Šibenik was mentioned for the first time under its present name in 1066 in th Chart of Croatian king Petar Krešimir IV, and unlike other towns which were founded by the Illyrians , Greek or Romans , it is the oldest native Croatian town at the eastern shore of the Adratic Sea .
Šibenik was given the status of town and its own diocese in 1298 . Recent discoveries have shown that the settlement of Šibenik was founded on the steep and high ridge ( where today the castle of St Anna is ) long before the Croats´ arrival on the Adriatic . That elevation was easily defended and from it was a bird´s eye view of the surrounding country , especially of the sea and lower field . It is obvious that later on ( before the Slavs arrived on the Adriatic ) the navigable route to the Illyrian and Roman port of Scardona ( today´s Skradin ) was supervised from here.  Ever since its foundation , the town had very important military and strategic role in the fights that Croatian , and later on Croatian and Hungarian rulers were leading at the Adriatic Seaagainst Byzantium and Venice . A long lasting resistance to the Venetian conquering efforts was ended by the fall under the Venetian govering in 1412 , after the town had been under the siege for three years .

From the end of the 15 th century the Turks often threatned Šibenik . Several times it was attacked by the plague . Several times the Turks arrived at the town`s walls with their army , but they never succeded in conquering it . In order to protectitself better by sea and land from the enemy , the town in the 16 th century built the fortress of St Nicholas at the entrance of the chanell ; by the 17 th century its fortifications on the land were improved by the building of the fortress of ST John ( Tanaj ) and Šubićevac ( Barona ) . They helped Šibenik to resist attacks : the Turks never counquered it . The fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 brought Šibenik under the authority of Austria after almost 400 years of Venetian domination , and it remained so until the fall of the Austria-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918 .From 1921 till 1941 Šibenik was part of the Yugoslav state , and after a short term Italian ( 1941 - 1943 ) and German occupation ( 1943- 1944 ) it was within the borders of only apparently free SR Croatia and Yugoslavia .
Only after the multiparty elections in the spring in 1990 , Šibenik has been living in the  sovereign , independent and democratic state , the Republic of Croatia .