history
A sunsational journey through time
Hvar's natural beauty and year-round sunshine made it one of the first tourists resorts in the Adriatic. In fact, the Austrian Queen Elizabeth sponsored the construction of one of the first hotels on Hvar, which was completed in 1899. Tourists from Austria and other countries started coming to Hvar and it was quickly tagged the “Austrian Madeira”.
The history of Hvar is closely tied to the history of the Adriatic and the greater Mediterranean basin itself. Beginning with Illyrian tribes, traversing the Greeks, Romans, Venetians, and later to become a part of both the Habsburg and Napoleon's empires, Hvar reflects the nuances and subtleties of the greatest periods in western civilization while maintaining an identity that is totally unique. Today, visitors can marvel at eight centuries of architecture and art in an environment that is almost as pure as the one in which they were created.