Hugging the high ground above the Čikola river, Drniš was a medieval fortress town before falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1522. Nowadays it is an important market centre midway along the main road from Šibenik to Knin.
Ruins of the medieval fortress poke up from the Gradina, the rocky hill above town. Little remains of this medieval strongpoint save for a stark portion of the southern tower, which pokes up from the hill like a bad tooth. Nearby is a minaret dating from around 1500, all that’s left of an Ottoman-era mosque. Thanks to a new lighting system installed in December 2010, these ruins are dramatically illuminated at night.
Occupying pride of place in the town itself is St Anthony’s Church, a 16th-century mosque that was converted to Catholic use in the 1670s by Franciscan monks from nearby Visovac. Housed in the former home of Drniš politician Nikola Adžija (1875-1972), the Municipal Museum has archeological and ethnological displays alongside a collection of works by Croatia’s greatest sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883-1962), who spent his early years in nearby Otavice. Adžija was one of the early supporters of the young Meštrović, helping to raise money that paid for the promising local lad’s studies.