Lubenice

Lubenice (Croatian pronunciation: [luběnit͡sɛ], Italian: Lubenizze), historically known as Ljubenice or Zubjenice, is an ancient fortified settlement on the Croatian island of Cres. It sits on a ridge 380 m-high (1,250 ft) above the Adriatic Sea and may have been inhabited as early as 4,000 years ago. Today, Lubenice is a small local centre with around forty buildings and only six permanent residents. Most of its structures are built from the same stone as the surrounding cliffs. Part of the settlement dates back to the Roman period. The town was once walled, although very little remains of the walls apart from two gates and some of the eastern portion. There are 9 churches in the town; an unusually high number for its population, explained in part by the relative financial independence of the town in the late medieval period. Today, it is almost a ghost town for most of the year, but in the summer it is a prominent tourist destination for its beaches, cliffs and proximity to Lake Vrana.

Etymology

Its name is sometimes connected in folk etymology, with the South Slavic term lubenica "Citrullus lanatus", though the local Chakavian dialect uses the borrowing angȗrija (< Venetian anguria "watermelon" < Greek ἀγγουριον "cucumber") instead and consequently has alternative folk etymologies. It was proposed by Petar Skok to refer to the cold winters, connecting the name to the Roman oikonym Hibernitia/Hibernicia.