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Published: September 24th 2020
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The island of Brac is located 15 km (representing a 50 minute ferry ride) off the coast of Split in the Adtiatic sea. To get there we had to board a Jadrolinija ferry and did this with our car. Nenad has been to Brac quite a few times with a yacht when sailing the archipelago of islands, but always stayed only in the marina of the town of Milna for an overnight stay. So he was looking forward visiting this time the island Brac, a place famous for beaches, mountain views and its marble stone quarries, besides historic sites and good restaurants of course. It's best known for the white-pebble beach Zlatni Rat (Golden Cape), a favored wind and kite surfing site outside the resort town of Bol. Our ferry cut across the calm waters of the Brac Channel swiftly to Supetar, the main town on the island of Brac. We decided to stay there and took an accommodation in Villa Vela Luka, a wonderfully renovated mansion set in a park with pine and fruit trees and a variety of bushes and flowers.
Archeological findings on Brac date back to the 12th millennium BC. More significant traces are found of
Greek settlements 4th century BC. According to ancient sayings Antenov, a hero from Troy came to Brac from Greece after the fall of Troy. He was accompanied by a shepherd Braha, farmer Silena and fisherman Elafa. Their successors and descendants have followed the same occupations through history. Life on island Brac has been based on cattle breeding, farming (agriculture) much of it wine and olive oil making and maritime professions. The rest of the history follows much of the Dalmatian coast pattern; Roman rule, Slav settlements, Venice Republic and Habsburg Empire ruling. Brac was particularly hard hit by the Black Death plague in mid 15th century. Of its 6000 inhabitants barely 2000 survived, so the Church recordings say. Brac was also a place of outward migration in the early 20th century. Many Brac descendants can be found in Chile, Argentina, but also Australia and NZ. The Croatian diaspora is estimated to about half of the countries 4.1 million population. One of the most important emigrational periods was between 1890 and 1924. This purely economic migration consisted of the surplus of its agricultural population. The most important factor especially in Dalmatia was the grapevine pest, agrarian crisis, insolvency of the peasants
Seagull or Galeb
the constant companions of Jadrolinija and simply too large families to feed. Nenad quotes a Croatian saying: "Trbuhom za kruhom" (move your stomach where the bread is). On the other hand, the intensive development of overseas countries, particularly the United States of America and later in the 20th century also Australia and Latin America, attracted young adventurers. Most of the emigrants were young males, and the most preferred destination was the USA. Dalmatians were a large part of this emigration. The second big wave came in 1945. This however was a political migration.
Today the economy of Brac is based mostly on tourism, but fishing and agriculture (especially wine and olives) are very important too, as is its precious white stone (marble), which was already 2000 years ago used in building the Diocletian's Palace in Split and later the Canadian National Vimy Memorial and partially for the White House in Washington, D.C. Historically, Brac was famous for goats, even Gaius Plinius Secundus, called Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, a naturalist and natural philosopher, a naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of emperor Vespasian, commented that from the island of Brattia (the Latin name for the island) comes
excellent cheese, wine and olive oil. So Nui and Nenad get ready for a feast.
The island of Brac has the highest lookout of the Dalmatian islands. Its name is Vidova Gora and it is 780 m high above sea level, giving wonderful views over the other island archipelagos and the mainland. The southern face descends steeply, with cliffs sloping into the sea towards the town of Bol. The northern face is a karst highland mild slope of some ten kilometers of width. This highland is for the most part covered with scarce shrubland and Mediterranean macchia and with black pinewood. This vast highland covers more than half of the island, it is entirely deserted and uninhabited, and all larger settlements, except for Nerezisce, are located on the coast. This peak we did not want to miss.
The pebble beach Zlatni Rat (Golden Horn) is a spit of land located about 2 kilometers west from the marina town of Bol on the southern coast of the island. The beach has the shape of a swan’s neck and it stretches as far as 500 m at the right angle into the sea. It is an amazing beach, because it
constantly changes its shape, position and length. These features depend on the wind direction and influence of the sea currents which constantly reshape the beach. The Golden Horn beach is a very popular destination for people who love wind and kite surfing. Usually a crowd magnate, Nui and Nenad were again lucky. Empty end empty... A dip there was a must as was a drink in the town of Bol with its cool veranda cafes.
The spooky, abandoned monastery of Blaca near the tiny town of Murvica on the Southern coast puts you back in time. But not without a sweat, as you have to climb for about 30 minutes a steep ravine to reach it (in 35 degrees as we did, a sweaty affair). Two monks built Blaca in 1551 and through time the monastic community grew, acquired bigger estates around the monastery and started cultivating olive oil and vineyards. With the additional lands and larger community of monks who traded the monastery's products to passing sailing ships, the monastery flourished. In the beginning of the 19th Century the Monastery which has been largely built into the face of the mountain rock, expanded its wealth in buildings and
infrastructure with exclusive furniture, paintings, libraries and a very large number of clocks, which showed time according to the most famous world observatories. Of the 11,000 books in the monastic library, a considerable number date to before the year 1800. The monastery was kept successfully by generations of monks and was the economic and spiritual center of this part of the Island up until 1963, when the last father, Niko Milicevic died. Blaca's memorabilia were put in museums and the monastery fell into a deep sleep.
On the Northern side of the island lies a small fishing village Pucisce. It has a great tradition of stone masonry and has the only such school in Croatia. As we wanted to visit the school the principal was busy preparing for the visit of ARTE France, a TV channel specializing in art documentaries. Despite the school being closed, he took his time to show us around and explained us its purpose. It helped that the principals mother and Nenad come from the same town in Croatia and he likes wine from this region ! This artistic spirit of sculpturing influenced the house building of this town. Pucisca is so beautiful that it
was recently awarded a price for its beautiful architecture; as an example of a superb stone community undisturbed by the scourge of modern apartment building.
The day can not end without a drive to Milna for a fish dinner with a sunset of course, observing all the sailing boats coming in to the marina for the night. Nenad was taking a deep breath, wishing to be on such a boat. However these small yachts are primarily a guys thing, as they give no privacy what so ever, something ladies, Nui included, wish to have.
And we did swimming of course. Brac has a spectacular water quality. You literally can swim and count the rocks and stones on the bottom of the sea. The dozens of blue and smaragdite colors shades invite even the water shyest person for a dip. As we stayed in a lagoon with such a prestige setting, we had to do what we usually do not do, swim and lay around for a day.
Then it was time again to take the Jadrolinia back to the mainland. But not before we ate a delicious farewell meal.
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