Hvar - Geschichte

The town of Hvar has a long history as a trade and cultural center. It was an important naval base with the fortress and the city walls around the port.
In Hvar is one of the oldest preserved theaters in Europe from 1612.The 700 year old city walls are preserved and also many noble houses and public buildings from the 15th-17th centuries.

The Illyrians had the earliest settlement with the present town square. The cathedral is surrounded by streets according to Roman (i.e. quatric) arrangement. In the place of today's fortress "Spanjola" stood a mountain fortress.
In 384 BC the Greeks founded the settlement of Faros, in the northwest of the island, from there they could control the fertile, agricultural area - today's Stari Grad and the Stari Grad plains (UNESCO World Heritage).

With the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century BC, colonization took place in the countryside with Roman estates (villae rusticae). In the 7th - 8th century the Slavs came to the island. At that time life on the coast was unsafe due to pirate raids and people moved to the mountains. Therefore, in 1278 the inhabitants placed themselves under the protection of the Republic of Venice. With this agreement, the southern settlement of Hvar was expanded and consolidated as a safe base for the Venetian fleet.
As a new administrative center, the town was given the Venetian name "Lesina" (Hvar) and the ancient Greek town was renamed Cittavecchia (Stari Grad - Old Town). The Venetians built a new fortress, city walls and public buildings - with the prosperity from the salt and trade, villages were also built along the coast.
The 16th century was a return to troubled times with conflicts between nobles and citizens and attacks from the Ottomans who occupied the mainland. In 1571, ships from Hvar on their way to the Battle of Lepanto were attacked by the Turkish fleet and only the fortress saved the townspeople. 
In 1776, the Venetians moved their naval base to Kotor on the mainland. In 1797,  after a short French period, Austria-Habsburg came to power at the beginning of the 19th century, with an economic and cultural boom for the city. In 1868, "The Hygienic Association of Hvar" was founded to promote the development of tourist services.