Cambi Tower and Summer Residence, Kaštel Kambelovac

The Cambi tower and summer residence stand on the shore in Kaštel Kambelovac, in the municipality of Kaštela in Split-Dalmatia County. It is a family fortified complex by the sea, of interest to anyone who wants to learn about the fortified houses of the Kaštela from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Its beginnings go back to 1478, when the Split count Andrija Grigorio granted the brothers Jerolim and Anton Cambi a rock in the sea in the area of Dilat, with permission to build a house on it as a shelter for farm labourers. The brothers built a tower with a circular plan there, and a bridge that connected it to the mainland. In 1566, Frane Cambi filled in the area north and east of the tower and enclosed it with a defensive wall with towers to the north-west and south-east. The tower has kept its original appearance: it has a ground floor, three storeys and a machicolation on the fourth floor. Over time a complex of houses of the Cambi family grew up around it, and on the eastern façade of today's three-storey building one can see the gable of a former house and a rich Renaissance balustrade.

The Cambi tower and summer residence are a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-3016.

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).