Trogir

The weather forecast was for a fairly strong westerly wind so we weighed anchor at Split and motored 6nm towards Trogir, on the west side of the bay, where there would be more shelter.

We anchored just off the north coast of Otok Čiovo, near to the bridge connecting the island to the mainland. It was a quiet anchorage apart from being on the flight path to Split Airport, thankfully the flights were not too frequent!

We planned to take our dinghy under the bridge approximately half a mile to Trogir. At only 4m high, we definitely would not get Ziggy under this one, apparently the bridge does open although we never saw it happen while we were there!

The city of Trogir is set within medieval walls on a tiny island, linked by bridges to both the mainland and to the larger island of Čiovo.

We tied the dinghy up in the (smelly) canal between Trogir and the mainland, walked across the bridge and through the 16th Century Land Gate into the old town.

Trogir is another well preserved old town, with a mix of Renaissance, Baroque and Romanesque buildings. It has a high concentration of palaces, churches, and towers within a small area as well as a fortress and parts of the city walls.

The medieval marble cobbled streets are full of ancient stone buildings, archways and old fashioned streetlights.

We reached the main square where Trogir’s grandest building, the 13th-century Cathedral of St. Lawrence, stands with an elaborately carved entrance portal.

The tall bell tower was added between the 14th and 16th centuries and was open for visitors. We climbed the many narrow steps (and a very steep ladder at the top) up to the bells to take a look at the fantastic 360° views, we could see the rooftops of the town, the mainland, island of Čiovo, the harbour and out to the bridge with ZigZag anchored just beyond.

The Cipiko Palaces, opposite the cathedrals western entrance, were home to the town’s noble family in the 15th century.

The St. Sebastian’s Church faced the Cathedral across the main square. It was built in 1476 as a vote of thanksgiving for saving the city from the plague. Currently, all that remains is the small tower with a disproportionately large city clock.

The Museum of sacred art is in the 18th century Baroque building to the left of the tower. To the right is the open sided town loggia, first recorded in documents of the 13th century. It served as a furnished public gathering space, it was used by the communal legal service, as a place where contracts were signed, official announcements made and law proceedings took place. Behind the judge’s table, the walls are decorated with a 1471 relief portraying justice.

We then walked out of the South Gate along the very smart Riva lined with bars, cafes and yachts.

On the southwestern end of the island is the partially ruined Fortress Kamerlengo. It was built between 1420-1437 following a Venetian conquest of the town. Originally it was connected to the town walls and was the core of Trogir, nowadays it is just an empty shell with only the walls of the fortress remaining.

To the back of the fortress is the local football field where spectators get great views!

There are several small park areas and we found a great shady spot overlooking the sea for our picnic.

We planned to continue north so after spending a few days in this anchorage we headed 20nm around Čiovo island and over to Vinišće on the mainland. We set off with a light southwesterly which soon picked up to a good force 4, we had to go slightly off course at times as the wind direction varied between the islands but we managed to sail most of the way.

While the winds were still quite light we had to pick our way through several groups of dinghy sailors who were competing in the European Laser Radial Youth Championships. It was obviously a popular event as we counted about 100 boats in the water at one stage!

We anchored in Vinišće which is a large well protected bay with good holding but only plan to stay for one night before continuing north.