Sokol () is the name of a medieval fortress located in the village of Dunave in

Konavle Konavle () is a municipality and a small Dalmatian subregion located southeast of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The region is administratively part of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County and the center of the municipality is Cavtat. Demographics The total muni ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, underneath the eastern slopes of

Sniježnica Sniježnica may refer to: * Sniježnica (mountain in Croatia), a mountain near Konavle * Sniježnica, Teočak, a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina * , a lake in Bosnia * , a mountain in Herzegovina {{geodis ...

, near the border with

Sutorina Sutorina (, , ) is a village and a river located in Herceg Novi Municipality in southwestern Montenegro. The village is located near the border with Croatia, some three kilometers northwest of the Adriatic Sea in Igalo. The surrounding region, in ...

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

. It's also referred to as or . Arthur J. Evans is known to have done excavations on the site, but never published complete results. Archaeologists have been conducting surveys of the site since the 1970s, and it is known that the site was inhabited in the Eneolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages, most notably by the

Cetina culture The Cetina culture is the name for the culture of the inhabitants of the Middle Dalmatian coast, and especially its hinterland, during the early Bronze Age (c. 1900-1600 BC), or, according to Paul Reineck's chronology (c. 2200–1500 BC). It is ...

. The site was also inhabited during Roman times, growing in importance as part of a Byzantine ''

limes Limes may refer to: * ''Limes'' (Roman Empire), a border marker and defense system of the Roman Empire * ''Limes'' (Italian magazine), an Italian geopolitical magazine * ''Limes'' (Romanian magazine), a Romanian literary and political quarterly ma ...

''. It is not known exactly when the medieval Fort Sokol was built, the first historical records about it date to a mention in 1373 and also a mention in the 1391 donation of Konavle by the

Sanković family Sanković is a village situated in Mionica municipality in Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_m ...

to the

Republic of Ragusa The Republic of Ragusa, or the Republic of Dubrovnik, was an maritime republics, aristocratic maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik (''Ragusa'' in Italian and Latin; ''Raguxa'' in Venetian) in South Dalmatia (today in southernmost ...

. It was garrisoned by Dubrovnik and commanded by a member of the gentry until it was abandoned in 1672. The site also contains a medieval

stećak Stećak (plural stećci; Cyrillic стећак, стећци) is the name for monumental medieval tombstones, that lie scattered across Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the border parts of Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. An estimated 60,000 are found w ...

necropolis as well as a

Glagolitic The Glagolitic script ( , , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed that it was created in the 9th century for the purpose of translating liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic by Saints Cyril and Methodi ...

marble inscription.

References

Sources

* {{DubrovnikNeretva-geo-stub Konavle Castles in Croatia