THE TURKS IN VRANA
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said to have given birth to that early and interesting architect, Lucina (more commonly Luciano) Laurana, who built Poggio Reale for the King of Naples, worked for the Duke of Urbino and possibly had a hand in the decorations of the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. He died at Pesaro in 1482. Vrana, along with Klissa and Knin, fell to the Turks early in the sixteenth century, and remained the capital of a very remarkable district, erected into a fief for Halil-beg, who built over five hundred houses, a palace for himself with beautiful gardens and running waters, whose scattered streams we met on our ascent to Vrana; and, further, he built a great khan or caravanserai to lodge travellers, and this hostelry is still standing, with its entrance gate and Turkish arch, its wide courtyard with the ruins of the rooms running round it, water in the midst, and the remains of Turkish tracery in one of the "locked-up windows, looking north-east.
   In 1647 the Venetian General, Foscolo, acting with Baron Degenfeld and Scoto under the orders °f Marc’ Antonio Pisani, the Provveditore generale, •ccaptured Vrana, and Halil was sent to end his d‘lys at Brescia. But the Republic was too weak to garrison and hold the position. For fear lest