The Carolingian fortified settlement of Guran in southern Istria, with its churches (the great basilica outside the city walls, the cemetery church of St Simon, and the church of St Cecilia on the edges of a roman villa rustica) is a long lasting research project of the IRCLAMA. From 2002 to 2012 in a Swiss-Croatian partnership (Jean Terrier, Miljenko Jurković) the three churches were excavated. After conservation they were opened to the public and incorporated in the offer of cultural tourism.

From 2013 a new partnership was created, adding the Sovrintendenza from Trieste (Angela Borzaconni), and the excavations of the fortified settlement continued, being incorporated in the CROMART project. The main interest for the project team members (M. Jurković, A. Borzaconni, J. Terrier) is the understanding of the urban changes in a long period (800-1400), the creation of such fortified settlements in Carolingian Istria, and finally – this is the only fortified settlement created ex nihilo from the period that has been systematically excavated in Europe, and, therefore, a quantity of new data are expected.

The 2014 campaign (mostly financed by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the Italian partner) had the goal to pursue the tracking of the western rampart wall towards south. Even if it had mostly been destroyed by later agricultural exploitation, the traces of the wall and its connection with the inner layout with houses still remain visible.