Štafileo Castle

Štafileo Castle, locally known as Kaštel Štafileo or Kaštel Rotondo, lies in the town of Kaštel Štafilić, in the county of Split-Dalmatia in Croatia.

After the fall of Bosnia to the Ottoman Empire in 1463, Dalmatia, being part of the Venetian Republic, faced the danger of Ottoman invasions. Local landowners; the Split Archbishopric, monasteries and nobles from Trogir and Split, therefore wished to protect their estates and the villagers working for them. So, during the following decades they started to build 17 fortifications and fortified 12 villages along the coast of the Kaštela Bay, between Trogir and Split.

Štafileo Castle was one of these fortifications. It was built by Stjepan Štafileo from Trogir in 1508 on a group of coastal rocks, after he had received permission from Count Paolo Malipiero in 1500. A bridge over a wet moat connected it to a levee connected to the mainland. A small village was built on the levee and fortified with a curtain wall and corner towers.

In 1650 the castle was acquired by the Rotondo family. Later the moat around the castle was filled in and other alterations to the castle made it lose its defensive appearance.

Štafileo Castle seems to be private property at present and can only be viewed from the outside.

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