Gulf of Kaštela

Between Trogir and Split, the shore of Kaštela Bay is marked by a chain of fortified settlements. Built around the castles of landowners, they sheltered the people who worked the fertile lands beneath Mount Kozjak. Some castles stood on rocks in the shallows, their seaward faces serving as residences as well as defenses.

As Ottoman attacks threatened Venetian Dalmatia, noble families and churchmen built defenses along the bay. The Vitturi family raised its castle in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, offering protection to people who had lived at Ostrog on the mountain slopes. Between the late 15th and late 17th centuries, seventeen castles and twelve fortified settlements were built along this coast. When the Ottoman threat receded, some of the castles' defensive spaces were adapted for living.