Stari Grad

Stari Grad is Pharos, founded by settlers from Paros in 384 BC at the head of a long inlet, and it is generally counted the oldest town in Croatia on the basis of continuous occupation from that date. At its centre is the Tvrdalj, the fortified house the poet Petar Hektorovic built for himself through the sixteenth century, with a walled fish pond at its heart, a dovecote, and inscriptions in Latin, Croatian and Italian carved into the walls - a building meant as a refuge for the town in a raid and as a working statement of its owner's ideas. The car ferry from Split lands here, so many arrivals to Hvar start in this town.

History

Neolithic people of the Hvar culture lived here between 3500 and 2500 BC and traded around the Mediterranean, and the Illyrians who followed held two strongholds on the hills above the harbour, Glavica and Purkin Kuk. In 384 BC Greeks from the island of Paros founded the town as Faros, an independent city with its own coinage, and laid out the plain behind it in a grid of roads and fields of standard size, one of the best-preserved examples of Greek farmland in the Mediterranean. The Illyrian king Agron brought it under his rule around 250-231 BC; the Romans defeated the Illyrians at Pharos in 218 BC and destroyed the town, and took it for good in 168 BC. A 2nd-century BC inscription records an embassy from Pharos to Paros and to the oracle at Delphi. The first church was built in the 5th century on the foundations of a Greek house, and in the 6th a twin basilica of St Mary and St John replaced it. People from Salona settled here after the fall of their city in the 7th century; the Slavs took the town early in the 8th, giving it the name Hvar, and in 1278 the islanders put themselves under the protection of Venice (Wikipedia, Stari Grad, Croatia).

The main sights

• Pharos, founded 384 BC - the oldest town in Croatia by continuous occupation.
• Hektorovic's Tvrdalj - a fortified house around a walled fish pond.
• Inscriptions in three languages - carved into its walls.
• The Split car ferry port - the island's main vehicle arrival.

When to go

May to September. Half a day.

Things to know

The Tvrdalj keeps seasonal hours and closes in winter. The town is much quieter than Hvar town, which some visitors read as dull. Ferry arrivals make it busy in bursts. Beaches nearby are stone.

Nearby

The Greek field grid runs inland behind the town; Hvar town is over the ridge.

Key facts