Church of St Benedict and Bene Site, Marjan, Split

On the northern side of the Marjan peninsula, in the Bene area of Split, lie the foundations of a small medieval church dedicated to St Benedict. The nearby cove is named after it, so a walk on Marjan here combines nature, sea and archaeology.

The church first appears in written sources in 1362, and in the 17th century it was described as ruined. By the end of the 18th century it had disappeared completely and was buried under the Marjan road. Only the excavations of 2002 and 2004 uncovered its foundations: it was a single-nave building with an apse on the eastern side, about eight metres long and four and a half wide, and shallow niches enlivened its exterior walls. A fragment of an altar screen capital shows that it was built in the 11th century. Graves were found around the church, which points to a small cemetery. After the excavations the foundations were conserved, the walls were raised to about half a metre, and the altar stipes was returned to its presumed original position. Movable finds are kept in the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments in Split. Among early medieval Dalmatian churches, the Church of St Benedict is an exception because this is a rare titular name.

The site is a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-6122.

Photo: Argo Navis, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: Wikidata (CC0).