At that time, the settlement was formed on the highest part of the Havišće peninsula, on the “Čelo” hill, today overgrown with a sparse forest. This location was very convenient due to the easy defensibility of the area and the excellent position for monitoring the entire sea strait. The first to settle there were Indo-European settlers, and they lived by hunting, collecting sea shells, snails, and raising small cattle.

Between the 12th and 9th centuries BC, the lords of the northern Adriatic, the Liburnians, lived in this area. They built the “Čelo” fort on the Havišće peninsula with a pier at the foot, which was one of their most important strongholds.

At the beginning of the new era, the old settlement was abandoned, and then the already Romanized natives merged with the settlers from Italy by founding new settlements along the Roman state road and in the sea bays.

Between the first decades of the 7th century and the beginning of the 8th century, a new interruption of life took place in this area, and during the 8th, and especially in the first decades of the 9th century, Croats arrived from northern Dalmatia to settle on the coast.