ACCOMMODATION
HISTORY
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Hvar, an ancient city with rich history. With its architecture, beautiful nature and mild climate many would describe it as a true fairy-tale city.
When we add to the natural beauties, a high quality accommodation and Mediterranean cordiality and courtesy city of Hvar becomes an ideal destination for couples’, families’ and parties’ holidays.
On these pages we will reveal to you almost all information on Hvar and its charms and seduction you will discover yourselves.
The city of Hvar is a
unique fusion of luxurious Mediterranean nature, rich cultural and historical
heritage, and mundane, tourist present.
It is situated in picturesque nature, facing the southern, side of the world
that has given it all Mediterranean attraction and cheerfulness; facing sea,
that gave it splendid and repeatable history, Hvar is an inexhaustible treasury
of the scenery, atmosphere and adventure.
Its name derives from the Greek name for island and town, that stood where today
Stari Grad (Hvar became an island’s centre in 13th century) stands - PHAROS.
Hvar gained glory and power during middle ages being an important port within
the Venetian, naval empire. Today, it is centre of island’s tourism and one of
the favourite destinations in Dalmatian riviera - a town of smiling and
courteous people, who are almost only dedicated to tourism.
Hvar, a history of tourism
As all the long and glorious histories have their
mythical beginnings, so does the history of touristic development of Hvar. A
Hellenic poet, Apollonius of Rhodes, in his famous epic „The Voyage of Argo“,
narrates of the first visitors to the island. According to him, at the beginning
of the 2nd millennium BC mythical Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece,
travelling around the Mediterranean, disembarked on the coasts of Hvar. From
that event on, follows the chronicle of changes, the rising and falling of
touristic development of the island.
The characteristic of tourism in the period of Antiquity, especially during
Roman dominion, were country resorts, the so called villae
rusticae that could be found all around the island, and were very popular
among the wealthy roman inhabitants.
However, the history of European tourism can be said to originate with the
medieval pilgrimage. As an important naval port of the time,
Hvar was an inevitable stop on the route from Venice to the Holy Land. Although
undertaken primarily for religious reasons, the pilgrimage was also seen as a
kind of holiday. Pilgrims left the first written testimonies describing life on
the island during the 15th, the 16th and the 17th century.
Revival of the country resorts is typical for the period of Renaissance and
Baroque, i.e. from the 16th to the 18th century. The greatest part of Hvar’s
most famous country houses dates from this period.
The end of the 18th century, throughout Europe, was marked by the intensive
growth of interest in the natural, ethnographic, archeological, cultural and
scientific particularities of the less known regions of the continent. One of
the targets of that period's inquisitive voyagers was Dalmatia – an exotic and
unexplored garden of the southern Europe. Particularly attractive was the island
of Hvar, which became the destination of investigative travels to many
scientists and nature lovers. Therefore, the period from the 18th to the end of
the 19th century is known as the period of scientific tourism
on Hvar. The most important research works, regarding the future development of
tourism on the island, involved climate researches, which proved that the
climate on the island favored the prevention as well as the medical treatment of
lung diseases.
The idea of founding a medical and touristic institution dates back to the 60s
of the 19th century, to the first arrival of Franz Unger M.D., from Graz,
Austria. Health tourism has always existed, but May 15th, 1868, the inauguration
day of the Hygienic society of Hvar, marked the beginning of
the modern era in the development of tourism on the island and in Croatia in
general. The Manifesto of the Hygienic society, published also in German and in
French language, is the first written document, which concisely defines main
goals of the Society. It not only establishes Hvar as the ideal destination for
lung patients coming from Austria and Germany, but also equals its importance
and beauties to those of Venice and Pisa in Italy, and Nice in France. One of
the main goals of the Society was to make all the necessary arrangements and
provisions, and to ensure enough comfortable accommodation units, which would
render the foreign visitors’ stay on the island even more pleasant.
With its Manifesto, the Hygienic society clearly outlined the vision of modern
catering based on organized public care and supervision. Thus, May 15th, 1868
can be considered the beginning of organized tourism in general, since the
Hygienic society was the first and the only one of its kind at that time in
Europe.
Hvar, unlike other European countries, was developing
health tourism, and the first and the most important task of
the Hygienic society was to build a modern health hotel. Since the project
required significant funds, in October 1868 the Society temporarily arranged a
smaller hotel in the home of Samohod-Duboković family. The second step was a
request for financial help and patronage addressed directly to the empress
Elisabeth in Vienna, offering to give her name to the future hotel. The empress
accepted the offer, and gave her first donation in 1869. The first part of the
hotel, located in the former duke's palace, was finished in 1898, but the
construction works would be completed and the hotel inaugurated only in 1903. It
was named The Empress Elisabeth Health Hotel, had 26 rooms, i.e.
35 beds. At the beginning the hotel was a great business success, which
encouraged the Society to start developing new hotel building projects. Numerous
guests coming from Austria, Germany, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), Hungary and
from Croatian countries, helped Hvar become an important tourist destination on
the Austrian Riviera, and the catch phrase «Austrian Madeira» dates from this
period.
The Hygienic society was engaged also in touristic advertising of the health
hotel and of the island of Hvar. Among many leaflets, in 1899, in Trieste, Italy
they published the first tourist guidebook in German language, and in 1903 it
was revised, illustrated and printed with the front page in color. The guidebook
emphasized the curative properties of Hvar’s climate and the advantages of
winter tourism. Among entertaining and cultural activities it offered night
fishing, shooting gallery, bowling, concerts of the town brass band, dancing
nights on the hotel terrace or visits to the art collection of the Franciscan
monastery.
The Kovačić hotel, with 30 beds, was opened in 1914 and was the property of
Kovačić-Ragužel family, while the Meneghellos opened a fashionable summer resort
on Plamižana Island, called the Palmižana castle.
Activities of the Hygienic society, besides touristic development of the island,
contributed greatly to its general cultural growth throughout the second half of
the 19th century.
Notwithstanding its initial success, the hotel business had to face a period of
crisis, which began in the early 20s of the 20th century. The First World War
and debts, forced the Hygienic society to sell the business with all the
acquired immovables and movables. The deal was settled in 1918, when Mr. Milan
Čanko, proprietor of the Royal hotel in Zagreb, bought the hotel in Hvar for
250.000 Krunas. A couple of years later the Hygienic society ceased to exist,
and that was the end of the first phase in modern touristic development of Hvar.
The second phase covers the period between two World
Wars, from 1921 to 1941.
Those were the years of accelerated development of the island. The tourism
industry expanded, and besides health and winter tourism, started developing
summer, recreational and bathing tourism. That was the period
of construction of new, and adaptation of the old hotel facilities, of
significant investments in expanding of catering services and tourist activities
such as sports, cultural events and entertainment, of exterior landscaping and
decoration of public areas, coast, beaches, parks, promenades, and as a
significant accomplishment the construction of stone bathing facility, in 1927
should not be forgotten to mention.
Tourism industry was under the authority of the municipal office, at first
called Health committee, then Bathing committee and finally Municipal Tourism
Committee.
The offer of accommodation facilities was very rich. Hotels from that period are
the Palace (ex The Empress Elisabeth Health Hotel), the Park, the Overland, the
Slavija, the Kovačić, board and lodging at the Palmižana castle and Dorotka, a
great number of inns, coffee-houses and many privately owned rental houses.
Guests were coming from Yugoslavia, Austria, Bohemia and Germany. In 1930 Hvar
recorded 3065 visitors, and 26911 nights. Side by side with the town of Hvar,
Jelsa, Stari Grad and Vrboska, were also experiencing considerable progress in
touristic development.
After the end of the World War II, in 1945, various
historical circumstances influenced the development of tourism on the island of
Hvar, and in Croatia in general.
The year 1945 was the beginning of a tumultuous forty-five years period of the
communist Yugoslavia (1945-1990), marked by significant social and economical
reforms, followed by a short, but nonetheless difficult period of the War of
Independence (also called the Homeland War, from 1991-1995), and finally
sovereign state of the Republic of Croatia.
Tourism industry experienced radical changes in the year 1945. Hotels became state owned and started developing a non-profitable type of tourism designed mainly for the working class or labor unions. Foreign visitors at that period were mainly Czech.
The second half of the 50s brought significant changes.
All the hotels were joined under the management of Hvar Hotel Company:
the Palace, the Park, the Dalmacija, the Slavija, the Istra (ex hotel Kovačić)
and the Mornar (ex hotel Overland). The slogan: Come to Hvar this
winter – the sunniest island of the Adriatic sea, of the
promotional leaflet, that was published that same year announced a whole new era
in the history of Hvar’s tourism.
The 60s were an era of important investments in tourism industry – construction
of another hotel, the Pharos, and among winter and summer tourism, nude and
health tourism were going upscale and tourist statistics recorded an increased
number of visitors coming from the Nordic countries.
Tourism was developing rapidly and it needed a correspondent development of the
supporting infrastructure, which led to increased construction of roads on the
island as well as significant investments in the sea transportation connection
between the island and the land.
The growth of family or individual initiative resulted in new products on the
tourist market: private restaurants, coffee shops, boarding houses. Thanks to
the rich offer and good quality of tourist and catering services, Hvar became a
very interesting destination to the West European visitors, thus creating the
image of an exclusive summer resort on the Adriatic.
The initial success of tourism in the early 60s, encouraged the growth and expansion of that industry, which resulted in intensified works on adaptation of the existing accommodation facilities, building of new holiday resorts and hotels (the Adriatik, the Delfin, the Bodul, the Amfora), camps, marinas, sport courts, bathing resorts, restaurants, inns and coffee shops. New types of tourism appeared: nautical, hunting, sport and congress tourism, and were developing rapidly along with the already existing summer, bathing and nude tourism. Private accommodation units were expanding: the number of boarding houses and rooms for rent was growing rapidly. Particular attention was paid to education of the personnel. Tourism industry on Hvar was assuming new shapes: mainly those of mass and seasonal, typically summer and recreational tourism. It was penetrating the core of the island’s being, thus becoming the central supporting pillar of the economic and social development of Hvar.
The growing number of inhabitants called for the
modernization of basic municipal infrastructure: a new submarine electrical
cable was laid, potable water brought from the land.
In the 70s and in the first half of the 80s tourism reached its peak, in all its
positive and negative aspects. The second half of the 80s is a period of
stagnation and decadence of tourism industry in Hvar, because at that period of
time it was primarily depending on visitors with considerably limited paying
capacities, which led to a decreased offer quality and finally to a decreased
profit. Burdened by bank credits, the Hotel company had no funds to invest
neither in the maintenance of the existing hotels nor in the improvement of the
tourist offer.
In order to neutralize the crisis, all the hotel companies from towns Hvar,
Jelsa and Stari Grad, in 1986 decided to found a joint company under the name of
Sunčani Hvar (Sunny Hvar). However, they did not succeed in
reanimating the tourist and catering industry. Instead, they kept distancing
themselves from the more demanding contemporary European market.
The most critical period was that of the War of Independence (1991-1995), when
tourism literary died, not only in Hvar, but on the entire Croatian territory as
well.
1993, is another year of establishment changes. The main goal of the emerging
independent Tourist offices is to promote tourism. New economic reforms brought
significant structural changes regarding ownership and management. In 1994 the
hotel company “Sunčani Hvar” became a stock company, and from the year 2005 the
majority stockholder is the “Orco” company.
Hvar is now living a period of significant investments aimed to improve the
quality of its accommodation facilities, tourist offer and to win back its
position of the exclusive tourist resort.
Some brief Data
Churches on the island contain lots of important paintings and artworks by
famous Venetian artists, including Tintoretto, Veronese, Bellini and others.
In 1797 Hvar was annexed with the fall of the Venetian Republic by the Habsburg
Monarchy as per the Treaty of Campoformio. But forced of the French Empire
seized it in 1806 during the Napoleonic wars.
During the Croatian national renaissance, in the age of national awakening in
Europe, many leading figures in southern Croatia, and in Croatia as a whole,
came from Hvar.
The Austrians regained control of the island in accordance to the 1815 Treaty of
Vienna and into the beginning of the 20th century brought a period of relative
prosperity. The Italian army occupied the island from 1918 until 1921, when Hvar
with the whole of Croatia joined the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1939 an
autonomous Croatian Banate was formed that included it and in 1941 Fascist Italy
occupied it until the end of the WWII in 1945, when it became a part of
Communist Yugoslavia, it's Croatian constituent republic.
Ivan Vučetić, the man who perfected dactyloscopy at the turn of the 20th century,
came from Hvar island.
In 1992 the Republic of Croatia was recognized as an Independent state in which
Hvar obtained a position in its territorial reorganization.
In today's Croatia, Hvar's most famous citizen in the world is football player
Igor Tudor (Juventus), while most famous Croatian deputy in Sabor (awarded as
the "Deputy of the year") is from island of Hvar, Tonči Tadić.
Economy
Residents of Hvar mostly work in the fishing and tourism industries. Hvar has a
very mild Mediterranean climate, beautiful beaches and Mediterranean vegetation
that make it one of the most attractive tourist centers in Europe. The island
promotes itself as "the sunniest spot in Europe," with 2715 hours of sunlight in
an average year.
Port in Hvar townHvar town is the main tourist center. It features a large
public square that is open to the sea. During the tourist season, the port is
filled with large yachts. All-night discos attract large crowds of young
visitors.
Another major economic activity is the cultivation of lavender, used for
aromatic oils and soaps. Hvar is often called the "island of lavender".
Hvar is also one of the two most famous winemaking zones in Croatia. Vineyards
on the southern side of the island are famous for red wines produced from the
Plavac Mali grape. The central plain between Stari Grad and Jelsa is famous for
its white wines.
Names of the island
As a Greek colony, the island was known as Pharos 'lighthouse'. The Greek poet
Apollonius of Rhodes referred to the island as "Piteyeia" in the 3rd century BC,
a name derived either from the Greek word "pitys", meaning spruce, or from the
ancient Illyrian village of Pitve in the central part of the island.
Under the Roman rule (in the province of Dalmatia), it was known as Pharia and
later Fara.
In the early Middle Ages, Slavs settled the island and named it Hvar, replacing
the consonant "f" with old Slavic consonant "hv". But, the island was still
ruled by the romanized Illyrians. The Croats' influence convinced the resident
Roman population to once again change the official name to Quarra.
Since the late 11th century its Italian name has been Lesina, from Croatian les
'forest' (an accurate description of the island at the time); in Venetian,
Liesena. The name remained official during Venetian rule.
Sources
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/
2. http://www.tzhvar.hr/