Ostrog – home of the free, subject of the wars of Trogir and Split

Being free and the owner of fertile land was once a great privilege. The Didići, free landowners, held a special status at the time, settling the area from Poljica to Trogir. Their seat was in the old village of Ostrog on the Balavan ridge (259 m), at the foot of Kozjak. On the level of the village, towards the sea, stood a stone pillar. Known as the “Stup pod Ostrogom” (the “Pillar below Ostrog”), it is first mentioned in the 13th century and marked the boundary between two spheres of interest — Split and Trogir. Today the pillar stands in the same spot, in the eastern part of Kaštel Lukšić.

Ostrog (storgь) – the Old Slavic word for a watch

The Didići were evidently a thorn in the side of both the people of Split and the people of Trogir, and their fertile land a great temptation, since wars were waged over it on several occasions. Interestingly, the actors in these historical “plays” were many of the great figures of the European “theatrical scene” of the time — from the Venetians, the Church, the Turks and the Tatars / Mongols to King Béla IV.

One of these plays, or rather acts of the historical drama, begins in 1226, when the archbishop of the day, Guncel, declared the Ostrog area a possession of the Archdiocese of Split. The Didići evidently did not agree with such a decision, so they fortified the village with a stone wall. The archbishop summoned Prince Peter of Hum, who set out to besiege Ostrog with 3,000 soldiers. The conquerors razed the village and demolished the Church of St. Lawrence; the Didići cemetery was ploughed over and its bones scattered. The archbishop was clearly of a hot temper in applying his faith and convictions.

In another play, the people of Split assembled a fleet of ships with which they laid siege to Trogir. Trogir — well fortified, ringed by walls and bounded by towers — managed to defend itself.

And so the people in the field at the foot of Kozjak were never bored. They witnessed, and took part in, many acts of this historical drama. Ostrog, long since devastated and depopulated, faded into oblivion. The descendants of the former Didići, under the onslaughts of the Ottomans, withdrew to the noble kaštels (fortified manor houses) on the coast.

The reconstructed Church of St. Lawrence and the archaeological excavations to its south are silent witnesses to the turbulent past on the ridge at the foot of Kozjak, from which the view opens up — to the left over Split, and to the right over Trogir. The fertile field, once an object of desire and today largely neglected and ravaged by urban sprawl, brightens the vista of our coast for all lovers of what is pleasing to the eye.