I found out about Dvigrad accidentally, while looking through the map of Istria and randomly clicking various places of interest. After doing a little bit of research about Dvigrad, I got the impression that it’s just a small cluster of ruins that won’t take more than 15 minutes to explore. So, I set off towards the Lim bay, having intention of going to Pazin castle later, and making a short stop at Dvigrad. In the end, I have spent there almost two hours.
So what is Dvigrad? In the medieval times, there were two towns – Moncastel and Parentin. Together they made up Duecastelli – an Italian name for Dvigrad, which means ‘two towns’. Eventually, Parentin had fallen apart completely, and hardly any remains are to be found nowadays. No archeological digs have been organized on the site of Parentin remains. The other town, Moncastel, is now known as Dvigrad, and its ruins have been preserved to this day.
The town witnessed several wars and epidemics. In 1354, during a Venetian-Genoese war of 1350-1355, Dvigrad was captured by the Genoa admiral Paganin Doria in an effort to undermine the Venetian authority on the eastern coast of Adriatic. The conflict between Venice and Genoa saw another escalation between 1377 and 1381. And again, Dvigrad, which sided with Venice, came under attack from the Genoese, who destroyed its fortifications. In the late 14th century, a plague epidemic ravaged the town. This was followed by an epidemic of malaria in the early 16th century.
By the 17th century, many inhabitants were leaving the town to the surrounding areas. Around the middle of the 17th century, only a few families remained there. When the bishop of Novigrad (then Cittanova) Giacomo Tomasini visited Dvigrad in 1650, he found only three extremely poor families living in the town. Priests left too, but they were returning to Dvigrad for the holy masses. In 1714, the church of St. Sophia had been abandoned, the parish had been relocated to Kanfanar, and that was the end of Dvigrad.

Dvigrad's walls

Bread oven in Dvigrad

I explored Dvigrad in the autumn of 2021. Getting there is easy if you have a car. It is located just a few kilometers away from the Istrian A9 (Pula-Slovenia) motorway. After getting off the motorway you will have to drive for just a few kilometers, before you will see the ruins. Parking isn’t too much of a problem. The area is open – there is no ticket office, there is no supervision.
First thing I saw were remains of a tower. I tried getting closer to it. That involved getting through a lot of shrubs and vegetation. I was able to freely climb the remains of the walls and look inside the half-ruined tower. After dealing with some fear of heights and almost crawling on my knees, I went further into Dvigrad. In the remains of one of the buildings I saw a well-preserved oven, albeit it was covered by relatively fresh concrete. Nearby area was fenced off, and a sign was saying that reconstruction works were in progress.

Dvigrad as seen from the central square

One of the buildings at the central square of Dvigrad

Entrance to the church of St. Sophia from the main square

Inside the church of St. Sophia

I continued further, and after walking along a path through more decayed buildings overgrown with all kinds of vegetation, I found myself on what centuries ago was the central square of the town dominated by the church of St. Sophia. From here I could see green hills connected by a huge motorway bridge.
The remains of the church of St. Sophia are not open to the public, the entrance is sealed off by metal doors. Most of the inside area is visible through the bars, however.
Later, doing research, I found out, that in the beginning of 2009 some work has been done on the church. Before that, the floor was turning into a forest, and what little remained of pavement tiles was chaotically scattered around. Judging by the chronological order of the Dvigrad photos found on Flickr, some more minor maintenance work has been done after 2011 as well.
However, I cannot say that the remains of the church are kept in an ideal shape. If you look through photos available on google, you might notice, that one of the tombs inside the church is partially covered with wooden planks, and underneath you can see scattered human bones.
After examining the church, I went further. This time, the path was really narrow, and the vegetation was very dense and occasionally thorny. I could see a very large number of remains of medieval buildings. According to various sources, remains of more than 200 buildings are to be found there.

The vegetation in the large part of Dvigrad is very dense

Remains of one of the houses of Dvigrad

Functional wall niches used for housing oil lamps

I decided to come inside one of the houses. The walls were tall, and they didn’t look very stable. One thing is certain - a lot of concrete is needed to preserve the ruins of Dvigrad. I noticed that throughout the whole time I had some heavy feeling. Was it because the place was a witness to a lot of suffering? Or was it because I had a stain on my camera lens that I had no idea about, and my subconscious mind was telling me that I will have a lot of extra work to do later if I don’t notice it? (I didn’t notice it.)
What attracted my attention was a wall niche inside the house. I couldn’t immediately figure out what was the purpose of those niches that were present in almost every wall in Dvigrad. Later, doing research on the internet, I found an issue of an archaeological journal called Archeologia Medievale (page 287) that documented archaeological research performed at Dvigrad in 2001-2003. According to the article, those are functional insertions – housings for oil lamps, with triangular arches distributing the weight of the wall.

Buildings connected to the church of St. Sophia

Complex of buildings dominated by the church of St. Sophia

Complex of buildings dominated by the church of St. Sophia

Restoration works at Dvigrad

After getting out of the jungles, I found myself underneath the church, surrounded by much better maintained remains of large buildings. After examining them closely, I headed back towards the main square and then went off the path to look at another stone structure. I found myself in the territory that was fenced off because of the restoration works. Since I was there anyway, I decided to take a look around. And, unfortunately, it was evident that not much restoration work was being done there. I could see freshly dug ground in one of the houses, and some efforts to clean the vegetation and mud from the walls. But that was pretty much it.

Dvigrad towers

Dvigrad's inner gates

One of the houses in Dvigrad

After climbing over the fence and getting back to the start, I found a wide road going around the other side of the town. This was a medieval road going between two stone walls, through three city gates which can be seen to this day. The road leads straight to the main square, so as it turned out, there was an easy way of getting there without having to battle all the vegetation and scaling the walls.
All in all, visiting Dvigrad is certainly an interesting experience, and it would probably be of particular interest to archaeologists. Some work has certainly been done to preserve the remains of the town, but a lot more work still needs to be done. It has been estimated that a complete restoration of Dvigrad would cost around 1.5 million euros, which is certainly more, than what a small municipality of Kanfanar can afford. Information about Dvigrad’s history available online is very limited, and often incorrect.