In the
area of Fulfinum (today known as Okladi), there are recognisable remains of
different buildings from the Roman period. The recently investigated parts of
the forum, the heart of the ancient town with a temple, basilica and tabernae,
and parts of a large architectural complex of public buildings are particularly
impressive. Although the site has been systematically researched in recent
years, the town of Municipium Flavium Fulfinum is mostly still unexplored and
has not been completely unearthed. Its name is known thanks to an inscription
from the period of the Roman Emperor Domitian which makes mention of works on
the town aqueduct. The inscription is kept in the Lapidarium collection in
Omišalj. The structures and layout of the roads are clearly visible in the
configuration of the terrain.
Since this area was used for agriculture in
recent centuries, the remnants of the plastered walls of the ancient buildings
have been partly covered with dry stone piles. Piers and buildings with floor
mosaics have been partly buried in mud in the shallow waters of Sepen Cove. The
town was established by Roman gromatici (land surveyors) as a completely new
structure on land with no previous settlement. The Roman veterans who populated
the town were given land that had belonged to the native people of Omišalj –
the Fertinates. Such a lowland coastal town had no chance of surviving in spite
of attempts to fortify it in the Late Antiquity period. The town gradually died
out and eventually completely disappeared like Salona and many other Roman
towns overwhelmed by the Migration Period.
Southwest
of the forum, on the Mirine site, there is a Late Antiquity necropolis
containing a row of smaller graves and several larger tombs belonging to the
privileged, and also a basilica, probably dedicated to St. Nicholas, which has
been preserved to just below the roof. Due to its excellent state of
preservation, this church serves as a model of Early Christian sacral
buildings. The church has the basic form of a Latin cross, thanks to its
traversal nave – transept. In the narthex, which has been restored and partly
reconstructed, there is an exhibition of movable archaeological material and an
Early Christian sarcophagus that has been preserved in situ.
The atrium, which
stretches along the southern wall of the church towards the sea, is the result
of a later adaptation of the building to the needs of a religious community
which eventually abandoned it when it could no longer maintain it due to its
size. The Benedictines tried to maintain it by adapting a suburban residential
complex with thermae, which is located to the west of the basilica and which
has been archaeologically researched and can today be visited. Eventually, the
Glagolitic Benedictines retired from this exposed coastal location and took up
residence next to the entrance to Omišalj, taking the titular of St. Nicholas
with them. The present toponym Mirine is the word for ruins in the local
dialect, which is a Croatised version of the Latin word murus. Indeed, the
Croats who came here in the Middle Ages must have found these ruins truly impressive.