Sights on the island of Čiovo

When King Bela IV saw that protection could be offered to him on Čiovo in the war between Trogir and Split, he gratefully accepted the help of his people. And more than that: instead of forgetting the hospitality and generosity as soon as his own skin was saved, he donated the church of Gospe Kraj Mora, which was erected in the village of Čiovo.

With the monastery of Saint Lazarus and the adjoining church of Sveti Maria, the Church took the leprosy patients under its care in the 16th century. Since the 14th century those afflicted by the disease had been banished to the other side of the strait in order to protect the citizens of Trogir from infection. There, however, they lived largely without hope or care. The new ecclesiastical buildings were to offer both. After the great leprosy epidemics had been successfully fought, a higher school was set up in the monastery. Today it stands open to visitors on Čiovo.

The church in Okrug Gornji has the air of a self-fulfilling prophecy: on an island of all places that is known for its mild climate and its wealth of medicinal plants - and which additionally served as a quarantine station for lepers - a church was erected in honour of the patron saint against rheumatism! Whether this saint now influences the climate and makes the plants sprout, or whether people in the Middle Ages simply did not suffer from rheumatism and therefore wanted to thank the "responsible" saint - the church itself, of which only ruins survive today, will not and probably does not wish to give any explanation. Even so: worth a visit, and not only for hypochondriacs!

In Arbanija a monastery for St Christopher was built by the Dominicans in the 15th century. The Gothic building is dominated by a bell tower, inside which there is a wooden cross by a medieval artist. The walls of the tower are fortunately thick enough to have preserved this artefact from the effects of the weather over all the centuries. The choir stalls, the cistern in the inner courtyard and the arcade arches should be examined more closely by every visitor too. They bear witness to how much commitment and aesthetic sense the people of Trogir brought to the shaping of their new towns while the old homeland was being threatened by the Turks. Finally, in 1566, they even found the necessary means to have the famous Ivan Lucuc add a chapel. The whole complex is today tended and maintained by a single monk, who is warmly pleased about every interested guest!