Church of St Mary of Špiljan, Kaštel Novi

In the field of Kaštel Novi stands the church of St Mary of Špiljan, also known as Stomorija. It is interesting to visitors because it is a medieval building with a stone fragment from the early Christian period. It belongs to the town of Kaštela in Split-Dalmatia County.

It was once the parish church of the medieval village of Špiljan, and is first mentioned in a founding charter from 1189. In sources of the 18th century it is called Madona di Stomoria. It is single-nave and oriented east-west. It received its rectangular apse in the east during Baroque renovation. The west façade is plastered, with an entrance door decorated with a simple Baroque lintel, beside which are built-in benches and windows with arched tops. Above the façade is a bell gable, while built into the wall of the apse is an early Christian spolium with a relief of a cross and two dolphins.

The church is a protected cultural good, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-4471.

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: DGU (centre of the settlement).