A PART OF THE ALTAR PARTITION WITH THE NAME OF PRINCE BRANIMIR FROM SOPOT NEAR BENKOVAC |
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| The monument was discovered during the excavations of a single-nave pre-Romanesque basilica in Sopot. It is in fact a stone beam and an incomplete triangular gable from the upper part of the altar partition. Decorative composition on the architrave is split into three bands with an inscription field. The same decoration is continued along the edge of the gable closing down the central composition with a cross, two birds, and a rosette in the right and left fields each.
The epigraphic field continued from the architrave to the gable arch contains the following dedication: BRANIMIRO COM(ite) DUX CRUATORU(m) COGIT(avit)... Which may be translated as: Duke Branimir...Croatian prince decided to... The inscription is of great importance for Croatian history because it mentions the name of Croatian Prince Branimir who ruled in the second half of the 9th c. while Croatia was officially recognized by the Pope as a sovereign state. It is one among five discovered epigraphic monuments with the name of this Prince, the most important one historically. Apart from ruler Branimir's name, the inscription for the first time mentions his particular title, as well as the name of the Croatian nation that he was ruling over (...dux Cruatorum...). Prince Branimir's age was characterized by extensive building and reconstruction of churches on Croatian territory, resulting from tight ties of the Croatian principality with the Pope in Rome. The pre-Romanesque church from which the monument originates was also constructed and completed under such circumstances. |