The town of Brela in Croatia

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Presentation

General information

Escutcheon of Brela. Click to enlarge the image.

The Rock of Brela (author Mario Zamic). Click to enlarge the image.

Brela is a coastal small town (approximately 1700 inhabitants) and a commune of the county of Split-Dalmatia in Croatia.

The municipality is composed of two villages: Brela and Gornja Brela (Brela-Haut).

The known part today as Brela is the new part located on the coast; it named formerly Brela-Bas (Donja Brela). Brela-Bas is composed of several hamlets located on both sides of the trunk road (Magistrala) and whose principal ones are Soline and Donje Selo.

Brela-Haut (Gornja Brela) is the oldest part, located close to the old road of the hill; it is on the territory of Biokovo, almost entirely included within the boundary of natural park of Biokovo.

Brela is an independent commune since 1993; before this date, she belonged to the commune of Makarska.

The symbol of Brela is “Kamen Brela” (the Rock of Brela), a rock small island with broad of the principal beach of Brela, the beach of Punta Rata.

Etymology

The Brela toponym draws its origin from the sources from water local, terrestrial or underwater, vrilo or vrelo. Vrelo is a terrestrial natural source while vrulja is an underwater source. Vrulja de Brela is the marine resurgence of a river without name of the solid mass of Biokovo, which spouts out with about twenty meters under sea surface.

At the time Roman, Brela named Berulia; in Greek it named Beroyllia.

Under the Venetian domination, it bore the Italian name of Raft.

Situation

Channel of Brac seen since Brela. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).

Brela is located at the western end of Riviera de Makarska, to approximately 15 km in the North-West of the town of Makarska.

It occupies a band of 8 km length littoral between the solid mass of Biokovo and the coast of the Adriatic Sea, vis-a-vis the island of Brać.

The city is distant of 45 km Split, and 160 km Dubrovnik.

Visits

Brela, called “the pearl of Riviera de Makarska”, to the tourists 6 km offer beaches shaded by odorous forests of pines. The back-country allows interesting excursions, among old hamlets with traditional Dalmatian architecture, to the buttresses of the solid mass of Biokovo.
Brela-Haut (Gornja Brela)
Brela-Haut covers 20 km² of space in the Natural park of Biokovo, with a large number of karstic phenomena, of the endemic plants, a flora and a fauna rich person, and religious buildings. Formerly, on these slopes, the existence of the inhabitants of Brela rested on the culture of the vine and the famous morello cherry “maraska”. With the development of tourism the interest for agriculture decreased, but the thousand-year-old tradition of agriculture was maintained in many gardens in which the inhabitants of Brela, still today, cultivate the olive-tree and the vine, but also the orange tree and the lemon tree.
The Tower of the Duke (Kula Herceg)	The Chapel Saint Nicholas (Crkva Sveti Nikola)	The Chapel Saint George (Crkva Sveti Jurja)
On the slopes of the solid mass of Biokovo, above Brela, one can see, on a site strategic along a cliff and close to a source of water, the ruins known under the name of Kula Herceg (Turn of the Duke) which was a tower of defense used during the fight against the Turks.	The Saint Nicholas chapel is an old church of almost five centuries, dating from the time pre-Othoman; she is built on a 572 m high hill, under the Bukovac mount. Saint Nicholas was during centuries, and until recently, the patron saint of Brela.	The chapel Saint George, located at Ribičići at the bottom of solid mass of Biokovo, was built in 1906, on the foundations of an old church going back to 1760.

The District of Soline


The Church Our-Lady-of-Carmel (Crkva Gospe od Karmela)
The church Our-Lady-of-Carmel is in Soline; this church baroque was built in 1715 in thanksgiving for the victory over the Othomans: it is also named Our-Lady-of-the-Victoire.
The Low-relief of God Sylvain
The historic building most interesting of Brela is in Soline. It is a low-relief, 2rd or 3rd century, representing the god illyro-Roman of the forests and wild nature, Sylvain (Sylvanus for the Romans). The god Sylvain, like his partner, the Thana goddess, was particularly venerated by the tribe illyrienne of the Dalmatian ones. The low-relief, discovered in 1969, represents the god Sylvain the isolated arms: in the left hand it holds a shepherd’s crook, while in the right hand it holds a surmounted handle of a rectangular end (forgery) which symbolizes the pastoral worship of agriculture.
Excursions with Brela
N°1 course: Donje Selo - Jakiri - Novaci - Pišalo - Gornji Novaci (Medići) - Donji Kričak - Šošići - Donje Selo Church with Donje Selo the course carries out through the hamlet of Jakiri, crosses the trunk road, continuous through the hamlet of Novaci and by the hurdy-gurdy road out of macadam to the locality of Pišalo. To take the access road firemen to the hamlet of Gornji Novaci. To continue in the same direction towards the small village of Gornji Kričak. From here one can go down in Donji Kričak or continue in the same direction until in overhang of the hamlet of Medići. Of this point, it is possible either to take the way towards Soline, or to continue through the small village of Donji Kričak, to cross the trunk road, then the hamlet of Šošići to join Donje Selo, starting point. Up time: 2 hours. Level of difficulty: 1 N°2 course: Soline - Kričak - Sv. Kaja - Nevistina Stina - Sv. Nikola - Subotišće To start from Soline by taking the short cuts marked out to the locality of Kričak, to cross the trunk road, to continue to the hamlet Gornji Kričak. To continue to go up by the path which passes beside the chapel of Sv. Kaja, to cross the small collar of Nevistina stina (550 m) (Rock of the young groom), then the village deserted from Sokolove Staje to the church (Sv. Nikole, 590 m). At this place one finds the junction towards Bukovac, while our course goes down on the left towards Gornja Brela - locality from Subotišće. Of this point the return to Brela is possible in the bus (which rather seldom passes); best is to envisage a private transport or to take again the way in opposite direction and to go down on foot. Up time: 1 hour 30. Level of difficulty: 2 N°3 course: Soline - Medići - Junction of Bartulovići - Road Napoleon - Sv. Kaja The alternative of the course n° 2 which carries out through the hamlet of Medići and then goes up to the junction towards Bartulovići and Topići. To set off to left then, to pass above abandoned hamlet of Dominovići while going up to the old road of Napoleon (Napoleonova cesta). To borrow the latter until - below of the chapel of Sv. Kaja where it joined the course n° 2. Of this point to follow the route of the course n° 2. Up time: 3 hours. Level of difficulty: 3 N°4 course: Donje Selo - Vruja - Dubci - Gornji Novaci - Donje Selo The course leaves the church of Sv. Stjepan while crossing the locality of Jakiruša. To continue by the old road of the merchants beside Vruje (underwater source), to go up towards the trunk road, to cross the latter to join the old road of the merchants Pisak - Zadvarje. To continue in this direction to the road Slime - Dubci. While continuing on the same road, to cross the crack in Dubci. Approximately 200 m further, the course fork on the left and continue its rise by the old path Dubci - Novaci. To continue in this direction through the hamlet of Gornji Novaci where it is necessary to take the macadam road on the left. At the end of approximately 1 kilometer, the course forks on the line. Through the pine forest to begin the descent to the trunk road, to cross it, continue by the bituminized path and several staircases, to pass by the hamlet of Carevići to join Donje Selo. Up time: 3 hours. Level of difficulty: 2 See the routes of excursion in the page Riviera de Makarska.
The Coastal Walk
The coastal walk makes it possible to go on foot since Brela until Makarska by a path of 14 km along the shore, via Baška Voda and Promajna (in this village, it is necessary to leave the coast during a few hundred meters to circumvent a rock headland).
Beaches
Three of the beaches of Brela received the prestigious international recognition of the “Blue House” for the cleanliness of the sea and the respect of the environment: the beach of Punta Missed in 1999, the beach of the Berulia hotel in 2003, and the beach of Stomarica west of Brela, in 2004. In 2003, the American magazine Forbes registered the beach of Punta Rata (Gilded Point), located on the headland of Dugi Rat, on the list of the ten more beautiful beaches of the world; this 800 m length beach is classified sixth in the world and first in Europe. These distinctions are perhaps deserved on the esthetic and environmental level but not on that of the approval of the bathe: these beaches are certainly of a whiteness bright and bordered of forests of pines, but it is not - after all - that very rough stone beaches.

History, literature, arts, traditions, legends, religions, myths, symbols…

History
Brela was mentioned for the first time towards 950 after J. - C. by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogénète, in his circular letter “Of the Administration of the Empire”. Brela is quoted, under the name of “Beroyllia” like one of the four strengthened cities of the old principality of Pagania on the course of Neretva.

Practical information

Weather and forecasts

The Tourist office
Addresses: Obala kunaseza Domagoja, HR-21322 Brela Telephone: 00,385 21,618,337
Transport
The line of bus connecting Split to Makarska has a stop with Brela behind the Hotel Bluesun Soline. It is necessary approximately hour (or more in high season when the Magistrala road is bottled) and 35 kunas to go to Split.

Visiting times

Hotels


The Hotel Bluesun Berulia
The hotel Bluesun Berulia is a hotel 4 stars of human size (199 rooms) which profits from an exceptional situation in the vicinity immediate of the famous beaches of Brela and with a few minutes of walk of the centers of Brela and Baška Voda. The whole of staff is shown as effective as accessible.

The hotel is built in the middle of a pine forest, very away from the motor vehicle traffic of the trunk road.

Its splendid pebble beach, located at 10 m of the hotel, was seen allotting the distinction of the Blue House.

Addresses: Frankopanska bb, HR-21322 Brela Telephone: 00,385 (0) 21,603,599 Courriel: berulia@bluesunhotels.com Geographical coordinates: latitude 43.362435 NR; longitude: 16.938751 E