Page 19 - Discovering Hvar

The large plain occupies the island’s central area. Its name kept changing with the suc-
cessive arrival of new masters. First known by the Greeks as Χωρα Φapoυ (Chōra Pharu),
it became Ager Pharensis in Roman times, to be replaced by the medieval name of
Campus Sancti Stephani (the Field of St. Stephen). It is now known as Stari Grad Plain.

It has sustained the life on the island for thousands of years.
The Plain is in fact a cultured landscape, formed by thousands of years of human labour.
Its ancient man-made features originate from 24 centuries ago when Greek colonists
divided the Plain into rectangular plots of 1 x 5 stadia, (ca. 180 x 900 m), each fenced in
with drywall. The Plain was crisscrossed with major roads cutting through it in regular
longitudinal and transversal directions. Today we can identify the point in the Plain,
located at a road intersection, from which the Greek surveyor began his measuring.

The point is situated near Dračevica, a pond in the Plain. The name of one of the large
plot owners from Greek times is known. Mathios, (son) of Pitheas, had his name carved
into the boundary stone, now kept in the Museum of Archaeology in Zagreb. In the
area of Kupinovik, below Dol, the land was first owned by Komon, (son of) Filoksenido,
and later by a Roman, Gaius Cornificius Carus, town councillor of Pharia who built
there a large manor house. Remains of dozens of villae rusticae were found in the Plain.
In the course of the long Roman Peace the Plain was a well-organised system of
large and wealthy estates with numerous prosperous farm holdings.
In the Middle Ages the Plain continued to be farmed. The Statute of Hvar from 1331

speaks of an ancient road (via antiqua) running through the Field of St. Stephen. The
roads remained in use thanks to the continuous farming. From the Middle Ages onwards,
the large land holdings were cut up into smaller plots, with the present-day bounda-
ries inside the great ancient estates standing witness to the changes and centuries gone
by. The Statute recorded the Slav-descended vineyard owners. Boljša, Desislav, Gojmir,
Grdoš, Grubša, Hranko, Hvališa, Premil, Prvoš, Vltoš, Vukodrug, etc., prove that Slavs took over
completely the Roman Pharia, making Hvar a truly Croatian island in the Middle Ages. Stari Grad, remains of the

The oldest villages on the island of Hvar lie at the Plain’s southern edges. Dol Sv. Marije city wall, the fortification of
Pharos, and Hellenistic houses
and Dol Sv. Barbare are situated in the fertile valleys and brought together by the par- from the 4th century B.C.
ish church of St. Michael the Archangel on the hill. Vrbanj was the home to folk leader Once 3 m wide and 6 m high,
the walls safeguarded the
Matija Ivanić. On the Plain’s east rim lies Vrboska, built in the 15th century as Vrbanj’s city throughout the thousand
port. On the north-facing hills are nameless scatterings of houses, in fact hamlets in- years of Antiquity.
habited temporarily by people of Vrbanj working the land or grazing their livestock.
For centuries, Stari Grad Plain has been covered with vineyards, and in the course of
Antiquity and the Middle Ages people also grew wheat. Fig trees grew at plots’ edges
and in less fertile zones. Almond trees were planted nearer to the settlements, almost

touching the gardens. Olive groves, then as today, covered the low hills surrounding
the Plain. Carob trees grew among the olive trees. Still higher lay, until quite recently,
terraced fields of lavender. Now, Aleppo pines are slowly taking over the terrace land
and gradually descending to the edges of the settlements.

Discovering Hvar 17