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VRANA
it should fall once more into the hands of the Turks, they burned the beautiful village and blew up the walls of the noble castle, which accounts for its present ruined and chaotic condition. The plan of it can still be clearly made out. It covered a large space, perhaps as big as Alnwick or Richmond, on the crest of a slight eminence above the village. The fort consisted of two rectangular courts, one opening out of the other. The whole was surrounded by a deep fosse, artificially cut in the solid rock. The entrance was from the village side, and between the two courts still stands a massive, square, ruined keep or donjon. In the inner court they say you can trace the remains of the ancient church of S. Gregory. In spite of the havoc wrought by Venetian gunpowder, Vrana Castle is still a noble pile, very stately and solemn on the bare hill-side, overlooking Vrana Lake, and well repays a visit.
  The root meaning of Vrana, in Slavonic, is “ black ”, then “ a crow ”, then the black waterfowl, the “ coots ”, which cover the surface of the lake.