Kaštilac Tower with Archaeological Site, Vrboska

The Kaštilac Tower is located near Vrboska, in the municipality of Jelsa on the island of Hvar, in Split-Dalmatia County. It was built on the highest point of the Zaglav peninsula, so it is of interest as the goal of a short walk with a view of the surrounding sea.

The tower is oval, and has been preserved to a height of about five metres, with a diameter of about four metres. It is built of roughly dressed, horizontally layered stone in lime mortar, and the walls are about 50 centimetres thick. It has a solid ground floor, which was probably filled in even during construction, and an upper floor with a square interior plan, while the outer outline is oval. It was built in the 16th century, when two fortified churches were also built on the northern side of the island: the Church of St Fabian and Sebastian in Jelsa and the Church of St Mary in Vrboska.

The Kaštilac Tower with its archaeological site is a protected cultural property. It is entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-5750 as secular architectural heritage from the 16th century.

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).