Stari Grad

Stari Grad on Hvar developed on the site of the Greek colony of Pharos, founded in the 4th century BC, and belongs among the oldest urban settlements on the eastern Adriatic. In the centre stands Tvrdalj, the fortified Renaissance residence of poet Petar Hektorović with its fishpond and garden, while St Stephen’s Square, the Dominican monastery and St Roch’s Church preserve later historic layers. Behind the town stretches the Stari Grad Plain, a cultural landscape inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008. Its geometric land-division system dates from Greek colonisation and has survived for more than two millennia through dry-stone boundaries and paths. Grapes and olives remain important crops, so the UNESCO status concerns a living agricultural landscape rather than a field of ruins. Stari Grad is also one of Hvar’s main ferry ports and often provides travellers with their first introduction to the island. Archaeological remains of ancient Pharos add another visible layer beside the modern town.

Stari Grad occupies the head of a deep bay on Hvar’s northern coast, where the waterfront and stone lanes meet the fertile plain extending towards Vrboska and Jelsa. This relationship between harbour, town and cultivated landscape sets it apart from Hvar Town on the island’s southern side. UNESCO inscribed the Stari Grad Plain in 2008 because its Greek land division, established in the fourth century BC, remains legible. Vineyards, olive groves, dry-stone walls and small stone shelters preserve some 2,400 years of agricultural continuity. Stari Grad is therefore best experienced as three connected places: a walkable historic centre, a sheltered bay for swimming and a rural cultural landscape suited to cycling.