Early history
Unlike other cities along the Adriatic coast, which were established by Greeks, Illyrians and Romans, �ibenik was founded by Croats. Excavations of the castle of Saint Michael, have since proven that the place was inhabited long before the actual arrival of the Croats. It was mentioned for the first time under its present name in 1066 in a Charter of the Croatian King Petar Kre�imir IV and, for a period of time, it was a seat of this Croatian King. For that reason, �ibenik is also called "Kre�imirov grad" (Kre�imir's city). It is the oldest native Croatian town on the eastern shores of the Adriatic.
Between the 11th and 12th centuries, �ibenik was tossed back and forth among Venice, Byzantium, Hungary and the Kingdom of Bosnia. It was conquered by the Republic of Venice in 1116, who held it until 1124, when they briefly lost it to the Byzantine Empire, and then held it again until 1133 when it was retaken by the Kingdom of Hungary. It would change hands amongst the aforementioned states several more times until 1180.
The city was given the status of a town in 1167 from Stephen III of Hungary. It received its own diocese in 1298.
Under Venice and the Habsburgs
The city, like the rest of Dalmatia, resisted the Venetians in a three-year war that was resolved in their favor in 1412. The Ottoman Empire started to threaten �ibenik, as part of their struggle against Venice, at the end of the 15th century, but they never succeeded in conquering it. In the 16th century, St. Nicholas Fortress was built and, by the 17th century, its fortifications were improved again by the fortresses of St. John (Tanaja) and �ubi?evac (Barone).
The fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 brought �ibenik under the authority of the Habsburg Monarchy.
In 1872, at the time in the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Ante �upuk became the town's first Croat mayor elected under universal suffrage. He was instrumental in the process of the
