Hvar (Chakavian Hvor, or For, Greek: Φάρος, Faros) is an island
in Croatia, off the east coast of the Adriatic Sea. It belongs to
the group of central Dalmatian islands. Due to the large number of
sunny days, it is often called Sunny Hvar.
Geographical
location and properties
Hvar belongs to the group of central
Dalmatian islands. It is located in the Split-Dalmatia County, in
the middle of a group of islands that are part of this county. Seen
in the immediate vicinity, north of it is the island of Brac, and
south of it are Scedro (from which it is divided by Scedor Channel),
Vis (more to the southwest), Paklinski islands, Korcula and the
Peljesac peninsula.
It is 72 km long and 10.5 km wide in the
wider part. Its total length of the coast is 254.2 km. It covers an
area of 299.7 km2, which makes it the fourth largest Croatian
island. The highest peak is Sv. Nikola, on which the chapel is
located, 628 m high.
The road connecting the town of Hvar on
the west and Sucuraj on the east side of the island is 84 km. The
island of Hvar is mostly covered with pine forest, which creates an
extremely pleasant climate and vineyards that produce up to 50,000
hectoliters of wine per year.
The island was inhabited in prehistoric times, 6000
years ago. From that period on the island there are finds of a
distinctive Hvar culture (3500-- 2500 BC), known for painted
pottery.
There are known finds from Marko and Grapčeva
špilja, where the oldest representation of a ship in Europe was
found on a fragment of a ceramic vase, and the site of Purkin kuk
with megaliths.
Later, the island was inhabited by the
Illyrians.
The Greeks knew about the island of Hvar in
archaic times and it is believed that they founded the colony of
Anchiala there, but there is no evidence for that. Before the
arrival of Paran, the Old Town was protected by fortifications on
the hill, which tells us about the importance of the fertile area
for the natives.
Hvar was the site of ancient Greek
colonization in the 4th century BC. Pharos was founded on it at that
time, 385/384 BC, on the site of today's Old Town. Diodor Sikulski
brings us information about that. Hvar was colonized by Dionozius of
Syracuse, he founded the settlement of Ionian Paraná. Diodorus of
Siculus also brings us information about the battle that was fought
between the natives and Paraná. Namely, the commander from the
colony that Dionysius had founded earlier came to the aid of the
Paranians. It is Lesh in Albania or Vis. Two epigraphic monuments
also testify to this battle - the inscription of the Hero Kalija who
died about the war with the Illyrians and the monument of Faran,
which testifies to the victory of Faran over the Jadasins. Pharos
was a polis. It is not known if there were other ancient Greek
settlements on the island, perhaps someone on the site of today's
Hvar (scientists placed Heraclea or Dimos there, but there is no
evidence for that). In the Starigrad field, the Faroese chora has
been preserved, the original ancient Greek cadastral division of the
country with stone boundaries (mounds) which is still visible today.
The Faroese choir is an agricultural part that belongs to the polis,
and in which, in addition to the farm estates, a temple can also be
built; extraordinarily preserved, precise parcelling of fields in
the immediate vicinity of the Old Town on Hvar. The Faroese choir is
characterized by parcelling into a square-like square - clergy
(180x190). The Faroese Choir is one of only two preserved such
fields in Europe. The parishioners minted money with the image of
Dionysus and the cluster and money with the image of Zeus and the
goat.
With the fall of Syracuse, the essential protector of this
island, the rule of the ancient Greeks came to an end. Demetrius of
Faroe ruled Hvar with Roman approval. The island fell under the rule
of ancient Rome in 219 BC and Pharos was given the name Pharia.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the island remained
within Byzantium. In late antiquity the population of the island
increased. This period abounds in archaeological finds. A large
number of new rustic villas were built on the historic ager, but
also on the previously neglected eastern parts of the island. There
is a gap in written sources about this period until the settlement
of the Slavs.
Then it came into the three-century possession
of the Neretva principality. In the same period, the population
became fully settled and adopted the Croatian language, culture and
names. The information that Hvar is a part of the Neretva
principality is given by the emperor-writer Konstantin Porfirogenet
in the 36th chapter of his work On the management of the empire. At
that time, the old Croatian tribe of Slavogosta settled on the
island.
In the 11th century it became part of the medieval
Croatian kingdom of Petar Krešimir IV ..
Later, the Venetian
Republic, Byzantium, and the Croatian-Hungarian Kingdom took over.
In 1331, the commune was finally placed under Venetian
protection from Omis pirates. In 1420, the Venetians completely
controlled it. Venetian rule was until the fall of Venice, in 1797.
In that period, the town of Hvar was the main Venetian port on the
eastern Adriatic coast. The island of Hvar was part of the same
administrative unit as the island of Vis, the Hvar commune. The
trace of this division is today's Hvar-Brač-Vis diocese. In the 15th
and 16th centuries, the literary and cultural scene in Hvar was very
developed. The Hvar humanist circle was very influential, and it is
best known for the so-called Hvar quartet consisting of Petar
Hektorović, Mikša Pelegrinović, Jeronim Bartučević and Hanibal
Lucić. The historian and ideologist Vinko Pribojević is also
significant, who wrote and gave a speech on the origin and
adventures of the Slavs, which is one of the most important
historical sources from the 16th century. From 1510 to 1514, the
Uprising of the Hvar people led by Matija Ivanić against the Hvar
nobles lasted. The people overthrew the aristocratic government on
the island, and the uprising was eventually quelled by Venice.
After 1797, the island of Hvar came under the rule of the
Habsburg Monarchy. From 1806 to 1814 it was for a short time under
Napoleon's France, and then it was again part of the Habsburg
Monarchy, ie by reorganizing it, in the Austrian part of
Austro-Hungary. Then comes the "little golden period" for this
island: all island ports are arranged, a cadastre is made, small
industrialization takes place, and the upward economic cycle in the
agricultural market (vine, pyrethrum, lavender) strengthens the
middle class, and the lag of the lower classes was alleviated by the
infusion of principal on the island. Until the advent of steamships,
the island had its own merchant navy.
The consulates of
Greece, Parma, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples were then
opened in the town of Hvar.
In 1858, the first meteorological
station in Croatia was opened on Hvar.
In 1868, the first tourist association ("Hygienic Society") was
founded.
With the disintegration of Austro-Hungary in 1918,
it entered the State of SCS. The Kingdom of Italy occupied the
island in 1918 and remained so until 1921, when it finally became
part of the Kingdom of SCS / Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1941,
with the fall of the Kingdom, Hvar became part of the Independent
State of Croatia, where it was part of the large parish of Cetina.
With the fall of the NDH government, it is part of the People's
Republic of Croatia. The island was one administrative unit, the
municipality of Hvar with its headquarters in the town of Hvar.
With the independence of Croatia in 1991, Hvar was divided into
four municipalities: the town of Hvar, Stari Grad, Jelsa and
Sucuraj.
At the beginning of the Homeland War, the island's
population and economy suffered the consequences of the naval
blockade, which was established by the JRM.
In September
1991, the first serious military organization of the ZNG and the
Hvar Police Station took place.
On October 6, 1991, the Mixed
Detachment of Naval Infantry Zvir - Hvar Island was established. On
December 23, 1991, the coastal artillery battalion "Pelegrin" was
established. If 787 veterans, 781 of them from the island of Hvar,
are sold to members of the coastal battalion on Pelegrin, members of
the regular, special and reserve police, a larger number of
volunteers who went outside the island and joined other units, the
figure is about 1000 veterans who in various ways actively
participated in the defense of the homeland, which makes up more
than 9 percent of the total population of the island of Hvar, ie
every tenth Hvar resident participated in the defense of the
Croatian homeland. Hvar residents who laid their lives on the altar
of the homeland, and they are: Ružica Malla, yob. Belic, Ante
Franicevic, Tomislav Toni Petric, Ivica Stipisic, Predrag Bogdanic
and Andrej Plenkovic.
In July 2004, an international research
team found traces of dinosaurs on Hvar.
Position and dimensions
The island sits between roughly 16°22′ E
(Cape Pelegrin in the west) and 17°12′ E (Cape Sućuraj in the east), and
between about 43°07′ N and 43°14′ N. It is about 68 km long and only
4-10.5 km wide (average around 5 km). Area is commonly given as 297-300
km², which makes Hvar the fourth-largest Croatian island after Cres, Krk
and Brač. Coastline length is about 254-270 km; the indentation
coefficient is around 4.1-4.4, so the shore is among the most dissected
in the Adriatic (only Pag and Dugi Otok are more indented).
The
eastern tip at Sućuraj is only about 4-6 km from the Makarska mainland.
The west faces open water toward Vis. Neighboring landmasses and the
channels that separate them:
North: Brač and the Hvar Channel
(Hvarski kanal)
Northwest: Šolta
West / southwest: Vis across the
Vis Channel
South: Korčula across the Korčula Channel
Southeast:
Pelješac peninsula across the Neretva Channel
Until about 11,000
years ago the ridge was part of the mainland. Post-glacial sea-level
rise of roughly 120 m flooded the intervening valleys and left the
present island chain.
Geology
Hvar is part of the Outer
Dinarides and of the old Adriatic carbonate platform. Most of the rock
is Mesozoic limestone and dolomite, especially Cretaceous rudist
limestone and dolomite, with thinner Eocene foraminiferal limestone and
flysch (marl) along parts of the south coast, and Pleistocene loess
(prapor) on the low ground east of Jelsa and across the central plain.
The island is a long, slightly disturbed anticline more than 60 km in
length, formed during the Laramian and Pyrenean phases of Alpine
collision between the African and Eurasian plates. Upper Cretaceous
limestones, several hundred metres thick, wrap the flanks of that
anticline. Softer Eocene marls underlie the small south-coast coves
around Hvar Town (Zaraće, Milna, Dubovica, Kozja and the town harbour).
Karst is the dominant surface process: sinkholes, grikes, dry valleys
and more than 140 recorded caves. Surface streams are almost absent
because rain sinks quickly into the carbonate.
Relief: three
belts
Geographers divide the island into a central mountain ridge
(hrbat), the Hvar Field (Hvarsko polje / Stari Grad Plain), and the
lower northern foothills (pobrđe Rudine-Kabal).
The spine runs the
full length of the island. It is highest in the west-central sector.
Sveti Nikola (Sv. Nikola, St Nicholas), above Sveta Nedjelja, is the
summit at 626-628 m. Nearby high points include Hum (around 603 m).
Slopes on the south face commonly reach 32-46° and drop almost straight
into the sea; the north face is milder. A high plateau between Sveti
Nikola and Hum, from Sveta Nedjelja toward Jelsa, carries pine wood and
patches of arable land and has a cooler, fresher climate than the coast.
East of Jelsa the ridge is lower and narrower (the Plame sector), often
only a few kilometres wide.
The Stari Grad Plain is the geographic
oddity of Hvar. It is a denuded secondary anticline between Stari Grad,
Vrboska and Jelsa, mostly below 100 m, floored with Pleistocene loess
blown in during the last glacial. That dust produced the most extensive
and fertile agricultural flat on any Adriatic island. The Greek
colonists of Pharos laid out a regular grid of plots here in 384 BC; the
dry-stone walls of that cadastre still structure the landscape and the
plain is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The northern foothills
(Rudine-Kabal, including the Kabal peninsula) stay low. The highest
point on that belt is Bila Glava on Kabal, only about 129 m.
West and
east feel like different islands. The west (Dolnji Hvar) is wider,
higher and more broken. The east tapers toward Sućuraj, is lower, drier
in appearance and far less built-up.
Coastline
North and south
coasts are not mirrors of each other.
The south is steep, rocky and
relatively simple in plan, but the sea has cut many small pebble coves
into the Eocene marls: Dubovica, Zaraće, Milna, Ivan Dolac, Sveta
Nedjelja, Zavala. Between Sveta Nedjelja and Zavala the limestone walls
fall almost vertically (the stretch locally called Plaža). East of Hvar
Town the “Red Rocks” (Crvene stijene) show tilted limestone beds
standing on edge.
The north is lower, more dissected, with longer
inlets: Stari Grad Bay (one of the deepest and most sheltered on the
island), the Vrboska inlet, and Jelsa’s harbour. Small islets such as
Zečevo sit off this shore.
Beaches are mostly pebble or rock
platforms rather than sand. The island’s extreme length means a true
longitudinal road from Hvar Town to Sućuraj is about 84 km.
Surrounding islets
Two groups complete the Hvar “archipelago.”
The
Pakleni Islands (Pakleni / Paklinski otoci, locally Škoji) lie
immediately southwest of Hvar Town. They form a low limestone chain
about 10 km long, total area a little over 7 km², highest point Vela
Glava at 94 m on Sveti Klement, the largest islet. Pine (Aleppo and
black pine) covers much of the chain. Named islands include Sveti
Klement, Marinkovac, Jerolim, Vodnjak Veli and Mali, Paržanj, Travna and
others. Palmižana on Sveti Klement is the main marina. The name comes
from paklina, the pine resin once collected here.
Šćedro lies off the
mid-south coast. Area is about 7.5-8.5 km². It is greener and
botanically richer than much of the main island, with a more sheltered
microclimate.
Smaller rocks include the Lukavci, Galešnik at the
mouth of Hvar harbour, and Pokonji Dol.
Climate
Hvar has a
hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa). It is routinely listed
among the sunniest places in Europe. Hvar Town records about 2,700-2,800
hours of sunshine a year (roughly 7.7 hours a day on average). Mean
annual temperature is around 16 °C. January averages about 8.4 °C;
July-August around 24.5-25 °C. Frost and snow are rare at the coast.
Annual precipitation is typically 700-800 mm, with a July minimum
(around 20 mm) and a November peak (around 100 mm). Summers are dry
under subtropical high pressure; winters are mild and wetter, though
bora and other cold outbreaks do occur. Relative humidity stays fairly
high (mid-60s percent even in summer). The ridge creates a modest
rain-shadow and temperature contrast between the exposed south and the
more enclosed north.
Water, soils and vegetation
There are no
permanent rivers or lakes. Fresh water appears as karst springs and
historically as cisterns; the loess plain holds moisture better than the
limestone slopes. Soils are mostly brown soils and rendzinas on
limestone and dolomite, with limited agricultural value except where
loess and human terracing have built deeper profiles. About 30 percent
of the island’s soils are classed as anthropogenic from long
cultivation.
Vegetation is classic Dalmatian Mediterranean: Aleppo
and black pine woods on the slopes, maquis and garrigue (rosemary,
heather, sage), olive groves, vineyards (especially Plavac Mali on the
steep south-facing terraces around Sveta Nedjelja), figs, and the
lavender fields that made Hvar famous. The Stari Grad Plain remains a
working mosaic of vines, olives and vegetables inside the ancient Greek
grid.