Ledenice is a village in

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 ...

, under the

Novi Vinodolski Novi Vinodolski (, often also called Novi or ''Novi del Vinodol'' o ''Novi in Valdivino'' in Italian) is a town on the Adriatic Sea coast in Croatia, located south of Crikvenica, Selce and Bribir and north of Senj. The population of Novi is 3,9 ...

township, in

Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Primorje – Gorski Kotar County (, ) is a Counties of Croatia, county in western Croatia, most of it based in the historical and cultural region called Croatia proper and some of it in Istria, including the Bay of Kvarner, the surrounding Northe ...

History

Franz Julius Fras speculated, without corroborating evidence, that the castle had been built during the

First Mongol invasion of Hungary The first invasion of the Kingdom of Hungary by the Mongol Empire started in March 1241. The Mongols started to withdraw in late March 1242. Background Mongol invasion of Europe The Hungarians had first learned about the Mongol threat in 122 ...

in 1241, and so doubted the sources that stated it was built by Stjepan III Frankopan Modruški in 1450. Ledenice was mentioned on 22 February 1481 in a document freeing the citizens of Grič from tariffs in Ledenice and elsewhere. Along with

Senj Senj is a town on the upper Adriatic coast in Croatia, in the foothills of the Mala Kapela and Velebit mountains. The symbol of the town is the Nehaj Fortress () which was completed in 1558. For a time this was the seat of the Uskoks, who were ...

, Fras suggested the castle of Ledenice contributed greatly to the defence of Vinodol from the Turkish invasions. Relative safety returned after the reconquest of

Lika Lika () is a traditional region of Croatia proper, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by t ...

in 1689, following which the significantly drier

Velebit Velebit (; ; ) is the largest, though not the highest, mountain range in Croatia. The range forms a part of the Dinaric Alps and is located along the Adriatic coast, separating it from Lika in the interior. Velebit begins in the northwest near ...

/ Kapela mountains were depopulated as people moved into the valleys with their numerous springs. Ledenice remained the seat of a Captainate under Senj, but after the last known

burgrave Burgrave, also rendered as burggrave (from , ), was since the medieval period in Europe (mainly Germany) the official title for the ruler of a castle, especially a royal or episcopal castle, and its territory called a ''Burgraviate'' or ''Burgr ...

, Skradiniani, the castle fell into disrepair. The castle of Ledenice was in ruins by 1835.

Demographics

In 1835, Ledenice belonged to

Krmpote Krmpote is a group of villages in Croatia located around Novi Vinodolski in Croatian Littoral, and to the area belong villages Bile, Drinak, Jakovo Polje (Sv. Jakov), Javorje, Klenovica–Žrnovnica, Krmpotske Vodice, Luka Krmpotska, Podmelnik, Pov ...

. It had 97 houses, with a population of 969. Its residents were

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Infrastructure

An old road used to run from Vitunj over Lumbarda mountain through Bjelsko (by Potok Musulinski) and

Gvozd Gvozd ( sr-Cyrl, Гвозд) is a municipality in central Croatia, Sisak-Moslavina County. Its seat is located in Vrginmost (Вргинмост), which was renamed to Gvozd from 1996–2012. It is an underdeveloped municipality which is statistic ...

to Drežnica, and from there to Ledenica and Bribir.

History

Demographics

Infrastructure

References

Further reading

Dialectology

History