The island of Hvar is compact unit with plenty of contrasts, beautiful and inseparable in all its varieties. I hesitate to write something about it because I wonder if there is any sense to explore this exceptional island only by means of maps, photographs and words. I am aware that the only way to experience the Hvar island is to stay on it. There are a lot of particularities of Hvar that you will not find in this text or in any other text. Diversity of sceneries, inhabited since ancient times, rich in history, fashonable resort, desert of fragrant flowers are only some of the attributes of this island usually described by using superlatives.
The coastline of Hvar has more coves than any other Adriatic island. Opposite the town of Hvar there is a beautiful archipelago called Paklinski islands. Thanks to Paklinski island as well as some other small islands and rocks in its vicinity, Hvar contributes considerably to Croatian nautical tourism. In the hidden coves of the island there are numerous pebble and stony beaches. Besides being ideal for sunbathing, the rocks on the northern shore of the island also keep the secret about his geological past.
About a hundred years ago a lot of fossils of sea fish and lizards from Cretaceous were discovered on the flat pieces of stone which were collected for covering roofs of various buildings. The fossils have finished up partially in private collections of wealthy islanders, partially in churches; many of them are also exhibited in museums in Zagreb, London, Munich, Trieste, Vienna. A lot of houses are still covered by pieces of stone with fossil imprints. It is, at the same time, confusing and amazing to be aware that many roofs on the island of Hvar contain valuable geological remains.
In 2004 an expedition of Canadian and Croatian palaeontologists and geologists, led by Dr Michael Coldwell and financially supported by National Geographic, was looking for fossil remains of prehistoric sea snakes and lizards. According to the study Gorjanovic- Kramberger from Croatian National Museum their traces had been discovered more than a hundred years ago. The repeated search for fossil traces of Aigialosauros Dalmaticus Kramberger-Cenomanian mosasauroid lizards was not successfull, however the foot-prints of three donosauros were discovered.
These traces belong to long-necked giant dinosauros, the last of giant sauropodus, magnificient titanosauros. That was the first time that the existence of a trail of dinosauros footprints was proved on the present day Dalmatian coast and islands, or ancient Tethys sea. 90 million years old dinosauros footprints represent one of the unsufficiently explored assets of the island of Hvar. So, if you wish to go for a swim in this part of the island, it's quite likely that you come across fossil imprints or some bigger remains with strange shapes.
The area where the traces of dinosauros were discovered is situated in the northen part of the island, not far from the Field of Stari Grad (Velo polje).
The Field of Stari Grad, that covers an area of 1200 ha, is devided into rectangles of 905x181m. These rectangles are noticed the best on satellite pictures, but those are not traces of an extraterrestial civilisation, these rectangles made of dry-stone walls represent the best preserved ancient Greek land parcel system. Chora of Pharos is located in the largest fertile field on the Croatian islands. In the Field of Stari Grad there are a lot of archeological remains from neolithic period as well as Illirian, Greek and Roman times. Thanks to the abundance of red fertile land, created by erosion of limestone, vine, olive and lavander are grown in this field. The best preserved ancient Greek land parcel system, protected by UNESCO, is surrounded by hills (higher hills on the southern edge of the field and lower ones on the northen boundery) and overlooked by the highest point of the island - Saint Nicholas.
The mount Saint Nicholas, 628 m above sea level, affords a spectacular panoramic view that you'll never forget. From this point you can admire a big part of the island of Hvar as well as the surrounding islands . There's nowhere else on our islands a viewpoint that allows you to see such a wide area as it is the case here. Those who already had the opportunity to climb to the highest peaks of some other Croatian islands will certainly appreciate the advantages of Saint Nicholas.
At the foot of Saint Nicholas, in the southern part of the island, there's village Sveta Nedjelja. Well known wine producer Zlatan Plenkovic from Sveta Nedjelja keeps a part of his wine production in an unusual place-in the tunnel situated at an altitude of 450 m with permanent temperature of 12 degrees Celsius; another part of his wine production is kept in a cellar below the surface of the sea with a window looking at underwater world. These wines are made from grape ripened in the vineyards planted on the steep hillsides. As the slopes are very steep (up to 50 degrees), labourers in these vineyards must work in semi-sitting position.
The Vineyards of Sveta Nedjelja and Ivan Dolac represent a wonderful cultivated landscape of Hvar. Cultivated or not, created by man or by nature- it does't matter, landscape of the island of Hvar is for me something the most beautiful I've ever seen on the Adriatic islands . I would like to come back to the first sentence of this text and repeat that the island of Hvar is "compact unit with plenty of contrasts, beautiful and inseparable in all its varieties". ".
Although the island of Hvar is one of the largest islands on the Adriatic sea, in comparison with many Mediterranean islands it isn't very large. It seems incredible that so many exceptional attractions can be seen on a such a small area (299 km²): Cape of Kabal, the bay of Stari Grad, Paklinski islands, Stari Grad with its Field, the system of dry-stone walls, lavander fields in the village of Brusje, the town of Hvar, vineyards in Sveta Nedjelja and Ivan Dolac, the island of Scedro, Crvene stine (Red cliffs), two coves of Zarace, Zacarbina with Poljica.
Rich flora of Hvar with more than 1000 species of flowering plants changes the colours of the island from early spring to late automn. Almost every day I bear witness to the astonishement of guests when they smell aromatic plants. Familiar with rosemary, lavander, sage and other aromatic herbs from their gardens with less sunshine , the guests don't expect so intensive smell of the same plants. On the island of Hvar these plants grow in completely natural conditions with plenty of sunshine, limited quantity of very fertile land and minimum of water.