Named after the river that rises on the village’s edge, the straggling settlement of Cetina is one of the most alluring destinations in inland Dalmatia.

St Saviour’s Church

It was a much bigger place in the Middle Ages and a major centre of Croatian culture, a status evinced by the monumental, haggard remains of the ninth-century St Saviour’s Church (Crkva svetog spasa). Despite being a roofless ruin, it remains an outstanding example of pre-Romanesque architecture, combing elements of local and west-European style. Its stocky bell tower is backed by a vestibule or ‘Westwerk’ characteristic of Carolingian church construction of the time.

The area was settled by Orthodox Serbs following the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, and the grassy area around the church came to be used as a Serbian graveyard. With folk-style stone-carved gravestones surrounding the stark ruins of the church, it’s a location deeply resonant with history.

The Source of the Cetina