The remains of the Church and Monastery of St. John the Evangelist

It is an Old Christian basilica built in the 5th c. at the site of a significant ancient public building, evidenced by sporadic archaeological finds of stone fragments, as well as its position in the town. The Church of St. John the Evangelist is our only medieval sacral building constructed in the proto-Romanesque style with a deambulatory in the sanctuary, making it a unique monument belonging to our architectural heritage. To this day, its reduced remains have been preserved, after it was closed at the end of the 19th c, due to its run-down state.

The monastery was mentioned for the first time at the end of the 12th c., although the Benedictines lived there in the 11th c. In 1273., the Benedictine monks were replaced by the Franciscans and the monastery was the centre of the Franciscan custodia in Rab. In the 15th c. it was used by the Conventual Franciscans who left in 1783, when the order was disbanded in Rab. From the end of the 18th c. to 1828, this was the centre of the Rab diocese. From that time on the valuable architectural complex was completely abandoned and neglected until the 1920s when it was turned into a heap of ruins. The church inventory (including paintings, sculptures, wooden altars, etc.) was transferred to other churches in Rab. The remains of the ruins have been recorded by many European researchers in their writings, drawings and paintings. In the 1920s, the western part of the monastery was completely demolished and the governor (Ban) of the Savska Banovina province Ivo Perović built his villa (Cro. Banova villa) at the site, using the remaining construction material of the church and the monastery.