A Walk to Barone Fortress and St. John’s Fort in Sibenik
Sibenik is well-know for its 4 fortresses. St. Michael’s Fortress (Tvrđava Sv. Mihovila) is in the old town and easily accessible. It costs a whopping 10 EUR to enter.
Barone Fortress (Tvrđava Šubićevac) and St. John’s Fortress (Tvrđava Sv. Ivana) are located on a hill overlooking the town. It costs another whopping 10 EUR to visit both of these.
The fourth and final fortress is St. Nicholas Fortress (Tvrđava Sv. Nikole), which is situated at sea. We’ll pass this tomorrow when we get a ferry to Zlarin. This fortress is being renovated, so the public aren’t allowed inside. However, you can take a boat tour to it and visit the surrounding area. The cost is 20 EUR.
It will cost you 40 EUR to visit all 4.
Today, we decided to walk up to the two fortresses on the hill.
In the above image, you can see the two fortresses. This photo was taken from the 3rd floor of our Airbnb apartment in Sibenik. The plan was to walk from the Church of Our Lady to Barone Fortess via Put Gimnazije (High School Road). That’s a distance of 1.05 km. It’s then another 350 meters to St. John’s Fortress.
After turning off the main road and toward the fortress, we saw this beautiful cat sitting peacefully among the trees.
When we got to Barone Fortress, we were greeted by this view. Barone Fortress is at a lower level than St John’s Fortress, so they views aren’t as good.
Above you can see St. Michael’s Fortress. We walked to that yesterday, but didn’t go inside. Most people that arrived at the entrance just turn around and left after seeing the 10 EUR entrance fee.
Above you can see a closer view of St. Michael’s Fortress.
We then carried on walking toward St. John’s Fortress and came across a World War II bunker. In the photo above, you can see St. John’s Fortress in the background.
After walking a little further, we were able to see the other side of Sibenik. It’s not as picturesque as the side nearer the sea.
The view from St. John’s Fortress is quite spectacular. It looks much better in real life than it does in these images.
In the above image, you can see St. Michael’s Fortress and the many islands that lie just off the coast of Sibernik.
Cab walk around the hillside outside St. John’s Fortress. It’s a beautiful rocky area that has poppies and windswept trees.
The walk up to the fortresses is fairly easy, as there are paved roads all the way to both of them. It’s maybe a 10-15 minute walk to Barone Fortress and then another few minutes to St. John’s Fortress.
Video View of Sibenik From St. John’s Fortress
For more of what we did in Sibenik, see our Sibenik Photo Diary.
Book your hotel in Sibenik
When not staying at Airbnb apartments, our favorite booking website is agoda.com.
