Kamerlengo

#189 Kaštel Kamerlengo
on Stari Grad Trogir Island, Croatia
1380; 1420-37; and later
This is NOT an official Lego site

The modest, rectangular island whereupon Kamerlengo Castle resides has more than 2,300 years of continuous urban occupation. While submitting to the Venetians or Hungarians for much of the twelfth through fourteenth centuries, Trogir [Traù in Italian] had been enjoying virtual independence when the War of Chioggia broke out in 1378, the culmination of decades of skirmishes between the Republics of Genoa (on Italy's west coast) and Venice (on Italy's upper east coast). With Chioggia, just south of the city of Venice, captured by the Genoese, Zadar (north of Trogir) and Trogir joined them against the Venetians. At that time the citizens of Trogir erected a massive roughly octagonal tower at the southwest corner of the island to guard the port city. It was called Kula Veriga, or The Tower of Chains. It is likely much of the walls that surrounded Old Town Trogir were also built at this time.

In 1420 the Republic of Venice laid siege to Trogir, and after two months captured the city. Thus began a period of almost 400 years of Venetian rule over Trogir. The construction of the new castle of Trogir was entrusted to Marin Radoj, the first magistrate, and his engineer, Lorenzo Picino. The fortress, using the Kula Veriga as its keep, was separated from the city of Trogir by an embattled moat, as the residents of Trogir were by and large still hostile to their captors. The castle was trapezoidal in shape with a large turret on each of the other three corners. In additional to its defensive functions, the castle provided storage space for supplies and treasure, and temporary quarters for Venetians mercenaries and military crews. Somewhere in the middle of the 16th century, the castle's named was changed to Kaštel Kamerlengo (Governor's Castle).

With the fall of Venetian rule in 1797, Trogir came under the authority of Napoleonic France. During this period, the city's defensive walls were mostly removed, and the castle gradually became dilapidated. An effort to tear down the castle was fortunately thwarted. While the residential ranges within the castle are gone, the castle walls are largely intact, and a Town of Chains provides wonderful views of Old Town Trogir, the expansion of the city both onto the mainland and Čiovo Island, and the nearby Adriatic and Croatian coast.

Photos of the Lego Model Under construction August 2024 to ???

On August 25, exactly 4 months to the day after our visit to Trogir, the Lego model of Kamerlengo is begun!	First order of business is to establish the perimeter - this is the job through the end of August.	By August 29, the entire ground level protective wall is complete.	It's time to construct the castle's two level courtyard...	August 30 is mostly spent building the grid that will support the castle's courtyard.


So as August draws to a close, the ground level is in place, and the design of the courtyard buildings is laid out,...	...including the dooreway into the old Kula Veriga (Tower of Chains).	On September 1 construction on the west service range is well underway.	By September 3, the north residential range id also ready to roof, and the curtain walls continue to rise.	The next day there's lots of progress on the residential range, the stair up to the wall walk, and...


Wall walk view toward donjon	Wall walk view looking east	Donjon view across castle	The view from the donjon roof


...the curtain walls. The corner towers are nearly ready to be floored.	The	But	And

Photos of the Lego Model Built August - ???, 2024

My m	Wel	And t	Here	The ro


The .	A good	The ea	A clo.	A vie


Elevation	Elevation	Elevation	Elevation


Ground Floor Plan	Parapet Level Plan	Donjon cross-section

Build Your Own

Lego Ground and Roof Plan	Lego First Floor Plan