| The city of Kastela has seven settlements
– Kastel Gomilica, Kastel Kambelovac, Kastel Lukšic, Kastel
Novi, Kastel Stari, Kastel Sucurac, Kastel Stafilic. The center
is Kastel Sucurac.
Their name comes from the word "fortification"
(kastel) because at the end of the Middle Ages (at the time
of Turkish invasions) the church and secular feudalists from
Split and Trogir were building these fortifications to defend
themselves. |
| "The central kaštel of the series of magical number
seven of seven kaštels, luxurious in its renaissance beauty,
deeply sunk in green, hundred-year old parks and avenues,
remembers a romantic legend about tragic love of Dobrila
and Miljenko. The cherry trees stretch towards the mountain
of Kozjak, while pine and tamarisk trees make shade on
Lukšic beaches.." |
Kastel Luksic was built at the end of the fifteenth century
by the Vitturi family from Trogir. It is a huge, fortified
palace built in the Renaissance style once used as summer
home. It is composed of a two storey residential building
to the east, and defence towers to the north. There is a court
yard in the middle and to the south a two-floor gallery. A
settlement developed around this town and was fortified with
a defence wall. There are many architecturally important building
in the town. An exceptional one is the Gothic-Renaissance
parish church of Gospino Uznesenje, built in 1515. The new
parish church has the original sarcophagus of the blessed
Arnir that serves as an altar. It is one of the most famous
works of the Croatian sculptor, Juraj Dalmatinac. Constructed
in 1445., it was moved from the Split Benedictine convent
to its present day location at the end of the nineteenth century.
Kastel Rusinac was built in the western part of Kastel Luksic
by a Trogirian nobleman Mihovil Rosan. Until the seventeenth
century it was the centre of a separate, smaller village.
The church of St. John the Baptist (sv. Ivan Krstitelj) stands
next to the town. It is a burial spot of the lovers Miljenko
and Dobrila who suffered a tragic destiny.
The church of St. Lovro (sv. Lovro) was built on the Balvan
cliff on the ridge of Kozjak. The church and the ruins of
a fort are the only remains of once important Medieval settlement
of Ostrog. On the top of Kozjak are Biranj and remains of
a prehistoric building. They are approximately 600 meters
long. There is a Medieval pilgrimage church of St. John Biranj
(sv. Ivan Biranj) on this location as well. The inscription
of the church reads that it was renovated in fifteenth century.
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