It was a Liburnian city, named Scardon (Ancient Greek: Σκάρδων).[3]
Later it became a Roman town (Scardona in Latin), as the administrative and military centre of the region. It was destroyed during the Migration Period, and had by the 9th century been settled by Croats.
During the 10th century, it was one of the fortified towns in Croatia, as the centre of the Skradin županija.
Skradin under Šubić rule
Turina Fortress above the town
In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Skradin flourished as the capital of the Šubićbans, Paul I and Mladen II. The Šubić's built the Turina fortress on the hill overlooking the Skradin harbor.[4] They elevated the settlement below the fortress to a free city, at which point it also became a commune, and was granted its own statute and administration.[5][6][7] They further enriched the city by constructing several richly-endowed monasteries which housed the Dominicans, Franciscans and other Christian orders.[8]
In October 1683, the population of Venetian Dalmatia, principally Uskoks of Ravni kotari, took arms and together with the rayah (lower class) of the Ottoman frontier regions rose up, taking Skradin, Karin, Vrana, Benkovac and Obrovac.[9]
In time it lost its importance as the centre of the region, which shifted to Šibenik, and so it stagnated - the Diocese of Skradin was abandoned in 1828.[10]
Croatia
Šibenik-Knin
