Morning walk in Vrboska

My favourite time of day here is the early morning, especially in the heat of a Hvar summer. It’s fresh and cool then, the water surface is like polished glass, and we get soft lighting low from the east. What a perfect time to take the camera for a walk! The houses in the pjaca…

Kupinovik – Roman site

Kupinovik is the site of an ancient Roman villa rustica on the Stari Grad plain. It was a country house belonging to a Roman citizen in the first century AD, one Gaj Kornficiji Kar, a Decurion in Faria, who used to grow grapes and olives in the surrounding fields. Back then, it would have been…

Maslinovik

Maslinovik is an old watchtower set on a hill on the north side of the Stari Grad Plain. Built in the 4th century BC by the ancient Greek settlers, it formed part of the line of defence for the fields, running from the town of Pharos (today’s Stari Grad) to Tor, a second watchtower set…

Pathway between fields

What did the Greeks do for us?

In the 4th century BCE, the ancient Greeks settled on Hvar at the head of a long inlet where the town of Stari Grad now stands. They called it Faros. It was a prime piece of real estate, not just for the protected harbour, but the adjoining land was the only flat fertile area in…

Hvar landscape

A Crack in the Rock

Hvar is a karst landscape, made out of limestone like the rest of the coastal range from the Dolomites down to Greece. That means surface water is rare, because it dissolves minerals in the rock and finds its way underground, making caves and underground streams. On the island here, there are caves up in the…

Hvar view to Brac

The Magic Ferry

I’m convinced that the ferry to Hvar is magic! Even when it’s tipping down with rain on the mainland, drenching cold and horrible, yet within the short sail to the island, the clouds will clear and the sun comes out!