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The town of Supetar, island of Brač in Croatia

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PresentationPresentation

General presentationGeneral information
The escutcheon of Supetar. Click to enlarge the image.The port (author Henning Schröder). Click to enlarge the image.Supetar is a port city located on the island of Brač in Croatia. With a little more than 3000 permanent inhabitants - that is to say a fifth of the population of the island -, Supetar is more the big city of the island; it is also the administrative capital, having succeeded in this role the town of Nerežišča in 1827 under the domination Austro-Hungarian. Before this date, Supetar was regarded as the port of Nerežišča.

Supetar is also a commune of approximately 4000 inhabitants, which understands the town of Supetar itself and three other localities: Splitska, Škrip and Mirca. The common one is part of the county of Split-Dalmatia.

Supetar is the principal main door of the island of Brač thanks to the transporters of Jadrolinija which connects it in 50 minutes to the town of Split on the continent.

EtymologyEtymology
The toponym of Supetar is an old form of Sveti Petar (Saint Peter); one finds this characteristic in the toponyms of Sutivan (Saint John) and, later, of Sumartin (Saint Martin).

Under the Venetian domination then Austro-Hungarian, Supetar bore Italian name of San Pietro della Brazza (Saint Peter de Brač).

SituationSituation

Supetar seen since the sea. Click to enlarge the image.Supetar is located on the northern coast of the island of Brač, vis-a-vis the solid mass of Mosor which bars the horizon on the continent.

Supetar developed around a small natural port, at the bottom of bay of Saint Peter.

Nerežišća, the old capital of the island, whose Supetar was the port, is to approximately 8 km inside.

VisitsVisits

The sea front. Click to enlarge the image.The administrative buildings which occupy the sea front of Supetar, with their plastered pediments, their walls outrancièrement decorated and their immense inconvenient windows, for the majority, were built during the Austrian domination and seem a foreign addition with authentic popular architecture. These buildings, laid out in lines on the sea front, mask an old downtown area full with a rural charm located at the background. This downtown area is built out of stone of Brač, with covered roofs of heavy roofing stones to resist “will bura”, this wind of the north which, in winter, goes down from Mosor and breath through the channel from Brač.
The Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary (Crkva Navještenja Marijina)
The church of the Annunciation is at the bottom of the port, at the top of a flight of steps, with the site of an old church of the 6th century, the basilica Saint Peter (in Oporto sancti $petri). The church of the Annunciation is the parish church of the parish Saint Peter (Sveti Petar).

The old basilica Saint Peter had been restored in 1604, but was destroyed by a fire in 1727; it was rebuilt in 1733 in the style baroque of the 18th century, with the addition of naves. As of its foundation the new church was devoted to the Happy Virgin Mary.

In 1887, the church of the 18th century having become too small, it had to be increased with the double of its size to reach its current size and its form (40 meters length); on this occasion it lost much of its style original baroque. The bell-tower was built in 1861; it is 35 m high.

Outside the church, on the left side, are preserved early Christian mosaics dating from the 6th century; these mosaics, discovered in 1975, were part of the ground of the old early Christian basilica dedicated to saint Pierre.
The frontage of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The square of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image.The frontage of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).
At the entrance of the church, one finds the baptismal font which consists of two superimposed Gothic big tops, decorated with sheets of acanthus.
The baptismal font of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The left side aisle of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).
Chorus of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).Inside the church seven furnace bridges are; behind the marble high altar, one notices a retable baroque of Annunciation painted by an unknown painter of the Venetian school of the 18th century. On the sides statues of saints are; on the left, one recognizes the patron saint of the city, holy Pierre.

Chorus of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).Under the high altar the tomb of saint Victor is whose relics were brought to Supetar since the Roman catacombs in 1853. Each May 2nd, the reliquary of saint Victor is carried through the city.

In the old part of the church there are some tomb stones carrying of the Croatian and Italian, Latin inscriptions.

Fabrics, fixed on the side walls, of which the “Virgin with the Saints”, are the work of a painter of Supetar, Feliks Tironi (1722-1808).

The organ of the church is a manufacturing of the factor Petar Nakić in 1737.

The Museum of the Church (Crkveni Muzej)
The square of the church of the Annunciation. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).On the left of the church is a small museum of sacred art created in 1991. The Museum of the Church presents a modest collection of religious objects, books and tables of the parish of Saint Peter, in particular of works of value dating from the Venetian Rebirth (16th and 17th centuries). One can also see there mosaics of the beginning of Christianity, sarcophagi, photographs of the village at the end of the 19th century, books, votive paintings of boats, chalices and reliquaries.

Outside the Museum, a sculpture is on stone representing holy Victor: it is a work of Petar Jakšić, a contemporary sculptor originating in Donji Humac.

The Tower of the Clock (Leroj)
The tower of the clock. Click to enlarge the image.The tower of the clock. Click to enlarge the image.On the right of the church, the tower of the clock was transformed into workshop of artist.
The Cape Saint Nicholas (Rt Sveti Nikola)
The course Saint Nicholas. Click to enlarge the image.The course Saint Nicholas. Click to enlarge the image.West of port of Supetar, while going along the walk at the edge of the pebble beach, one reaches the site bucolic of the course Saint Nicholas. It is on this course that new tourist Supetar develops, which proves after several centuries, the good choice which the Romans had made when they established here their colony in the first Christian times.

There, close to the Saint Nicholas church - beside the wall external of the church - are the two more beautiful early Christian sarcophagi of the island of Brač, decorated on their front face with low-reliefs with crosses surrounded by rings, and, on their oval lids, of long crosses engraved over the entire length.

Below cemetery the ruins of a Roman “villa rustica are”.

The Church Saint-Nicolas-the-Traveller (Crkva Svetog Nikole Putnik)
The Saint Nicholas chapel. Click to enlarge the image.The Saint Nicholas chapel. Click to enlarge the image.
The Cemetery (Groblje)
The walk towards the course Saint Nicholas leads to the marine cemetery of Supetar, lost in the middle of the pines and cypress. The sculpture representing the Mother Teresa (2002) whom one sees at the entrance of cemetery, is the work of the contemporary sculptor, Petar Jakšić.

Besides the extravagant mausoleums, the cemetery presents decorations surprising, even on the most modest steles.

Some of these tomb stones are the work of the famous sculptor Ivan Rendić, the father of the Croatian modern sculpture: some of the best examples are the low-relief of Piéta, above tomb of Mihovil Franasović; the tomb of style Art nouveau of Rinaldo Culić (close to the entry); and the mausoleum of the Radnić family; the low-relief of the head of Christ and the portrait of a man on the tomb of F. Pizzoli; the head of Christ on the tomb of the famous singer of opera, Mr. Vučković. Many of these portraits and sculptures out of stone carry the mark of the strong personality of the sculptor, with an underlined realistic character.

The mausoleum of the family Rendić, one of most imposing, located to the bottom of the cemetery, has all the characteristics of the style of Ivan Rendić. However, the sculptor - who spent his last days in poverty and bitter loneliness on Glavica - was finally buried in a fall foreign into this same cemetery in which it left some of his monuments.

The marine cemetery. Click to enlarge the image.The marine cemetery. Click to enlarge the image.The marine cemetery. Click to enlarge the image.
The Petrinović mausoleum. Click to enlarge the image.The monument most spectacular of the cemetery of Supetar is certainly the mausoleum of the Petrinović family: the white dome of this mausoleum is the first thing which one sees when one enters the port of Supetar while coming from Split.

Located at the center of the cemetery, the Saint Nicholas church, the Petrinović mausoleum dominates the other tombs of its surmounted cupola of a winged angel. With its enormous sarcophagus, the mausoleum introduces to a pompous style to the Eastern influences néo-égypto-Byzantines, and seems a foreign monument in this harmonious small Mediterranean cemetery.

Ivan Rendić had ardently wished to work on the tomb of the Petrinović family for whom it had already carried out a work, the stone statue of Hercegovka (the woman of Herzegovina) and had outlined the project of mausoleum. However the emigrating rich person Frane Petrinović saw the monumental mausoleum of the Račić family in Cavtat, carried out by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović, and cancelled the order placed with Ivan Rendić. By honesty towards its growing old fellow-member, Meštrović nobly refused to take the order and this one was entrusted to T. Rosandić.

The Petrinović mausoleum. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The Petrinović mausoleum. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The Petrinović mausoleum. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).
Detail of the mausoleum Petrinovic (Ikrokar author). Click to enlarge the image in Flickr (new tab).The well of the mausoleum Petrinovic (Ikrokar author). Click to enlarge the image in Flickr (new tab).This monument is thus the work of a sculptor of Split, Toma Rosandić (1878-1957). Rosandić however left on this mausoleum some remarkable achievements, like “the Setting at the Tomb”, “the crucifixion” and “the Day of the Judgment”; the well located close to the tomb presents one of the most beautiful achievements of the art of Rosandić.
The mausoleum of the Petrinović family. Click to enlarge the image.“Accompanied by the breeze, filled of the scents of the plants and the shrubs of the island, I visited initially the felt cemetery… Ici I the deep melancholy of Supetar and of all this coastal region… the wind coming from the pines went up to these cypresses… And when I suddenly heard the notes of a guitar, time slipped through my fingers like impalpable rays of light. I was not, to tell the truth, in mood to cry, but I felt that I became sentimental and that I it had not been since very, very a long time…”
Chock Ujević - Melancholy of Supetar (Sjeta pred Supetrom, Jadranska Posted, 1919).
The Port of Supetar (Luka Supetar)
The port (author K. Korlevic). Click to enlarge the image.The sea front. Click to enlarge the image.The port of arrival of the ferries coming from Split becomes animated at their rhythm and is organized around a pretty square basin bordered of palm trees.
The sea front. Click to enlarge the image.The port of Supetar. Click to enlarge the image.The port of Supetar. Click to enlarge the image.
The Chapel Saint Roch (Crkva Svetog Roka)
The chapel Saint Roch is a building baroque of the 17th century (1682); it is dedicated to saint Roch (sveti Rok), the guard against the infectious diseases which often devastated the island of Brač.

The site of the chapel offers beautiful sights on the center of the island and the channel of Brač (Brački kanal). One can go there, since Supetar, while assembling the old steep way or the road in the direction of Nerežišća, while passing through the wood of pines. To go to the street Petra Jakšica, then to take the street Svetog Roka and to cross the main roads to join the old way of Saint Roch.

The Church Saint Luke (Crkva Svetog Luke)
The Romance church Saint Luke is at one hour of walk of Supetar while going up towards the hill to the chapel Saint Roch and to continue during 10 min. It is a building of Romance style of the end of the 11th century/beginning of the 12th century. The church is famous to conceal the oldest engraving of a ship which is preserved in Dalmatia; the representation of the galleon is engraved on the interior wall of the church.

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

HistoryHistory
A first colony existed at the time Roman on the course Saint Nicholas where currently the cemetery is. This colony seems to be extinct at the beginning of the Christian era, during a few centuries, until the end of the Middle Ages.

The new village, named Supetar, is mentioned for the first time in 1423. Supetar will be the port of the capital of Brač, Nerežišća, during four centuries.

CharactersCharacters
Ivan Rendić
Portrait of Ivan Rendic. Click to enlarge the image.Ivan Rendić (1849-1932) was born in Imotski and passed his youth on the island of Brač where it started to carve thanks to the tradition of the work of the stone of the island. He spent the eleven last years of his life to Supetar and he is the most famous artist of this city. He is regarded the most important Croatian sculptor of the 19th century and as one of the fathers of the modern Croatian sculpture.

Ivan Rendić studied initially in Venice where it followed the Academy of the Art schools in 1871, then in Florence where it studied during several years in the workshops of sculpture of Masters florentins. He lived and worked then in Trieste, where he carried out most of his works. But it was there the target of attacks of the italianists, because of his support for the Movement of the Croatian Rebirth.

Portrait of Ivan Rendic. Click to enlarge the image.Its work - of approximately two hundred statues - is characterized by a realistic style with elements of naturalism, in particular in the details of the treatment. But it often carried out astonishing marriages of styles and influences, mixing without complex the Byzantine, the Greek, the Egyptian…

Its most famous works were public monuments, high in honor of famous Croats, who are in all the areas of Croatia: in Dubrovnik, Rijeka, Trieste, Krapina, and especially in Zagreb, in the Zrinjevac park. It was also chosen by most large families for their monuments.

Starting from 1921 he lived in Supetar, where he tried without success to create a school of arts. He finished his life in poverty and died in the lapse of memory with the old people’s home of the poor of Zagreb.

SculpturesSculpture
The Gallery Ivan Rendic (Galerija Ivan Rendić)
The gallery Ivan Rendic - Bust of Franz Joseph. Click to enlarge the image.The gallery Ivan Rendić - Bust of Ivan Gundulić. Click to enlarge the image.The Gallery Ivan Rendić is located on the first floor of the library of Supetar. One can see there not less than 208 works of Ivan Rendić, the sculptor of world famous originating in Supetar; for example the bust of Ivan Gundulić (1871), celebrates writer of Dubrovnik. Many of other works of the sculptor are in many towns of Croatia and all Europe.

Outside the gallery, one can also see the sculpture of Ivan Rendić representing the “Allegory of the Spirit”.

InformationPractical information

Weather and forecasts
The Tourist office
Addresses: Porat 1 (quay of the unloading dock, on the right while going down from the transporter).

Schedules: 8:00 at 15:30 (22 H in summer).

Telephone: 00,385 (0) 21,630,551

Website: www.supetar.hr

The Ferry
The landing stage of the ferry (Kelovy author). Click to enlarge the image.The arrival of the ferry in the port of Supetar. Click to enlarge the image.Supetar is connected to Split by a direct line of ferries of Jadrolinija.

From 8 to 14 passages per day according to the season (of 5:00 at midnight in summer).

Duration of the crossing: 50 minutes.

Telephone: 00,385 (0) 21,631,357

Website: www.jadrolinija.hr

Road transports
The center of Supetar is inaccessible in the car: it is preferable to be parked just while leaving the unloading dock or to circumvent the city by the top to go down again west of port where several possibilities of carpark are.

The bus station is located near the unloading dock of the ferry.

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The village of Škrip, island of Brač in Croatia
The village of Splitska, island of Brač in Croatia
The village of Mirca, island of Brač in Croatia
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Interactive map of the island of Brać in Croatia
The town of Supetar, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Postira, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Pučišća, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Selca, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Bol, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Nerežišća, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Milna, island of Brač in Croatia
The town of Sutivan, island of Brač in Croatia
Broader topics
Croatia
The county of Split-Dalmatie in Croatia - Booklet Dalmatian Zagora (pdf)
The county of Split-Dalmatia in Croatia - Booklet Dalmatian Zagora (pdf)
The county of Split-Dalmatia in Croatia - Booklet Islands (pdf)
The town of Split in Croatia
The Cetina river in Croatia
The town of Omiš in Croatia
The riviera of Makarska in Croatia
The natural park of Biokovo in Croatia
The island of Brač in Croatia
The island of Hvar in Croatia
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