Dvigrad

Dvigrad is one of my favourite quiet secrets — an entire abandoned medieval town, standing silent in a green valley near Kanfanar. Its name means “two forts” (from the Latin Duo Castra): there were once two fortified hilltop settlements here, though only one, Moncastello, really grew.

The Story

First written about in the 9th century, Dvigrad grew into a walled town of perhaps a thousand people — a trading and defensive centre that passed to Venice in 1413. Then came the hard centuries: war, a siege, and repeated waves of plague and malaria. People didn’t so much leave as flee, mostly to nearby Kanfanar. By around 1630 the town was all but empty, and in 1714 the parish itself was formally moved to Kanfanar — the quiet end of a town that had lived for eight hundred years.

What You’ll See

Double defensive walls still ring the remains of more than 200 buildings — narrow stone lanes, a fortified tower, and houses where families once lived above their animals. On the highest point stand the ruins of the Church of St. Sophia, a three-nave basilica built over a much older early-Christian church. Its carved stone pulpit was carried down to the church of St. Sylvester in Kanfanar, where you can still see it. Everything else is slowly being reclaimed by ivy and fig trees.

Good to Know

Just turn up. No ticket office, no gate, no guard — park by the little café at the bottom and walk up to the town gate.

Wear proper shoes. The ground is uneven, with loose stones and overgrowth. Give yourself 45 minutes to an hour to wander it all.

Go early or late. In the soft light you’ll often have the whole ghost town to yourself — it’s a photographer’s dream, and genuinely moving in the quiet.

Make a morning of it. Dvigrad sits just above the Lim Channel, so pair the two: ruins first, then down to the fjord for fresh oysters and mussels by the water.

It’s about 40 km, roughly 40 minutes from the house, north past Pula toward Kanfanar.

See Also

• Lim Channel — the green fjord just below Dvigrad, famous for oysters
• Rovinj — the postcard coastal town, a little further on
• Bale — a sleepy stone hill-town nearby