The whole old town is an island and a UNESCO site, small enough to walk in twenty minutes. What it has that nowhere else does is Master Radovan's portal from 1240, with Adam and Eve standing on two lions. Here is the day around it.
Checked: 24 August 2026
Trogir sits on an island wedged between the mainland and Čiovo, connected to each by one bridge. The whole old town is UNESCO listed and you can cross it in twenty minutes, which is why the coach tours give it ninety and move on. The thing they hurry past is the reason to come: the west portal of the cathedral, carved by Master Radovan in 1240, is one of the most complete pieces of Romanesque sculpture anywhere on the Adriatic.
- 09:00In through the north gate
The Renaissance gate is the main way in from the mainland, once reached over a wooden drawbridge across the moat. Above it stands the town's patron, the blessed John of Trogir, hand raised over everyone who walks through.
- 09:20Radovan's portal, and the months of the year
Stand in front of it before you go in, and give it fifteen minutes rather than one. Adam and Eve stand on two lions; around them the twelve months of the year are carved as the work each one demanded. Inside is the Renaissance chapel of the blessed John, and the bell tower climb gives you the whole island.
- 10:30The loggia, where judges sat outdoors
One wide arch across the square from the cathedral. Judgment was passed here in the open, and a stone bench still marks where the accused stood. Behind it a relief of Justice by Nicholas of Florence, next to a horseman added in the 1930s.
- 11:00The Cipiko palace, and a wooden cockerel
Venetian gothic windows by Andrija Aleši and Nicholas of Florence, made for the family that ran the town's golden age. Above the door sits a wooden cockerel, taken from a Turkish galley at the battle of Lepanto.
- 12:00Kamerlengo, and the walls above the channel
Venice built this in the fifteenth century to hold the harbour, once linked by walls to the round Saint Mark's tower. Walk the ramparts for the view across to Čiovo. In summer the roofless interior becomes an open-air stage after dark, which is a second reason to stay the evening.
- 14:00Over the bridge to Čiovo
The southern bridge takes you off the island and out of the crowd in five minutes. Čiovo has coastal lanes, konobas and pebble coves, and the middle of the bridge is the best place to look back at the town you just left.
- 19:00The riva, when the day boats have gone
The waterfront is the stage the whole island is seen from, and after six it belongs to the town again. Take a table, watch the boats cross the channel, and stay for the light on the stone.
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