Stari Grad

Stari Grad, Hvar

Stari Grad (Pharos) is the oldest town in Croatia. The same year - 384 b.c. when greek philoshoper Aristotel was born in Trakia, the greeks from the island of Paros in Agean sea have settled the town on the island of Hvar, and named it Pharos.

Stari Grad (eng. "old town") is historical heart of the island of Hvar. The town is situated in a landscape where the blue of the deep bay touches the green of the wide an famous field of Pharos, with vineyards and olive-groves. The fields used to provide sustenance and the bay provided protection.
Today, both the fields and the bay add an attractive quality to the island, in which the modern vacation sights have become intertwined with the antiquities of the town and of the island.

Because of its position in the middle of the Hvar island, for centuries Stari Grad was a safe harbour to sailors, which have been welcomed by town inhabitants on harbour promenade. Stari Grad bay is still regulary visited by most of the travellers on boats passing trough middle Dalmatia.

The town is surrounded with pine tree forest and cooled with summer breeze (maestral). In the hot summer days it is one of the rare Dalmatian places where the air is fresh and the sleep refreshing. A thousand years long history of the Town has left many monuments in the urban structure of the Town.

A walk through the Stari Grad center, narrow streets and small squares brings the whisperings of the past times. The rooms and apartments in private houses in Stari Grad are mostly situated on the north part of the Stari Grad bay, under the small Glavice hill.

Lately, the old stone houses have been renewed by inhabitants, and offered for rent which proved to be successful symbiosis of past time spirit and modern facilities.

At the south side of the bay there are buildings from Austo -Hungarian times, and behind them are situated separate houses with gardens.

Still forward to the Stari Grad ferry station, between old town and city beach Lanterna, there is residential area "Boric" with more then 30% of Stari Grad accommodation facilities. The area is surrounded by pine trees and it is just 100 m from the Lanterna beach.

The bay and the field contributed over the centuries with its fruit to the wealth and the attraction of Stari Grad. In this unique town modern tourist facilities stimulate together with the historical an cultural heritage the fantasy, which calls to be discovered.