Church of St Mary in Bori, Gornje Selo

The Church of St Mary in Bori, which the locals call Gospa u Borima, stands near Gornje Selo in the eastern part of Šolta, below Vela Straža, the highest peak of Šolta. It belongs to Split-Dalmatia County. It is interesting because centuries of sacred life can be traced in a single place.

At the Gornje Polje site there once stood a Benedictine monastery with a church of St Mary, after which the place received the name Stomorija. The monastery is mentioned in the sources from 1260 to 1452. The new church was built in 1776, and a cemetery lies beside it. Of the old church a Romanesque apse remains, the sanctuary is Gothic, and the nave is Baroque, built in a simple late Baroque style. On the altar is an old painting of Our Lady with the Child, tempera on wood, the work of a local master of the 15th or 16th century. The church is important for an overview of Baroque sacred architecture in Dalmatia.

The church is a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-6931.

Photo: Zrinka Radunić, CC BY-SA 3.0 hr, 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).