The village of Sumartin, island of Brač in Croatia

The village is the most recent locality of the island; it was founded in 1646 by refugees of Makarska fleeing the Turkish invasions. This is why the inhabitants of Sumartin and its surroundings speak the dialect chtokavien (štokavski), the principal Croatian dialect, while the remainder of the island speaks the dialect tchakavien (čakavski), the dialect spoken in north about Croatia. The village also was insulated, because of bad communications with the remainder of the island, and developed a mentality and slightly different vestimentary modes a long time.

Sumartin is a relatively calm and peaceful vacation resort, which becomes animated only on arrival of the ferry of Makarska.

The village of Sumartin belongs administratively to the commune of Selca in the county of Split-Dalmatia.

Later, the locality named Vrh Brača (is of Brać), where vrh means is, because of its situation on the island of Brać.

The name of Saint Martin was given to the church of the village by the first inhabitants, in tribute to saint Martin de Tours. At the end of the 19th century, the name of Sumartin was given to the village by imitation of other localities of the island, such as Supetar (Saint Peter) or Sutivan (Saint John).

At the time Venetian, Sumartin named San Martino in Italian.

The port is protected from the winds of north by the course Sumartin (Rt Sumartin).

The current parish church was built of 1911 to 1913 and was devoted to saint Martin before the First World War. The marble furnace bridges were carried out and decorated with mosaics by P. Bilinic in 1912. The tombs around the church point out the disastrous plague of 1783-1784 which made perish most of the population.

The bell-tower of the church was destroyed in 1944 in the bombardment of the city by the Anglo-American ones; the church was rebuilt and increased in 1955.

The monastery, masked by a thick vegetation, with its modest gardens and kitchen gardens, releases a pleasant atmosphere; its museum has an interesting collection of rare, handwritten books and works of art of 17th and 18th centuries (Venetian school), in particular a “Last Holy Communion” of the beginning of the baroque (second half of the 17th century).

Outside, a plate testifies that in 1944 the monastery was requisitioned by the Germans to be used as hospital and the monks were forced to leave it.

The village of Sumartin was founded on November 11th, 1646 by refugees coming from the back-country of Makarska, Bosnia and Herzegovina fleeing in front of the projection of the Othoman Turks (time of the War of Crete between Vénitiens and Turks). The refugees were led by the Franciscan monks already established close to this bay called Sitno. The new arrivals could not obtain from grounds to cultivate, already all occupied, and had to turn to fishing, navigation and naval construction.

The shipyard of Sumartin is one of the last in the Adriatic to continue the traditional construction of ships out of wooden.

Jadrolinija (www.jadrolinija.hr) ensures 5 passages per day between Makarska and Sumartin in July and August; 4 passages in June and September; 50 min of crossing.

Telephone: 00,385 (0) 21,648,224