Places

HVAR TOWN
Many people say of the town Hvar that it is a town as from a fairy- tale because its architecture, wonderful nature and its mild climate. Everybody can find in Hvar all what gives peace to the soul and relaxation to the body.
From the sea, we get the sight of a waterfront promenade strip bordered with a row of palm trees and seven centuries old walls, overtoped by the fortress protecting Hvar, extending downwards to the town and to the Venetian loggia.
Coming from the central part of the island or using the road from the ferry harbor we arrive at the magnificent piazza, a square generally considered the most beautiful of the kind in Dalmatia, dominated by St. Stephen’s Cathedral and bordered by the palaces of Groda and by the cascading stone-built houses of Burak.

But, no matter from which point this town is approached, Hvar straightway presents itself as a monument. Centuries have ground its stone, epochs, above all renaissance, have shaped its appearance.
Monuments within monuments, monuments on monuments. Hvar is a jewel hidden by the time. Hvar has been celebrated in verses. Hvar has been painted by the painters. But Hvar town itself is the best narrator of its own story. It is enough to come and see for oneself.

STARI GRAD
Stari Grad (Pharos) is the oldest town in Croatia. The same year – 384 b.c. when Greek philosopher Aristotel was born in Trakia, the Greeks from the island of Paros in Agean sea have settled the town on the island of Hvar, and named it Pharos.
Stari Grad (eng. “old town”) is historical heart of Hvar island. The town is situated in a landscape where the blue of the deep bay touches the green of the field of Pharos, with vineyards and olive-groves. The fields used to provide sustenance and the bay provided protection.
Today, both the fields and the bay add an attractive quality to the island, in which the modern vacation sights have become intertwined with the antiquities of the town and of the island.
Because of its position in the middle of the Hvar island, for centuries Stari Grad was a safe harbor to sailors, which have been welcomed by town inhabitants on harbor promenade. Stari Grad bay is still regularly visited by most of the travelers on boats passing trough middle Dalmatia.
The town is surrounded with pine tree forest and cooled with summer breeze (maestral). In the hot summer days it is one of the rare Dalmatian places where the air is fresh and the sleep refreshing. A thousand years long history of the Town has left many monuments in the urban structure of the Town.
A walk through the Stari Grad center, narrow streets and small squares brings the whisperings of the past times.

VRBOSKA
Vrboska, the smallest town on Hvar island, is special because of its geographical location hidden in the depth of the bay, the untouched pine forest, the cultural sights with the marks of the Gothic, renaissance and baroque style, and an architecture interwoven with narrow winding roads. Vrboska has a very beautiful little island in the middle of the bay connected with bridges, and therefore it is named Little Venice. The village has been settled since the ancient time and it developed into a fisherman’s village and later into a wonderful little town. It owes its charm to the typical Mediterranean popular architecture, the proud old town houses with characteristics of Gothic, renaissance and baroque style, the sacral spirit of the ancient church buildings, but also to the luxurious modern villas.

JELSA
Jelsa is located in a bay on the north central port of the the island of Hvar. On both sides of the harbor there are wooded coves ideal for relaxation and swimming.

Jelsa is a welcoming place, pleasing to the eye and ready to receive any guest or traveler. Jelsa borders with the two highest peaks on the Island – St. Nikola on the west and Hum on the east. On the southern side there are three mountains – Vrh, Samotorac and Gozd, while Burkovo hill shields the northern side from the cold, northern winds.

Approaching the place, one will feel the freshness of the woods covering the surrounding slopes. Facing towards Mt. Biokovo on the mainland, Jelsa seems to rise on the shore of one of the large Swiss lakes. At first sight Jelsa seems a new place. The houses on the water front do not present facades of stone covered by century-old patina nor are they typical in design but rather point to the 19th c., the period of the greatest prosperity of the local shipping industry. The municipal park gives the village a modern touch.

Gradually, however, one discovers Jelsa’s more distant past. Monuments from the classical period remain hidden.