The Church of St. Mary in situated in Solin (in the so-called White Croatia or Great Croatia) and was built before the year 976, when Queen Helen of Zadar (Helen the Glorious or Jelena Zadarska), the wife of King Michael Krešimir II and the ktetor of this Church, died. The Church was part of the Royal Mausoleum complex along with the Church of St. Stephen, making them double-churches (basilica geminatae) typical for the Benedictines (the bigger one was usually dedicated to St. Mary, while the smaller one to a saint).
It was a three nave edifice, with an atrium and a narthex. It probably served as a coronation Church and a mausoleum. since a gravestone with a name of the Queen was found in the Church, and later the remains of the sarcophagus in the narthex.
The church was damaged in the first Ottoman raids in the 16th century and later a new building was erected.