The story of building an addition to St. Mark’s church on the island of Silba in 1638 The story goes that the afore mentioned Ventura on his way from Venice ran into a terrible storm at sea in the vicinity of the island of Silba, not so far from the bay where the Church of St. Mark’s stands today (the inhabitants call the bay Pocutmarka i.e. under St. Mark’s). He lost a great amount of wealth at sea, which was being transported in the famous Manzer ships. He pledged to build St. Mark’s Church should he succeed in retrieving the sunken treasures. The sea subsided and he ordered nets to be drawn over the sea bottom and most of the treasure was gathered in them, and so he had the church built. It is said that he had the sacristy built above a Byzantine chapel, which to this day is referred to as the Greek chapel. The painting of the risen Jesus, painted on a wooden cross and which is still in good condition is said to be from the Greek chapel. It is possible to actually still see it. The building was preserved in the place where today’s bell tower of the St. Mark’s church stands. This may, therefore, be seen as a monument to the former Byzantine rule on Silba. The story of why the Toreta was built The symbol of Silba is the “toreta”, or tower, which captain Petar Mariniæ had built in order for his wife to be able to look out to sea in expectation of his return from any one of his voyages. This romantic story has an unusual ending. Peter’s first love married another, whilst he was away on one of his voyages. He managed to over come this only after the daughter of his first love had grown to marrying age. He married her and built the tower for her, which every visitor to the island of Silba is free to climb today.
