Hvar
Encyclopedia
Climate
The climate of Hvar is characterized by mild winters and warm summers. The yearly average air temperature is 16 °C (61 °F), 686 mm of precipitation fall on the town of Hvar on average every year and the town has a total of 2800 sunshine hours per year. For comparison Hvar has an average of 7.7 sunshine hours per day while Dubrovnik has 7.2. The sea temperatures average from the lowest readings in February of 14 °C (57 °F) to their warmest in August, when the sea temperatures usually reaches 24 °C (75 °F).Administration and population
Hvar Island is part of Split-Dalmatia CountySplit-Dalmatia County
Split-Dalmatia County is the central-southern Dalmatian county in Croatia. The administrative center is Split. The population of the county is 455,242...
in Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. The island has four municipalities (općina), namely Hvar (city) (pop 4138), Stari Grad
Stari Grad, Croatia
Stari Grad is a town on the northern side of the island of Hvar in Dalmatia, Croatia. One of the oldest towns in Europe, its position at the end of a long, protected bay and next to prime agricultural land, has long made it attractive for human settlement...
(pop 2,817), Jelsa
Jelsa, Croatia
Jelsa is a town in Croatia, on the island of Hvar. Jelsa is also a district within the county of Split-Dalmatia.- District of Jelsa :The district of Jelsa covers an area of 121.2 km2 from the north coast to the south coast of Hvar...
(pop 3,656) and Sućuraj
Sucuraj
Sućuraj is a picturesque small town on the east cape of the island Hvar in Croatia, 3 NM from the Dalmatian coast and 77 km from the town of Hvar....
(pop 492). Population figures as of 2001.
- Hvar (city) is the largest town on the island (pop 3,672), for many years an independent commune and major naval base of the Venetian Empire. Hvar municipality includes the settlements of Brusje (206), Velo Grablje (21), Milna (90) and Sveta NediljaSveta NediljaSveta Nedilja, officially known as Sveta Nedjelja, is a small village on the Croatian island of Hvar. It is located near the town of Hvar and it has 148 residents .-History:Nedilja lies on a sheer cliff at the foot of Sv. Nikola Sveta Nedilja, officially known as Sveta Nedjelja, is a small village...
(148). - Jelsa is a market town in the northern part of the island (pop 1,798). Jelsa municipality includes the settlements of Gdinj (119), Gromin Dolac (4), Ivan Dolac (26), Svirče (445), Pitve (81), Poljica (68), VrboskaVrboskaVrboska is a settlement on the north coast of the island of Hvar in Dalmatia, Croatia, in the Municipality of Jelsa. Founded in the 15th century as a fishing harbour, Vrboska is best known for the fortress Church of Sv. Marija , built as a refuge for its inhabitants during the 16th century...
(526), Vrisnik (215), Zastražišće (230), Zavala (144). - Stari Grad, also on the north part of the island (pop 1,906), is the site of one of the first permanent settlements on the Adriatic islands during AntiquityClassical antiquityClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
. Today, Stari Grad is the main seaport on the island; most visitors arrive here via car ferries from SplitSplit (city)Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
. Stari Grad municipality includes the settlements of Dol (348), Rudina (54), Selca (20) and Vrbanj (489). - Sućuraj is a small town on the eastern end of the island, nearest to the mainland, where a regular car ferry service connects the island with the town of DrvenikDrvenikDrvenik may mean:* Drvenik - a village in southern Dalmatia, Croatia* Drvenik - a village on island Drvenik veli* Drvenik Veliki and Drvenik Mali - two islands in central Dalmatia, Croatia...
. Sućuraj municipality includes the mainly agricultural communities in the eastern part of the island.
History
The first inhabitants of Hvar Island were Neolithic people who probably established trade links between Hvar and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The Hvar Culture lasted from 3500 to 2500 BC.
Beginning in the 4th century BC, the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
colonized the island. In 384 BC the Greek colonisers of Pharos defeated Iadasinoi
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
warriors and their allies, invited by the Hvar indigenes in their resistance to the Greek colonization. Their victory over much larger forces was immortalized in one of the oldest known inscriptions of Croatia.
In the early Middle Ages, Slavic tribes occupied the island. In the first half of the 7th century the Slavs of Pagania took over the island. Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
sailors saw the island while sailing towards the Neretva
Neretva
Neretva is the largest river of the eastern part of the Adriatic basin. It has been harnessed and controlled to a large extent by four HE power-plants with large dams and their storage lakes, but it is still recognized for its natural beauty, diversity of its landscape and visual...
Channel and were threatened by the Narentine pirates from the island. In the 11th century the island joined the Kingdom of Croatia
Kingdom of Croatia (medieval)
The Kingdom of Croatia , also known as the Kingdom of the Croats , was a medieval kingdom covering most of what is today Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Balkans.Established in 925, it ruled as a sovereign state for almost two centuries...
.
In the 12th century the rise of the Republic of Venice
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...
brought vines and wine cultivation which blossomed into a major industry for the island in the Middle Ages. The island eventually again fell under Byzantine rule, and then under Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary. In 1331 the Venetians put the island under protection from threats of piracy. According to the 1358 Treaty of Zadar, the island was handed over to the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. For short time in the summer of 1390 it was held by the Bosnian king Stephen Tvrtko I
Tvrtko I of Bosnia
Stjepan Tvrtko I was a ruler of medieval Bosnia. He ruled in 1353–1366 and again in 1367–1377 as Ban and in 1377–1391 as the first Bosnian King....
. In 1409, the Republic of Venice finally again became its long-term owner.
In the 16th century, an uprising occurred between the plebeians and aristocracy, the most serious of the uprising occurred between 1510 and 1514 with the Venetians ruthlessly crushing the locals and sending twenty of their leaders to the hangman. The island became prosperous from fishing, the cultivation of rosemary, lavender and olives. The Venetians set up the Diocese of Hvar.
History of Croatia
Croatia first appeared as a duchy in the 7th century and then as a kingdom in the 10th century. From the 12th century it remained a distinct state with its ruler and parliament, but it obeyed the kings and emperors of various neighboring powers, primarily Hungary and Austria. The period from the...
as it was one of the centers of Croatian literature
Croatian literature
Croatian literature is a definition given to the compilation of novels, dramas, short stories, poems and other various work of written kind entirely attributed to the medieval and modern culture of the Croats and the Croatian language....
during the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, with writers such as Petar Hektorović
Petar Hektorovic
Petar Hektorović was a Croatian writer.Hektorović was born and died in Stari Grad, Hvar. He was a poet and collector of Hvar's fishermen songs, and an important figure of the Renaissance period in Croatian literature...
and Hanibal Lucić
Hanibal Lucic
Hanibal Lucić or Annibale Lucio was a Croatian Renaissance poet and playwright.- Biography :He was born to a Croatian noble family of Antun and Goja in Hvar, where he spent most of his life. Early in his youth, he was a judge and later became a lawyer of the Hvar municipality...
. In Stari Grad, tourists can see the Petar Hektorović fortress/villa called Tvrdalj Castle
Tvrdalj Castle
Tvrdalj Castle is a castle in Stari Grad, on the island of Hvar, Croatia.Tvrdalj is the fortified summer residence of Petar Hektorović, the Croatian poet . During the 16th century, the island of Hvar came under attack from the Ottoman Turks...
, architectonically designed by the poet himself.
Churches on the island contain many important paintings and artworks by famous Venetian artists, including Tintoretto
Tintoretto
Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...
, Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
, Bellini
Bellini
-People:*Vincenzo Bellini , opera composer*a family of Italian painters:**Jacopo Bellini , father of Gentile and Giovanni**Gentile Bellini **Giovanni Bellini , the most famous of the three...
and others.
In 1797 Hvar was annexed with the fall of the Venetian Republic by the Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
as per the Treaty of Campo Formio. But forces of the French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
seized it in 1806 during the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
.
During the Croatian national renaissance, in the age of national awakening in Europe, many leading figures in southern Croatia, and in Croatia as a whole, came from Hvar.
The Austrians
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
regained control of the island in accordance to the 1815 Treaty of Vienna and into the beginning of the 20th century brought a period of relative prosperity. The Italian army occupied the island from 1918 until 1921, when Hvar with the rest of Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
joined the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. In 1939, an autonomous Croatian Banate was formed that included it. During WWII, it was under control of Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
, but under military occupation of Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
until 1943. After 1945, it became a part of People's Republic of Croatia
Socialist Republic of Croatia
Socialist Republic of Croatia was a sovereign constituent country of the second Yugoslavia. It came to existence during World War II, becoming a socialist state after the war, and was also renamed four times in its existence . It was the second largest republic in Yugoslavia by territory and...
, a constituent republic of Communist Yugoslavia.
Ivan Vučetić
Juan Vucetich
Juan Vucetich was a Croatian-born Argentine anthropologist and police official who pioneered the use of fingerprinting.-Biography:...
, the man who perfected dactyloscopy at the turn of the 20th century, came from Hvar island.
In 1992 the Republic of Croatia was recognized as an Independent state in which Hvar obtained a position in its territorial reorganization.
In today's Croatia, Hvar's most famous citizen is football player Igor Tudor
Igor Tudor
Igor Tudor is a Croatian former football defender. He was considered one of Croatia's best defenders in the period between the late 1990s and mid-2000s....
(Juventus), while most famous Croatian deputy in Sabor (awarded as the "Deputy of the year") is from the island of Hvar, Tonči Tadić.
Economy
Residents of Hvar mostly work in the fishingFishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
and tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
industries. Hvar has a very mild Mediterranean climate
Mediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
, beautiful beaches and Mediterranean vegetation that make it one of the most attractive tourist centers in Europe. The island promotes itself as "the sunniest spot in Europe", with over 2715 hours of sunlight in an average year.
Hvar town is the main tourist center. It features a large public square (St Stephen's Square/trg Sv. Stjepana) that is open to the sea. During the tourist season, the port is filled with large yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
s. All-night discos attract large crowds of young visitors, including Veneranda, one of Europe's leading open-air party venues.
Another major economic activity is the cultivation of lavender
Lavender
The lavenders are a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. An Old World genus, distributed from Macaronesia across Africa, the Mediterranean, South-West Asia, Arabia, Western Iran and South-East India...
, used for aromatic oils and soaps. Hvar is often called the "island of lavender".
Hvar is also one of the two most famous winemaking zones in Croatia. Vineyard
Vineyard
A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...
s on the southern side of the island are famous for red wines produced from the Plavac Mali
Plavac Mali
Plavac Mali, a cross between ancestral Zinfandel and Dobričić grapes, is the primary red wine grape grown along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia...
grape. The central plain between Stari Grad
Stari Grad, Croatia
Stari Grad is a town on the northern side of the island of Hvar in Dalmatia, Croatia. One of the oldest towns in Europe, its position at the end of a long, protected bay and next to prime agricultural land, has long made it attractive for human settlement...
and Jelsa
Jelsa, Croatia
Jelsa is a town in Croatia, on the island of Hvar. Jelsa is also a district within the county of Split-Dalmatia.- District of Jelsa :The district of Jelsa covers an area of 121.2 km2 from the north coast to the south coast of Hvar...
is famous for its white wines.
Names of the island
As a Greek colony, the island was known as Pharos 'lighthouse'. The Greek poet Apollonius of RhodesApollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...
referred to the island as "Piteyeia" in the 3rd century BC, a name derived either from the Greek word "pitys", meaning spruce, or from the ancient Illyria
Illyria
In classical antiquity, Illyria was a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula inhabited by the Illyrians....
n village of Pitve in the central part of the island.
Under the Roman rule
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
(in the province of Dalmatia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
), it was known as Pharia and later Fara.
In the early Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
settled the island and named it Hvar, replacing the consonant "f" with old Croatian consonant "hv". But, the island was still ruled by the romanized Illyrians. The Croats' influence convinced the resident Roman population to once again change the official name to Quarra.
Since the late 11th century its Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
name has been Lesina; in Venetian
Venetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
, Liesena. The name remained official during Venetian rule. The Italian name has a Slavic origin - Lesna, meaning "wood" (the island having been heavily wooded).