About Hvar
Ferry Company map: coast -
Split region
 The Town Of Hvar
Hvar displays with pride the oldest municipal theatre in Europe. Hvar
has been built through time by notable domestic and foreign architects.
Hvar has been celebrated in verses. Hvar has been painted by the
painters. But Hvar itself is the best narrator of its own story. It is
enough to come and see for oneself. That way we shall touch piece of
the legend.
Located in the centre of the Mediterranean, off of
its northern more indented and more densely populated coast, the island
of Hvar is also situated in the centre of practically all of the routes
that cross the eastern Adriatic.
An outstanding geographical point of central
Dalmatia, on the route from Zadar and Sibenik to Korcula and Dubrovnik,
Hvar is located in the vicinity of, and within the region gravitating
towards, the city of Split. However, Hvar is separated from the Split
Channel by the island of Brac.
 Though
representing a part of the diverse southern Croatian archipelago,
formed by numerous islands, since the earliest days Hvar has been the
subject of special recognition, distinguished by both its natural
beauty and its cultural strata. It was chosen by the earliest
prehistoric inhabitants because of its pleasant climate and convenient
havens and its arable land well-suited for cultivation, as well as for
the defence and construction possibilities it offered.
History, culture...
Greek colonists from the island of Pharos already founded a strong
urban centre on the location of today's Stari Grad in 384-85 BC. Later
battles between the Illyrians and Romans confirmed the importance and
value of this territory, and each of these peoples also left distinctive
traces of their presence, ranging from evidence of developed Neolithic
activity to the monuments of Classical antiquity.
 The
arrival of the Croats in the early Middle Ages substantially altered
the ethnic substratum, but it nevertheless represented an organic
continuation of existing cultural achievements. Having accepted
Christianity, our ancestors effectively placed themselves into the
history and art of the Western European sphere.
Despite all of the social and political changes, the
island of Hvar has an uninterrupted continuity of communal
self-assertion, artistic activity and a sense of Croatian ethnicity. It
could hardly have happened by mere chance that, with the exception of
independent Dubrovnik, this island was certainly the greatest centre of
early Croatian literature and at the same time a privileged domain of
architecture, sculpture, painting and music. During the Gothic,
Renaissance, Mennerism and Baroque periods, representative churces and
places were erected, valuable pictures and sculptures were obtained,
and urban and rural environments of extraordinary form and beauty were
created.
 Croatian
cultural figures such as Hanibal Lucic, Petar Hektorovic, Vinko
Pribojevic, Miksa Pelegrinovic, Martin Benetovic and Marin Gazarovic
lived and worked on Hvar in the 16th and 17th centuries. There were
many who tried their hand at various creative disiplines. The summer
residence of Lucic and Hektorovic in Hvar and Stari Grad today bear
witness to a lively interconnection of art and everyday life, necessity
and freedom, and the elite and the common people.
 About the island of Hvar
The agrarian heart of the island, mainly a wine
growing district, was for a long time a guarantee of economic
prosperity, but it also gave rise to an impressive cultural
superstructure, from the Greek land parcelling (the first
"centuriation" of public land in history) and the megalithic
walls of Pharos, to the outstanding fortifications and the rich
"villae rusticae" with their decorative mosaics.
There are also Christian
churces with marble furniture and weaved ornaments, the authentic urban
centres such as Vrboska and Jelsa (with "embryonic"
churches/fortresses) or the picturesque peripheral settlements which
form a chain from Rudina and Selca to Dol, Vrbanj, Svirce, Vrisnik and
Pitve.
 The eastern part of the island, the area of Plame (
Poljica, Zastrazisce, Gdinj, Bogomolje and Sucuraj), joined the
cultural exchange and permanent colonization somewhat later, but since
the earliest days it has ensured contact with the nearby mainland, thus
reducing the isolation of the island.
On the other hand, the
southwestern side of the island, bordered by the romantic string of the
Pakleni otoci (Resin Islands) and crowned by the sun-bathed slopes and
thoroughly protected harbor of the town of Hvar, emphasizes a
Mediterranean, maritime orientation, and has, since Venetian times,
been in close contact with the main cultural flows.
With its balance between rich
natural gifts and adequate human attendance, the island of Hvar represents
an ideal place of serene living and repose. We feel as though the
multi-layered values are inviting us to go on a pilgrimage there, and
not just feverishly and superfically consume them.
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