Stari Grad

Scientists and sportspeople, artists and tourists: the inhabitants of Stari Grad get to see almost as much as the visitors themselves. The historically significant position, the calm sea in the spacious bays, the tranquil yet lively atmosphere and, not least, their own hospitality have made Stari Grad a magnet for visitors. As a result, a few hotel complexes dominating the landscape have arisen in recent years and the harbour has been "liberated" from its rustic charm - but this is easy to overlook when you roam the weathered lanes with their rough walls or visit the creeper-clad Tvrdalj castle.

Their apparently infallible instinct for particularly beautiful locations did not deceive the ancient Greeks in the year 384 BC either, when they erected a new town at the site of today's Stari Grad. Coming from the island of Paros, they called the place "Faros" - a name that most inhabitants of Stari Grad would gladly give back to their home town. In the year 219 BC, however, the Romans destroyed the greater part of the town apart from a few sections of the cyclopean wall. The Roman architecture too unfortunately did not outlast the centuries - perhaps Christianisation was one reason, and the fact that the devout population displayed few inhibitions about tearing down "heathen" buildings. In 1147 the pious Stari Grad even advanced to become a bishop's seat, and until the year 1278 - before it moved to Hvar - the administration of the whole island also sat here. Its golden age, still visible today, Stari Grad reached in the 16th century, however: numerous town houses, the wild and romantic defensive castle and the idyllic piazzas date from that time.

After the demolition of an old temple, the citizens of Stari Grad had a Romanesque-Gothic church erected near the Cyclopean wall. The exact date of construction is unknown, but a source from 1332 mentions the building for the first time; in all likelihood it served the population not only for assemblies and devotions but was also, and above all, the city's first bishop's seat. In other respects, too, many speculations and riddles cling to the church: how could a baptismal font from the 5th century remain undiscovered until 1957? What relics from past times still lie buried in the ground around the place of worship? No wonder that every summer numerous archaeology students dig curiously behind the church to answer a few of these questions - and in between they are of course glad to devote themselves to the questions of curious onlookers.

Petar Hektorovic, the poet and observer of his time, had a pleasure and defence castle built for himself and his friends of the higher circles between 1520 and 1569. The thick walls, which are by now interspersed with plant shoots and make the defensive complex look like an enchanted fairy-tale castle, surround a courtyard, garden, arbour and fish pond. But Hektorovic by no means moved only in his elite Renaissance society: he knew and valued the life of the fishermen and farmers, became famous with his work "Fishing and Fishermen's Talk" for his apt anecdotes, and many a Croatian drinking toast goes back to the artist who was close to the people. Even if one cannot deny him a certain affectation - his quotations were engraved in several languages into the noblest stones of the castle - he was nevertheless always critical of this characteristic too (above all in others): his "si te gnosti cur superbis" (if you know yourself, why are you so vain) above the privy still makes not only Latin teachers smile to this day. Anyone wanting to form a more vivid picture of the lord of the house will find in front of the castle a statue erected in his memory. Anyone more interested in the period and the way of life in general can count the fish in the pond daily between 10 and 12 as well as 18 and 20 hours for about 2 euros and look at a small but revealing ethnographic collection, or simply - quite like the visitors of old - stroll for pleasure.

Of the Dominican monastery founded in 1482, hardly anything remained after the fires set by the Turkish army. The present building was erected in the 16th century - this time protected by a tower and with a church even more enormous than its predecessor. Anyone visiting the monastery between 9 and 13:00 or 18 and 21:00 will, however, find its sheer size merely fitting, measured against the treasures they find inside: the Tintoretto painting "The Entombment" fits tastefully into the architecture and lends the room a devotional atmosphere. Fittingly, the highly revered poet Petar Hektorović lies buried here. In the monastery a museum of sacral art bears witness to the city's past as a bishop's seat, and the archaeological museum carries visitors off into the last 2,000 years of the city's history.

As the name of the town museum already suggests, the effort here is to grasp the history of today's Stari Grad in its continuity. For while history books like to report in episodes and eras, people at all times lived perhaps with upheavals but never with sudden changes. So the visitor is shown here the Faros/Stari Grad as it appeared to its inhabitants in their respective lifetimes. Picture panels and finds tell the maritime history, and works by the region's most talented artists report on everyday life and how it changed over the centuries - contemporary artists such as Bartol Plančić are represented too.

Right on the main square, Stari Grad's first cathedral was built in 1605: the Baroque Sv. Stjepan. For the bell tower standing next to the church, the remains of the Greek Cyclopean wall were reduced still further: the foundation consists of precisely those stones. On the tower's outer façade you can see the relief of an ancient ship added in 1753, and in the church itself a baptismal font from the year 1592. Perhaps it is coincidence, or perhaps the inhabitants of Stari Grad needed a contrasting programme after their church services; in any case, right next to the city's most important place of worship stands the ancient relief with the promising name "Eros".