Peovica (Mirabela) Tower with Kaštel, Omiš

Above Omiš, on a crag above the mouth of the Cetina river, rises the Peovica tower, also known as Mirabela. It is a prominent landmark of the town and the crown of the Omiš kaštel, and from it a view opens over the town and its surroundings.

The kaštel has kept only its original perimeter: the towers and curtain walls were lowered to parapet height. Only the highest, terminal tower from the 13th century has survived in its entirety. The name Peovica comes from the Omiš area of Peovo. The outer trapezoidal shell was remodelled on the inside into a polygonal core with a domed vault. According to the remains of the brackets, the tower had two floors connected by wooden steps and a terrace at the top. After a lightning strike at the end of the 1980s, the floors, dome and terrace were reconstructed during the repair. In its design it belongs to Romanesque defensive architecture, and the find of a coin of the Byzantine emperor Basil I points to the strategic importance of this position, as in the 9th century the river was the border between the Frankish and Byzantine empires.

The tower with its kaštel is a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-6859.

Photo: Hedwig Storch, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: Wikidata (CC0).