Opposite to Verige Bay, on the western side of the island, there are several other interesting buildings and monuments to be visited. The most interesting are the Byzantine castrum and the Basilica of St. Mary.

On the road towards the ruins of the Byzantine castrum and the Basilica you will see an indication for Paul Kupelweiser’s son and wife tombs and the Church of St. Peter. I would advise you to visit both of them.

The ruins of the small church of St. Peter dates back in the early Byzantine period, probably 6th century. On the road towards the ruins of the church of St. Peter you will pass nearby the tomb of the Paul Kupelweiser’s wife and son.

The three-naved Basilica of St. Mary was probably erected in the 5th century and is an interesting building located about few hundred meters far away from the Byzantine castrum. It is an example of interesting architecture.

The altar area was probably built in the 5th century. In the 6th century, during the rule of the Emperor Justinian, the Byzantine gave to the church the characteristics of basilica. The Basilica is today in poor conditions but the columns inside of it are still important.

It comprises an enclosed passage – narthex, a hall area in the basilica divided by two rows monolithic columns in three naves. The naves do not terminate in semicircular Ravenna type apses but have rectangular terminations.

In the 9th and 10th century a Benedictine Monastery was built attached to both side walls of the old Basilica. The Monastery belonged to the Templar Knights in the 13th century and in 1312 when this order was suspended by the pope probably the site was abandoned. Few decades later the islands suffered from plague. In the 16th century the building was restored and was in use up to the 18th century. The last time was restructured in 1721.

According to the construction features and decorations this building is a unique example in Istria as I wrote before. The basic elements of the Church of St. Mary are related to Near East and Northern African construction styles.

They are rare and a part from this Basilica on Brioni there is one similar building in Syria and one in Marocco.

Another very particular site that you should visit is named Byzantine castrum. During Byzantine period a large and fortified castrum was built in the Dobrika Bay. This place was inhabited until the 16th century. It was proved that this site was already a Roman villa in the 2nd century BC. The rest of this old Roman villa confirmed that this is the oldest Roman villa in the Croatian part of the Adriatic sea.

The oldest findings in the castrum area are related with the remnants of this Roman villa that was built between 129 and 79 BC. This villa was probably destroyed during the civil war and a production villa was built above it in the 1st century AD. This new villa was 51 meters long and about 59 meters large.

The villa had olive oil and grape processing plant, residential part and various production rooms.

At the end of the Byzantine – Goths war, Brioni became part of the Byzantine Empire. At the time Byzantines decided to fortify this site and 435 meters long wall was created all around the place that in most parts of the settlement is almost 3 meters wide.

In 778 Charlemagne started to rule over Istria and also part of the Franks architecture was found in this place. The last people lived in this castrum until the 16th century but the majority have abandoned the site in the 14th century.

The whole area is about one hectare large and between 1976 and 1984 an extensive research was made for the last time in depth between 2 and 8 meters. The deep layers revealed remnants from the period of Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Eastern Goths period, Byzantine Empire and Frank period. All these buildings left 3 to 15 different architecture types one on top of the other testifying the tumultuous history of the area.

Brioni like most other Istrian places changed many different rulers. After the fall of the Roman Empire was dominated by Goths and later on by Byzantine Empire. After the period of Franks was part of the Aquileia Patriarchs dominions in Istria and from 1331 the Brioni islands with the majority of the western Istrian coast towns and villages belonged to the Venice Republic.