Starigrad, an ancient city on the island of Hvar (travel post) / Starigrad, drevni grad na otoku Hvaru (putopis)

Literally translated Starigrad means Old Town. The name is indeed appropriate for it is the oldest city in Croatia. In fact, it is one of the oldest cities in Europe. It is protected by UNESCO. The town was ( formally) founded by the ancient Greeks  from the island of Paros  in 384 BC. In the Italian language it is known as Cittàvecchia. he etymology of the island is very interesting and I have written many papers on the subject but for now I'll just say that the original name the Greeks gave to Starigrad was  Faros(Greek: ΦAPOΣ). 

The Greeks were not the first people that had lived there( the neolithic tribes lived there between 3500 and 2500 BC)  but they were the first who had formed a city.  As you know, the culture and cities of the ancient Greeks are quite famous. I'm not sure how familiar with the history of the Adriatic you are, but long story short, the ancient Romans took the city from the Greeks and we (Croats) took it from the Romans when we settled in these areas in the 8th century. During history it was at times under the Italian (often Venetian) rule. In the 16 century it was attacked twice by the Turks and parts of the city were burned in the second attack. Those parts were slowly rebuild in the following centuries and the town has grown very prosperous because of the sea trade.

 As the name would imply, the city does have such an interesting and long history and if you visit you will feel a taste of it for sure. In any Mediterranean country or in any port I always have that feeling of history and I cannot help but imagine what life has been before... I've read historical records that speak of how vibrant, multicultural and multilingual all of these old Mediterranean ports used to be.


A sada na naški;) Starigrad na Hvaru  je najstariji grad u Hrvatskoj, ali i jedan od najstarijih gradova u Europi, tako da je ime posve prigodno. Zaštićen je od strane UNESCO-a. Godina osnutka grada je 384 prije Krista, a osnovali su ga stari Grci koju su doplovili sa otoka Farosa, pa su i ime slično dali ovom gradu. (Etimologija Hvara i svih mjesta na njemu je jako zanimljiva, pisala sam više radova na tu temu, ali o tome neki drugi put. )

Grci naravno nisu prvi ljudi koji su tu živjeli, cijeli otok je poznat po nalazištima praljudi, pa je bilo naselja tu još u davnim vremenima (o kojima se tako malo zna), a zna se da su bila neolitička plemena čak od 3500 do 2500 godina prije Krista. No, Grci su prvi koji su službeno osnovali grad, prije njih su bila naselja. Stari Grci bili su poznati po svojim gradovima i kulturi.  Koliko je tko poznat sa povješću Jadrana nije ni bitno, samo da ukratko kažem da su grad od Grka oteli Rimljani (Rimsko carstvo), a tijekom povijesti bio je često pod talijanskom (Mletačkom) vlašću. U šestanestom stoljeću napali su ga Turci dvaput, a u zadnjem napadu spaljen je dio grada. U naredna dva stoljeća taj se dio ponovo polako izgrađivao i grad  napredovaše zbog trgovine morem. 

Tako, grad ima jako zanimljivu povijest, a u svakom mediteranskom gradu ili mjestu na moru, ja uvijek imam taj neki osjećaj osjećaj povijesti i pitam se kakav im je bio život. Čitala sam povijesne izvore o tome kako su ove luke bile bogate kulturom i jezicima raznih naroda.