The Town Of Stari Grad

Stari Grad is located at the end of a four nautical mile long bay on the northern side of the island of Hvar.
The fields used to provide sustenance and the bay provided protection. Today, both the fields and the bay add an attractive quality to the old heart of the island, in which the modern vacation sights have become intertwined with the antiquities of the town and of the island.

Stari grad, the oldest town on the island and one of the first in Europe, was founded by the ancient Greeks in 385/384 BC as an independent polis of Pharos. At the time of the Roman colonisation it was called Pharis. From the formation of the Hvar commune in 1278, when Hvar (Civitas Nova) became the island's chief town, Stari Grad (Civitas Vetus) stagnated somewhat.

The Greek town remained buried under the present day Stari Grad and only some fragmental architectural remains indicate its original lay-out, such as some parts of the 11 metre long Greek Walls, the so-called Cyclopean Walls, in the Tadic-Gramatorovi wine cellar. These walls are a part of the north city wall, while the east walls are just visible behind the church of (St. John). The stone blocks from the City Walls were incorporated into the foundations of the bell tower indicates that this was the very place where the main entrance of the town was. The inscription reads:

DEDURUNT HVIVIS PRIMORDIA MOLIS DE MOENIBUS URBIS RELIQUIAE ET DEDERAT GRESSUM IN URBEM JANUA...

The Roman town grew up around the perimeter of the Greek one. Thus, there are two preserved Roman mosaics under the pavement in the present-day Sridnja ulica (Middle Street), and there was a Roman bath under the church of Sv. Roko.

The medieval settlement grew up north of the Greek one and by the coast on the east. But there was nonetheless no change in the previously mentioned political and economic stagnation of the town in the 13th century. The architecture of the town, however, was not affected. Although the majority of the buildings were built in the 16th and 17th centuries, i.e. the Renaissance and baroque style are dominant in the city centre, there are many buildings with Romanesque and Gothic traces.

Tvrdalj

Tvrdalj is the fortified mansion of Petar Hektorovic, the poet (1487-1572). Hektorovic is the author of the first realistic epic poem of Croatian Renaissance literature "Ribanje i ribarsko prigovaranje" ("Conversations about fishing"). His tvrdalj is the central patrician building of the town. The design of the mansion was the poet's own idea, and just as he made a distinctive and realistic impact on Croatian Renaissance literature, he also made an impact on Stari Grad and the architecture of the town. Tvrdalj is a monumental Renaissance creation with a long closed facade facing the sea, showing the influence of the defensive architecture of Neretva. The true splendour of the Renaissance style is displayed in the interior. The centrepiece of the building is the fishpool, enclosed by a vaulted and arcaded terrace. Next to it is an elegant tower with a dovecote. The living quarters, the domestic area and the servant quarters, with several wells, are arranged around the fishpool. There is also a walled-in Renaissance garden where Hektorovic cultivated, with great love, not only Mediterranean plants, but some exotic ones as well, there are a series of inscriptions set into walls of the mansion in Latin and Croatian, which reveal the highly reflective and human side of the poet's character. The Croatian inscriptions are considered to be some of the oldest of those extant.

PETRVS HECTOREVS MARINI FILIVS
PROPRIO SVMPTV ET INDVSTRIA
AD SVVM ET AMICOR, VSVM CONSTRVXIT

(Petar Hektorovic, the son of Marin, built this at his own expense and by his own zeal, for his own and his friend's use).

Hektorovic built the mansion, as he himself says, to accommodate himself and his friends, but also as a stronghold which could shelter, in case of a Turk invasion of the island, his family and all the citizens.

Although Hektorovic was a member of one of the oldest noble families on the island, he was closely bound through his humanism to his country, and to his fellow man, the peasant and the fisherman.

There is the Ethnographic collection of the island of Hvar in one Wing of Tvrdalj belonging to the Centre for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage.

The square of Skor

One of the most harmonious areas of the town is the Skor square and the group of buildings around it. The Politeo house from the 17th century, the Bucic-Machiedo house and the Renaissance Vrankovic-Caric house in Ploca (a part of the town) are worth mentioning. The mansion of the poet Hanibal Lucic is preserved only in some courtyard parts.

The church of Sv. Ivan

One of the oldest and most important monuments of Stari Grad is the church of Sv. Ivan (St. John), formerly Sv. Marija (St. Mary). This is the oldest cultural centre on the island; it has been in use continually from ancient times. It is a double church which was, from the founding of the bishopric in 1147, the centre for the bishops. Although it is mentioned in the documents in 1332, its architectural structure indicates its earlier origin. The church shows Romanesque and Gothic influence of the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1957, beside this church, an early Christian baptistery (6th-7th century) in the form of a Greek cross was found. This has now been covered over again for preservation reasons until the site can be opened for viewing.