Page 11 - Discovering Hvar

until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797. It was a document according to which
Hvar’s noble families were appointed to rule the Municipality. In early 14th century
began the construction of the city walls and the Arsenal – a safe shelter from Venetian
galleys. From 1358 Hvar was ruled intermittently by the Genovese, Bosnian and Croatian-

Hungarian kings who were succeeded by the Venetians when they took over the island
in 1420 for the second time and this time remained in it for almost four centuries.
Venice left indelible marks on the island. Under the wings of the Venetian lion flour-
ished the architecture of Gothic palaces in the city of Hvar, the island’s administrative
centre and the wintering harbour for the Venetian light fleet. The culture flourished
too. In the exulted speech from 1525 on the glory of the Slavs, Dominican Vinko
Pribojević legitimately celebrated the island’s riches and its learned people, who were

among the first to begin writing the Renaissance national literature. Poet Hanibal Lucić
(1485-1553) wrote some of the best love poems in Croatia’s older literature and the
first secular play, Robinja (The Slave). The wise poet, Petar Hektorović (1487-1572), com-
posed his epic poem Fishing and Fishermen’s Conversations, recording in it, for the
first time in Croatia’s history, folk songs and their melodies sung during a fishing trip
by his companions, Paskoj and Nikola, fishermen from Stari Grad. These poets of no-
ble extraction were also interested in architecture. Lucić built his summer villa in Hvar
and Hektorović built his in Stari Grad, both structures following in the footsteps of the
revived tradition of Antiquity.

This splendid century of Hvar’s history was nevertheless ridden with conflict and wars.
Matij Ivanić, folk leader of Vrbanj, led a four-year-long uprising (1510-1514) against the
nobles that was cruelly subdued in blood by the Venetians. In this century Turkish
armies attacked the island on two separate occasions. The first pillage occurred in
1539, followed by a second, even more devastating, in 1571, on the eve of the Battle
of Lepanto in which a galley from Hvar also participated. To fight the fear of this
permanent threat and insecurity, fortified churches were built in Vrboska and Jelsa, as

was the fortified Dominican monastery and Hektorović’s summer manor in Stari Grad.
Despite the diminishing power of the Serenissima in the 17th century, some of Hvar’s
loveliest buildings were erected in that century. The Arsenal’s upper storey began to be
Chōra – Ager – Polje (Field)
used for theatre performances (first city theatre in the south-east of Europe). The Loggia
was built and so was Hvar’s cathedral facade. On the foundations of the old Stari Grad
cathedral, the new church of St. Stephen was erected. A real pearl of architectural
achievement is the church of St. John built at Jelsa.
During the Candian War (1645-1669), fought between Venice and the Turkish Empire for
the island of Crete, new population fleeing from Makarska Littoral and its mainland

interior colonised the island. The new colonists settled for the most part the east, then
less densely populated part of the island. The new people were to become part of Ven-
ice’s military force and were for this reason exempted from taxation. The fear of los-
ing their privileges kept the newcomers at bay from the natives, which resulted in the

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