Splitska is an ancient village on the island of Brač in Croatia. The population is only 368. The village was settled by Romans to mine stones which were used to construct the Diocletian Palace and many other buildings throughout Europe.The initial quarry is located only a few hundred meters from the main road which passes Splitska. The village got its name from a derivative of Split (the second largest city in Croatia with over 200,000 inhabitants). The village name was first mentioned in the year 1577 AD, when Mihovil Cerinić (Cerineo) from Škrip built a small castle in the village.

Island of Brac

Nice beaches and crystal clear sea act as an irresistible bait for all the visitors, instead of above all breathtaking nature, rich gastro offering and well know local courtesy guarantee unforgettable holidays. An island of stone, sun and the sea is the largest of all mid Dalmatian islands. Brač is an island of steep shores and rocks but also of beautiful beaches. Brač changed overlords through history but the specific stone remained witness of the island’s soul.

Vidova Gora

The highest point in the Adriatic islands’ groups on the island of Brač – it is Vidova gora (780m. The picturesque hill with old shepherds’ homes, from witch it is good to see the ones in Gažul because they show the best variety of island’s harst and endemic forests of black pine trees. The hill got its name after the ruins of the chapel of St.Vid, which is about 100m from the top, and points to an ancient Croatian cult of Slavic god Svetovid.

The view from Vidova gora is something that you can’t miss when visiting Brač. Down deep you can see the golden finger of Golden horn, many coves, across the sea there is the northern side of the island Hvar, halfisland Pelješac, islands Korčula, Vis and Biševo, even to the little island Jabuka, and when the weather is especially clear you can spot even Monte Gargano in Italy.

Blaca desert

Blaca is a desert which was once famous Glagolitic desert, later observatory, situated on the eatern side of the valley on the southern side of the island, between Milna and Bol. It is best to reach it by the road from Blatačka uvala or by the footpath from the inner part of the island, over Nerežišće, Žurmo puddle (old Christian sarcophagus used as watering place for horses) and Dragovode (with homes of old island’s shepherds built near the water spring). In a cave called Ljubitovica on the southern side of the island, two Glagolitic priests from Poljica in the yaer 1551. found a cottage which later become a hermit’s monastery.

Great number of 11.000 books in the monastery’s library werw written before 1800., and the archive shows that they’ve been nothing all the economic and everyday farming works in detail; plants’ blooming, groowing and fathering of fruits on the fields, and climatic conditions. Blaca desert has preserved all its inventory, and iti is shown today in a museum. Especially worthy is a astronomical inheritance of the last hermit Niko Miličić.

Dragon’s cave

This cave and the reliefs in it are the first class monument of monastic life of Glagolitic priest in 15th century. Around 200m above Murvica this cave was used as a dwelling plate and as a temple of Glagolitic priests from Poljica who came here in the middle of the 15th century, to stat their monastic life in the cave and to raise its value higher, together with other desrts – hermitages, like deserts Silvio (Dubravčić) west of the cave, Stipančić on the southeastern side, and Dutić and Dračeva luka west of the Murvica. It is like the spiritual history of a people was embalmed here, in which its old pagan view of the world made peace with Christian teaching.

Here above the sea, from where you can look far into the Mediterranean, it was looked after Glagolitic teaching and writing. An old and rare example of Croatian Glagolitic missal from 1483. was found here and it is kept in Dominican museum in Bol today. Until today here also live old Slavic myths about fairies, werewolves, evil fairies and witches, and Mediterranean stories of Orkomarin, one-eyed giant who lives in the cave. Dragon’s cave keeps in itself a specila world, which seems to come from dreams.

Stonecutting

The stone from Brač presents the soul of the island. In the small place Pučišća there is a unique stonecutting school, and the story of that place, of thah school and the nearby quarry, is the same tima the story of history, tradition and glory of the stone of this island. Almost hundred years alredy have children learmed how to cut the white sediments, using the traditional tools left even from the Roman times. The experts say that only by using such tools people can extract the light from the white limestone – the radiance of the whiteness of the limestone crystals, the radiance because of which people become the captives of the stone, ie. the stonecutters or “škarpelini”.

The longest life would be too short to tell the whole story ofteh stone from Brač. As the first on the island, known even in the far history, there are the quarries Plate, Rasohe and Stražišća close to the places Škrip and Splitska, in the inland of the island. Their remains are to be seen even today. In Rasoe, foe example, on the carved inscription near the stone relife of the Roman god Hercules, carved in the cornerstone, it is said that this monument was to be made by Roman soldier Valerius Valrian, who was the supervisior on the quarry.