Ciovo Island

Čiovo is an island in Croatia's Split-Dalmatia County, separated from the mainland by a narrow channel and joined to the old town of Trogir by a bridge. The current bascule bridge, opened in July 2018, replaced a structure that had linked the two since 1964. The island covers 28.8 square kilometers, stretching about 15.3 kilometers in length with a width of up to 3.5 kilometers, and its highest point, Rudine, reaches 218 meters. According to the 2011 census, Čiovo had a population of 5,908.

The Romans knew the island as Bua, also recorded in old documents as Boa or Bova, a name most likely of Illyrian origin. Čiovo remained largely unsettled until the 15th and 16th centuries, when people from the surrounding mainland fled to the island to escape Ottoman incursions — a migration that shaped the string of villages still found there today: Okrug Gornji, Okrug Donji, Arbanija, Slatine, Žedno and Prizidnica, alongside the part of Trogir itself that spread onto the island's northern tip.

Two religious sites reflect this settlement history. The Dominican monastery of the Holy Cross, in the village of Arbanija, is a 15th-century complex built around a cloistered garden. The Franciscan monastery of St Anthony holds a treasury that includes a 16th-century painting attributed to the Venetian artist Jacopo Palma il Giovane, along with a gilded silver crown dated to the 14th century. Smaller pre-Romanesque and medieval churches survive as well, including one dedicated to St Peter near Slatine and another to St Maurice in Žedno.

Čiovo's coastline is uneven in character: the northern shore, facing Trogir and Split, is the more built-up side, while much of the southern coast remains undeveloped. That contrast is part of what makes the island one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet charter from Trogir — quiet coves on the less-visited side sit only a short sail from the busier beaches on the other.

Those beaches cluster around Okrug Gornji, where Labadusa beach and the long pebble bay locally nicknamed Copacabana draw the most visitors. On the opposite, eastern side of the island, Kava beach lies in Slatinski Bay near Slatine — a sandy stretch shaded by pine trees.