish. From Bibinje came many priests who preserved the people´s religious and national awareness. From recent history Fr. Ante Fuzul, Fr. Miho Levači , Fr. Petar Spanićć and Fr. Marko Sikirić are known.

In the Bibinje area there are a few churches. The oldest church of St. Peter is from the 8th century; next is the little church of the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist from the 12th century. In the old historic center there are two churches: on of the Birth of St. John the Baptist probably from the 15th century, the other parish patron St. Roch, from the 16th century. In 1985 the people of Bibinje built a new church of the Ascension of the Holy Virgin Mary.

In the past Bibinje was one of the smallest places in the Zadar region, in contrast to today, when it numbers 4000 inhabitants.

Translated by Marko Jelić