While today we see Čiovo as an island of beaches, pine trees, and summer peace, few people know that during the Middle Ages it had a much darker role.
During the great plague epidemics that struck Dalmatia — especially after the Black Death in the 14th century, and during later outbreaks in the 15th and 17th centuries — the people of Trogir sent the infected, and those suspected of carrying disease, across to Čiovo.
At a time when medicine barely existed, isolation was the only protection a city had. That is why Čiovo became the natural quarantine island of Trogir.
There was even a Church of St. Lazarus on the island — the patron saint of lepers and the sick — which still remains a silent reminder of that period of fear, disease, and isolation.