After the Morean War, at the end of the 17th century, brothers Ivan Petar, Juraj and Ivan Marchi submitted to the Republic of Venice their plan for the colonisation and defence of the western bays of Šolta.

They sent a request to the governor Alvis Mocenigo III to let them build a tower in the bay of Maslinica on Šolta, and around it a village with a church. The Venetian authorities regarded the colonisation of the desolate bays with approval, because the new settlers farmed and cultivated the neglected land and, in case of pirate attacks, they defended the port and the inland of the island.

By a decree issued on August 25 in 1703, Venice gave its permission for the construction of the tower, village and a church and allotted 200 acres of land on the condition that the Split community should agree with that, since the estate was on its communal territory.

Šolta was an important estate of the city of Split because it was a place for rearing cattle and a source of agricultural crops as well as a possible refuge. That’s why the Marchi family asked from the Split Great Council to give them on lease 100 acres of land so that the settlers could cultivate it and guard the bay that had an open access to Donje Selo. Namely, during the Morean War, Turks from Ulcinj trespassed with their ships the unprotected bays like Maslinica and in the year 1696 they robbed Donje Selo and took to slavery 64 people.

Not many inhabitants were capable of work because grown men were recruited to the army or worked as oarsmen on the galleys. Therefore, the land was mostly cultivated by women, children and the elderly. The depopulation of Šolta, the exposure to pirate attacks and the vicinity of the Turkish border near Split have all contributed to the organised colonisation. The Marchi brothers brought people from the continental parts of the region like Dalmatinska Zagora, Zaostrog and Prugovo.

The beginning of the Marchi family constructions goes back to 1706 when they built the votive chapel above the bay of Maslinica in memory of their grandfather Nikola, dedicating it to St Nicholas, the protector of sailors.

The chapel was built on a strategically prominent position which had always served for observation and control of the ships passing in the channel and in the nearby bays. A path from the church lead down to the castle in the bay, and it passed just along its western façade. The castle was constructed two years after the chapel of St Nicholas. It took a lot of preparatory work, as well as strong efforts of the colonists, who have dug out a considerable area of the hill and extracted stone on the spot, using it for the construction of the defence walls around the future castle. The castle was conceived as a military fort with a spacious inside yard and a prominent tower at the back, as its last point of defence.

On the castle’s façade above the main entrance, there is a plaque with an inscription in Latin which commemorates the construction of the castle and presents the Marchi brothers as benefactors and founders of the first village in the port:

Since the Marchi family didn’t have any male descendants, in his will Ivan Petar left his whole property to the heirs of his sister Domenika who was married to the Split nobleman Ivan Alberti, that is, to the children of her daughter Vicenza, who was married to Ivan Martinis from Bol, on the condition that they carry the surname Martinis-Marchi.

However, at the end of the 19th century, the Alberti family, burdened with debts, started selling off its rich inventory, therefore the castle as well, which they were forced to sell to a certain Karl Bay from Split. For decades, the castle had been neglected and left to ruin, until the 60ies when it was inadequately restored and turned into a hotel. As a result, it totally lost its previous interior arrangement and the look of the rooms.

It wasn’t until 2002 that the complete renovation of the castle had started under the strict supervision and instructions of conservationists. By the end of 2004, the castle got back its old, deserved glow.