Makarska is a coastal town in the Split-Dalmatia County, located at the foot of the mountain Biokovo. It is the center of the Makarska Riviera (known as the Makarska Riviera), a micro-region that stretches from Brela in the west to Gradac in the east. Makarska with the town of Veliko Brdo has 13,834 inhabitants. Historically, Makarska is significant as the former seat of the Makarska diocese, and today's Split-Makarska archdiocese bears the Makarska name.
Name
It is believed that Makarska was named after the nearby village of Makru. There is speculation that the name Makar comes from the Phoenician name for crimson or purple (mucar). In support of this theory is the fact that the port of Makarska is rich in volchima, a type of snail from which the Phoenicians produced the color after which they are named.
Franciscan monastery
Makarska co-cathedral of St. Brand
Makarska City Music, founded in 1826.
The folklore ensemble "Tempet"
participates in all cultural events on the Makarska Riviera and nurtures
the traditions and customs of the Makarska coast.
Antun Gojak City
Gallery
City Museum
Institute of Mountains and Sea at the
Franciscan Monastery
Malacological museum at the Franciscan monastery
The patron saint of the city of Makarska and the diocese of Makarska is
Saint Clement.
In Makarska, the weekly Makarska kronika and
Makarsko Primorje are published, which deal with local topics of the
Makarska Riviera, Zabiokovlje and the island.
The band Zbunjeni
comes from Makarska.
Since 2019, Makarska has been twinned with
the Italian municipality of Nocera Inferiore.
Since January 12,
1992, Radio Makarska Riviera has been broadcasting in the city on
the frequencies 97.6 MHz and 98.4 MHz.
Vepric sanctuary
Makarska co-cathedral of St. Brand
Biokovo
Nature Park
Franciscan Monastery and its Malacological Museum
Baroque fountain on Kačić Square
Napoleon's monument
Monument to
anti-fascists killed in the Second World War
Monument to fra Andrija
Kačić Miošić
Biokovo Botanical Garden Kotišina
Kalalarga Street
Osejava forest park and Nugal beach
Observatory
St. Peter
Peninsula
Sundial (award for the best tourist place in a survey by
Radio Zagreb in 1951)
Church of St. Ante in Kotišina, protected
cultural property
Church of St. Andrije in Kotišina, protected
cultural property
Church of St. Petra, a protected cultural asset
House Miličić, protected cultural property
House at Rendićeva 4,
protected cultural property
House Vuković at Kalalarga 8, a protected
cultural property
House Vuković at Kalalarga 10, a protected cultural
property
The tower on Zelenka, a protected cultural property
Makarska occupies a lasting place in Dalmatian church history. It
was once the seat of the Diocese of Makarska, first recorded at the
Synod of Salona on 4 May 533, when a bishop of Muccurum (also
written Macrum) is named in the acts. The see was later suppressed,
restored, and in 1828 united with Split. That union still lives in
the official title of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Split-Makarska, elevated to metropolitan rank in 1969. The baroque
co-cathedral of St. Mark on Kačić Square, begun around 1700 under
Bishop Nikola Bijanković and finished in the mid-18th century,
remains the most visible reminder of that episcopal past. Relics of
St. Clement, the town's patron, were brought from the Roman
catacombs in 1725.
The modern name is usually linked to the older
hill village of Makar (or Makru), which sits above the present town
near the site of the ancient settlement. The first known inhabitants
of the bay were Illyrians, most often associated with the Delmatae.
They established a settlement called Muccurum, commonly dated to the
4th century BC, at the foot of Biokovo and on the peninsula of St.
Peter. In Roman times the place appears as a port (sometimes listed
as Inaronia on the Tabula Peutingeriana) and as Muccurum or Macrum.
After the empire split, the settlement belonged to the eastern half.
In 548 Ostrogothic forces under Totila destroyed Muccurum, though
archaeology on St. Peter suggests some continuity rather than total
abandonment.
In the early Middle Ages the stretch of coast
between the Cetina and Neretva became part of the Narentine
principality, also called Pagania or Krajina. Slavic sources list
Mokro or Mucules among its fortified places. On 18 September 887 a
naval battle was fought off Makarska (the sources also call the site
Mucules) between the Republic of Venice and the Narentines. Doge
Pietro I Candiano led twelve large ships; after an earlier Venetian
success that destroyed five Narentine vessels, the Narentines,
associated in Croatian tradition with Prince Branimir, won a
decisive victory. The doge was killed. Venice was forced to pay
tribute for safe passage on the Adriatic for a long period. The date
is now marked as Croatian Navy Day, and Makarska still commemorates
the battle with reenactments and ceremonies.
The form "Makarska"
appears in writing in the early 16th century, during Ottoman
expansion. The Turks took the littoral around 1499. They kept a
garrison and an imperial tax collector in the town and ringed it
with walls and towers. After Ottoman rule ended in the late 17th
century, Makarska passed to Venice. The Franciscans, already present
from the late 15th century, rebuilt their monastery of St. Mary
after wartime destruction. Venetian engineers later helped shape the
baroque cathedral and the compact urban core around today's Kačić
Square and Kalalarga.
When Venice fell in 1797, Habsburg troops
entered the town. French forces arrived on 8 March 1806 and stayed
until 1813. Napoleon made Makarska the center of one of four
Dalmatian districts. His administration encouraged schools, culture,
and road-building that tied the town more tightly to the rest of the
coast. At the western entrance stands the so-called Napoleon
Monument, an obelisk raised in honor of Marshal Auguste de Marmont.
After Napoleon's defeat the Congress of Vienna returned the coast to
Austria, later Austria-Hungary, which held it until 1918.
French
rule left roads and an administrative imprint. The tourist boom that
still defines Makarska, however, took shape under Austria-Hungary.
Hotels began to appear in the early 20th century (the first is
usually dated to 1914), steamship links improved, and the
combination of Biokovo, long pebble beaches, and a sheltered harbor
turned the former garrison town into the heart of the Makarska
Riviera. The 18th-century traveler Alberto Fortis had once claimed
the place had almost no visible antiquities; later rebuilding, the
cathedral, the Franciscan monastery (now also home to a noted shell
museum), St. Peter peninsula, and the mountain backdrop filled that
gap and made the town a recognizable destination.
Located at the foot of the Biokovo mountain. It is the center of the
Makarska coast (known as the Makarska Riviera), a microregion that
stretches from Brel in the west to Gradac in the east. Makarska with the
Veliko Brdo township has 13,834 inhabitants.
Makarska is in
southern Dalmatia, at the junction of Biokovo and the Adriatic Sea. It
is located at 43° 17' 38" north latitude and 17° 1' 20" east longitude.
The city of Makarska occupies a central position in the Makarska
littoral, not only because of its geographical location, but primarily
because of the economic and social factors that made that city the
second largest economic and demographic backbone of central Dalmatia
(right after Split), which is why the Makarska littoral was recently
time is increasingly using the name Makarska riviera.
The city is
sharply separated from the interior by the mountain Biokovo (the highest
peak of St. Jura, 1,762 m), and it is connected to the central Dalmatian
islands of Brač and Hvar by the Adriatic Sea, which modeled some of the
most beautiful Croatian beaches on the Makarska coast.
The city
itself is located in a natural harbor between two peninsulas, Osejava
and Sv. Petra. The flysch zone between the mountain and the sea is only
a few kilometers wide, so the further expansion of the city goes east
and west, that is, towards the neighboring settlements of Tučepi and
Krvavica.
Climate
Makarska has a Mediterranean climate. In summer, daytime temperatures are around 30°C, often around 35°C, and nighttime around 25°C. Winter temperatures are mostly from 10 to 15 during the day, and from 6 to 10°C at night. Makarska is one of the warmest cities in Croatia. The average annual air temperature in 2018 at the DHMZ meteorological station Makarska was 18.9°C.
Administration and politics
By its structure, Makarska is a city. Members of the city council are
elected in local elections. The current Mayor is Zoran Paunović, (SDP).
The members of the City Council 2017-2021 were:
Marko Ožić Bebek
(HDZ) (president), Jagoda Martić (SDP) (vice-president), Ivan Perić
(HSLS) (vice-president), and members: Marko Raos, Marija Lelas, Miro
Mucić, Ivan Kotarac, Daniela Primorac, Neven Vranješ from HDZ , Tonći
Bilić, Sretan Glavičić and Gordana Muhtić from (SDP), Josip Paunović
(HNS), Milan Grbavac (HSU), Hloverka Novak Srzić (HSLS), Ivan Šimić
(Living Wall) and Siniša Srzić (Candidacy list of the voter group)
Elections
Elections 2017. Year
HDZ won the most votes. Jure Brkan was
elected mayor.
Elections 2013. Year
SDP won the most votes.
Tonči Bilić was elected mayor.
Elections 2005. Year
SDP won
the most votes. Siniša Srzić (independent candidate) was elected mayor.
According to the coalition agreement, Dragan Srzić (SDP) was
supposed to take over the position of mayor after half of the mandate,
but this did not happen due to the transfer of councilor Siniša Srzić
(independent candidate) to HSLS.
On May 17, 2007, a session of
the City Council was convened by the Central State Office for
Administration, and the agenda included the dismissal of the previous
mayor and the appointment of a new one.
Dr. Marko Ožić Bebek
(HDZ) was appointed mayor of the city.
Economy
The main economic activity of Makarska, as well as the entire region, is tourism. A large number of beds in hotels and private accommodation are available to tourists.
Demography
Census 2011
According to the 2011 census, the city of Makarska has
13,834 inhabitants. The majority of the population are Croats with
95.43%, and the religiously determined majority of 84.41% are members of
the Catholic faith.
Census 2001
According to the 2001 census,
Makarska has 13,381 inhabitants, and with the urban settlement of Veliki
Brdo, 13,716 inhabitants.
Celebrities
Alen Bokšić, former Croatian football player. He was one of the best
strikers in the world in the 1990s. He was a member of the professional
staff of the Croatian national football team
Petar Kaer, Croatian.
educator, artist, scientist, archaeologist, Roman Catholic priest,
collector and recorder of national treasures
Grozdan Knežević,
Croatian architect, born in 1928
Žanamari Lalić, Croatian. singer
Andrija Liepopili, Croatian priest, politician, journalist and publicist
Ante Lulić, provincial of the Franciscan province of the Holy Redeemer,
general definer of the Franciscan order and general visitor of the
Franciscan provinces in Dalmatia and Italy, church historian, fighter
for Croatian culture
Mirando Mrsić, Croatian doctor, hematologist,
university professor and politician. Former Minister of Labor and
Pension System, Member of Parliament.
Vjekoslav Cezar Pavišić (Luigi
Cesare Pavissich) (1823 – 1905), Croatian. teacher and writer, priest,
author of language manuals
Iva Visković, Croatian. theater,
television and film actress
Ivan Cvitanušić, Croatian. philosopher,
novelist, comparatist, historian
Dražen Lalić, Croatian. sociologist
Vinko Garmaz, Croatian. filmmaker, pioneer of local television, film
pedagogue
Ivo Raffanelli, commander of the Croatian Navy
Sport
Athletic Club "Sveti Marko"
Badminton club "Arka"
Cycling club
"Makarska"
Bocce Club "Makarska"
Sailing club "Bura"
Windsurfing Club "Jedro"
Judo club "Biokovo"
Kickboxing club
"Mawashi"
Basketball club "Amfora"
Bowling club "Biokovo"
Model
club "Sveti Petar"
Minor football club "Novo vrijeme"
Workers'
football club "Zmaj"
Volleyball club "Makarska"
Speleological
mountaineering club "Extrem"
Croatian Mountaineering Association
"Biokovo"
Sports dance club "Briljantin"
Rugby Club "Makarska
Riviera"
Maritime Sport Fishing Association "Arbun"
Handball club
"Kingtrade"
Women's handball club "Makarska"
Chess Club "Makarska"
Tennis club "Makarska"
Fire polo club "Galeb"
Rowing club
"Biokovo"
Association of small football Makarska, which organizes:
Minor football league Makarska
League of veterans of small football
Makarska
League cup UMN Makarska
Makarska Small Football Veterans'
Cup
Memorial mini-football tournament "Kobac" has been held since
1996.
In 1998, a WTA Tier IV tournament called the Makarska
International Championship was held. From 2022, the WTA125 tournament
Makarska Open will be held.
The mountain race Makarska - Vošac
has been held since 2007.
Education
Elementary schools
Father Petar Perica's elementary school
Stjepan Ivičević Elementary School
Primary music school
High
schools
technical school
Andrija Kačić Miošić Secondary School
Secondary music school
Interesting things
The average height of seventeen-year-olds in Makarska, according to research from the beginning of 2019, is 187.6 cm. Thus, Makarska is the city with the highest average height of its inhabitants in the world.