Hvar is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, off the Dalmatian coast.

The town of Hvar on the opposite side of the island (population 4,138 in 2001) is the site of the first public theatre in Europe, opened in 1612. The town of Stari Grad, located on the north part of the island (population 2,817 in 2001) was the site of one of the first human settlements on the Adriatic islands during antiquity. Plame, the eastern part of the island, is a thin slice of land and the island is narrower towards the north. Venetian sailors saw the island while sailing towards the Neretva Channel and were threatened by pirates from the island.

In the 4th century BC the people of Pharos defeated Jasadini warriors and their allies. Their victory over much larger forces is immortalized an inscription, one of the oldest known inscriptions of Croatia.

The Hvar Culture lasted from 3500 to 2500 BC.

Hvar is important to the history of Croatia as it was one of the centers of Croatian literature during the Renaissance, with writers such as Petar Hektorović and Hanibal Lucić. In addition, Ivan Vučetić, the man who perfected dactyloscopy, came from Hvar island.

Sucuraj is a picturesque small town on the east cape of the island.People mostly live from fishing and tourism. It has very coasy climate, beautiful beaches and meditarian vegetation that attract tourists. Sucuraj is situated on the east cape of the island Hvar (Dalmatia, Croatia), 3NM far from the coast. Sucuraj exists more than 2300 years.

Names of the island

Originally known as Pharos after the Aegean island of Paros, the island was Greek and the lighthouse of the island was also named Pharos. The Greek poet Apollonius of Rhodes referred to the island as "Piteyeia" in the 3rd century BC. He came up with the name from either the Greek word "pitys", meaning spruce, or from the ancient Illyrian village of Pitve . Under the Dalmatia Romans rule it was known as Pharia and later Fara.

In the early Middle Ages, the Croats settled the island and named it Hvar, replacing the old Slavic consonant "f" with "hv", but the island was still ruled by the Romance-speaking population of Dalmatia. Croatian influence convinced the Romans to once again change the official name to Quarra. In the late 11th century the Italians called it Lesina, which meant "forest" (an accurate description of the island at the time), or in Venetian Republic, Liesena. The Italian name for it, Lesina, remained in official use until the 19th century.

External links

• Official site of Hvar Island
• The Island of Hvar
• The town of Sucuraj on Hvar
• Adriatic Islands Project: Contact, commerce and colonisation 6000 BC - AD 600