"...if you ever try the sweet water from Vrana Lake, you shall surely return..."
Exactly opposite Valun, along the range of plateaus that rise on the central part of the island, and chained to the top of the hill is where the village Lubenice is situated, bravely resisting storms and wind gusts. The Romans, therefore, named this place Hibernitia (meaning Winterly), building an unassailable fortress that rises on top of a 378m high cliff, sheltered from the east by a protective wall with two doors. Once there, the first impression yu get is that you are on deck of a firmly anchored ship, carrying you into another time dimension. Traces of the village's glorious past are still clearly visible, such as the gun slits and the port-holes built in the fortress walls. It's enough just to climb on the short wall that encircles the city square to feel intoxicated, feeling like a seagull that freely glides over the tempestuous surface of the navy-blue sea.
Concerts of classical music are being held here during the warm summer evenings in an atmosphere of magical concentration, and there is a multi-medial art centre in the works. Standing next to the Church of St. Anthony, on the outskirts of the village, one notices the motel, which was formerly the bell-tower's atrium. There is another church nearby, the Parochial Church of the Holy Virgin Mary, which used to be a canonical seat.
With the development of tourism they became a well visited excursion centre because of the historic substance and a wide panoramic view opening in all directions. The view toward the west is especially impressionable, where, across a deep and underbrush covered ravine, the sea and St. Ivan's bay with a beautiful gravel beach are visible. On that side (toward the sea), just a bit to the south, the Zanja cove with a beach and the Modra cave refered to in the local dialect as "skuja na Zanje", are situated. The Modra cave (modra=blue), about 20m long, originates from abrasion, i.e. a thousand year long effect of the sea vawes.
Life in Lubenice goes on continually since the bronze age. The geostrathegyc position of the settlement was always important in its evolution and existance, because it is possible to control the traffic through the Vela vrata pass and organize effective defense in case of enemy attack on Lubenice from the local mountain ridge. A wall and two city gates, one on the southern road approach to the settlement and the northern gate, are all that is left of the medieval fortification system.
