Stari Grad Hvar island – Exploring the UNESCO protected plain, Old Town & Beaches!

Stari Grad Hvar island – Exploring the UNESCO protected plain, Old Town & Beaches!

We picked the only day where they close at 1. Alternative tourist board. Uh-huh. What 
does that mean? And I love this, what they did with the lamps, with the flowers on 
it. It really looks neat. What I’m going to show you in this video is a another 
town on island called Stari Grad. Where we are standing now is a part of the history of 
Stari Grad. It’s called the Stari Grad plain. It’s a UNESCO site. What’s so special about this? 
Basically, Stari Grad was founded by the Greeks around 400 years before Christ and Greeks 
coming from the island of Pharos moved here, and that’s also why Stari Grad briefly was called Pharos
and what they did out here was, in this area which is called the Stari Grad plain, they 
made basically parcels which was used for ancient, Greek agriculture. And 
what is very special about this is there’s 75 known parcels out here and all of them is 
the same size. Roughly 16 hectares or 40 acres. I spoke with a historian here. He 
told me I think the measurement was 900 by 180 m for each of the parcels and there’s 75 known, and 
they are basically the best preserved anywhere, showing how Greek agriculture was done and how 
they did divide the field. Today this area is still the biggest agricultural area anywhere 
on the Croatian islands. When the Greek came here, they were first used this to grow wheat and other 
things. Later the whole area became, was mostly used for growing wine. Today there’s some wine 
but it’s more, you know, a mix. There’s a lot of olive trees, and there’s small gardens 
where people grow salad and other vegetables for their households. This is a part of Stari Grad, so was 
important to get it into video. We’re going to continue the video in the city. So, you’re also 
going to see the town of Stari Grad. So now we are basically at the center of Stari Grad. And I just wanted to show 
you, although it’s a small city there’s actually a green market up 
here. So if you want to buy some really fresh vegetables you can find them here. 
Of course, now it’s in the afternoon, so one is already closing down. It’s of 
course best if you’re a morning person. And then you have a few souvenir shops. If you miss 
some stuff for the beach, you can get it here. And then you have tourist information. If you’re 
looking for something particular you need to know. So, and this is basically the end of 
the bay, the long Stari Grad bay. 2km out you have the ferry port. And what 
we’re going to do today is going to walk on this side over here because that’s 
basically the main seaside promenade. On this side here, there’s not that much to 
see. This is mainly houses. And then you have some hotel resorts further out. We might 
go out there also, but I think we’re going to concentrate on this side because this is a 
really nice part. So, let’s go over there. And of course it was not always a Greek 
settlement. When the Romans came and conquered, you know along the coast in Croatia and the 
areas, they also conquered this part. So it became also a Roman settlement from around I think 
year 200 before Christ or something like that. And then of course during the history it had 
the same, what do you call it, change of rulers, similar to what you would see from other 
historical towns like Split, Dubrovniik and these kind of things. When the Venetians was 
here and all the other rulers who were present in this area, they of course also, 
most of them, became rulers of Stari Grad. Here they have this interesting ice cream. I might look into that a little bit later today. And of course today main income probably 
for Stari Grad, or the main income is tourism. Everything you will find here is 
basically adjusted to that situation. Really nice building. Nice. Nice. And if you’re on sailing holiday, as 
you will see a little bit further out, lots of boats come here to Stari Grad. Lots of 
them go into the harbor here or into the port, but you also have lots of them located 
further out in the bay because there’s lots of well-protected small bays. People with 
boats would look for something like that. But also here like in Jelsa, you 
know the vibe you get is holiday. I think this is the main square in the old town. 
Really nice. They still have some of the this, I don’t know what the type of that palm is, but 
that’s the one which got hit by a disease, like many places in Dalmatia some years ago, but it 
looks like all of them survived here. So, good. So, what’s that? Is that the fourth ice cream selling place in 200 m or 
something like that? Yeah. Vala restaurant looks pretty 
pretty good. Haven’t tried it. And I love this what they did with the lamps, 
with the flowers on it. It really looks neat. And you also have the palms 
out here. So, summer vibe. Garden restaurant Velo Misto. See, look. Really, you know, think about 
how nice you could make this building. Okay, you need to spend some money, 
but possible. So from now it’s really marina feeling and 
also here I think up there you have showers and all the stuff for the boat people… toilets. 
So now we are almost at the end of the seaside promenade. So you see not it’s not huge place 
but I think also only around 1,800 people live in Stari Grad area, so of course you’re 
not going to find miles or kilometers of seaside promenade. So this one is 
now a really nice heritage hotel and I think this is the villa. We’ll just 
go around and then see it. So we could go one and a half kilometer out in this direction. 
Follow the seaside path here and we would end up at the ferry port. But we not going 
to do that today because we have another video where the ferry port is already in. But 
just for you to know. What I wanted to show you is this building here, it was the house or 
home of Šime Ljubić. I think he was an author or a poet or something like 
that. Yeah. And he has a mausoleum here. So here, look how nice they made 
it here. The heritage hotel. Really neat. Apollon. Apollon. And of course, you have plenty of tours. If you 
are deciding to go here on holiday, you know, you don’t have to stay here all the time. There’s 
plenty of tours. You can go around, see various things on the island. You have quad tours out here 
just outside, in the entrance of the city. You have CRO quad where you can 
get on some amazing quad tours. You have lots of other things offered. So you can combine the 
days here or you know do different things here. You’re not obligated to stay only here. 
Now we’re going to see if we can go and visit some of the smaller streets in the older part of town,
and there’s a special part up at the end. I wanted to see if we can find 
it. I haven’t been there yet, but there’s supposed to be some parts of some 
Greek remains, wall remains or something like that. So, we’ll see if we can manage to 
find that. Like when we were in Tribunj, Vodice, the same 
thing is recognizable here. Everything is kept neat, nice. Tourism is an important part 
of the economy. They usually, you know, try to keep it really really nice 
at least in the central part of town. You see no graffiti, you know, or anything 
like that, really, really neat. So, now we’re down on the central square, 
which we saw from the Riva before, but now we’re just at the back end of it. So, 
we were walking out here to the left before. And you see the palms there, but 
this time we’re going to stay in this part. And here of course if you have 
a few coins probably you can wish stuff. I kind of have hunch it’s this way but I’m not 
sure. As we are exploring, you know sometimes you end up the right place, other times 
you just have to go back and search a bit more. I kind of think we are going the right way. 
I wonder if that would have been a monastery. There’s a museum. I don’t 
think it can be that one. No. Well, the place was actually pointed out to me, 
but the problem was when it was pointed out, I was on a viewing point 270 m above. When you 
get down on the ground, walking around, doesn’t seem quite the same as you saw from up there, 
but I know it was very close to the church. So, I think we’re not awfully far away. A few moments 
later. Maybe we are not at the right place. So, let’s go down back in the old town, and then we’ll 
see. I will check it out and maybe we can go up there with a car. But look again how nice it is. 
No dirt, no nothing. Just super clean, super nice. So many small neat streets. 
Plenković Konoba Pharia. So now we found one of the main streets. Let’s go this way. Alternative tourist board. Uh-huh. 
What does that mean? Antique. Really nice shop, huh? Everywhere, you know, there’s something, 
you know, concept store and more. Coffee, breakfast. Wow. I just love it. So neat. So 
you think that’s a restaurant? Yeah, probably is. Restaurant. Wine bar. 
Yeah. Another nice square. Beautiful. Here. Look how nice. Look how nice. 
Really nice. Should we just go up here and see? So, we actually managed to find the place. 
It’s called Faros. And believe it or not, when we were close to 
the church or the one I assume was a monastery, it was a monastery. And we were 200 m 
from this place. It was just a problem. I have only seen it, as I mentioned from 
above. So, I don’t know if it’s open, but apparently what you see in there is 
some archaeological things, findings, walls. You see, they’re digging 
them out. It seems very closed to me. Maybe it’s just wrong timing. You know, we picked 
the only day where they close at 1:00. Normally they open till 3:30, but we were not lucky. But 
I think maybe with the footage here from outside, we can see enough. So this is basically, the historian 
told me that some of these walls are all the way back from when the Greek were here. And 
that’s also probably why it has the name Faros, which was the original name of the city 
Stari Grad. Now we’re back in the car. We going to drive out on the other side 
of the bay, where I said before that we are not going to walk over there. Now we’re just 
going to drive over there. So you can see basically how it looks like. There’s supposed to be the most popular beat the beach of the town. So we 
will see if we can find that one. If not, yeah, bad luck. But we’ll give it a shot. You see, 
this is exactly where we started the video today. As I didn’t see another sign, I 
assume we are still on the right way. And I can see we are following 
the bay. So seems reasonable. On the way down. Let’s see if this is 
actually the beach I was told about. Looks pretty nice. Maybe not the best with the wind today. So, this supposedly, it looks like a concrete 
mainly beach, and over there there’s some pebble. Yeah, pebble at the end. So this is the main beach 
area of Stari Grad, the bay here. And here you have all the boats anchoring 
up and actually it’s more or less opposite to the ferry port. I mean we have the 
ferry port over there. So we must be around 1 and a half, 2 km kilometers 
out from the center on this side. Anyway, we will head back to the center and,
you know conclude the video when we get there. Now we are back more or less 
where we started the video. Sp I hope this small tour around gave 
you an idea about Stari Grad. Also I hope you enjoyed seeing what we showed from 
Stari Grad plain. So if you like the video, please give it a like. Go to our channel. 
We have plenty of videos from island Hvar, from other places in Croatia. So, please subscribe 
and till the next one. Thank you very much.

Join me on a journey through Stari Grad, the oldest town on the island of Hvar, and the oldest town in Croatia. 🌿

We begin at the Stari Grad Plain, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with roots going back to the ancient Greeks. From there, we walk through the charming old town center, explore its history and hidden streets, and finally visit the UNESCO-protected Pharos site before taking a look at one of the town’s beaches.

If you’re planning a trip to Hvar or just love history, culture, and travel, this walking tour is the perfect way to discover Stari Grad!

This video about Stari Grad is part of our series of HVAR video, which you can check out here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gGayJLMM4M&list=PL_Q65CCDj1A42OvAa2dvehM-ylsNYfWSe

👉 Don’t forget to like & subscribe for more adventures in Croatia and beyond!

00:00 – Intro
00:20 – Stari Grad plain
02:43 – Green market
03:52 – Exploring the Stari Grad promenade
10:18 – Mausoleum and house of Sime Ljubic
11:00 – What else to do in Stari Grad?
12:50 – Exploring the old town streets
17:44 – Pharos archeological site
19:20 – Visiting the Ploce beach
21:20 – Outro

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