UNESCO heritage

Hvar's culture and heritage under UNESCO protection

Benedictine nuns aloe lace

Aloe lace is made in Croatia only by Benedictine nuns in the town of Hvar. Thin, white threads are obtained from the core of fresh aloe leaves and woven into a net or other pattern on a cardboard background. The resulting pieces are a symbol of Hvar. View video!

Procession Za križen

For more than 400 years on Hvar, parishioners from the central part of the island have participated in the great Za križen (Following the Cross procession). Beginning on Maundy Thursday, mass is simultaneously held in the six parishes of Jelsa, Pitve, Vrisnik, Svirče, Vrbanj and Vrboska. The procession then begins, following a 25-kilometre course into the early morning hours of Good Friday. Because each of the six groups starts from their respective churches and follows the course in a clockwise direction, the groups never meet. Each group is lead by a specially chosen cross-bearer who walks the course either barefoot or in socks. Other official members of the procession are dressed in white tunics.  

The origins of this unique procession are linked to a period of peasant revolt against Venetian governance when, according to legend, a small cross began to bleed before a conflict. It is also interesting to note that in nearly five centuries of celebration, the tradition has never been interrupted.  Even in 1944, when the procession was forbidden by the German authorities, refugees from the island Hvar conducted the procession between their tents in the refugee camp of El Shatt in Africa. This was the only time the annual procession was not conducted on the island.

Different Easter processions are also held in other places on the Island of Hvar.  One of the more interesting examples is the procession held on the afternoon of Good Friday in the Town of Hvar, called ‘Through God’s Graves’. Fraternities from St. Cross and St. Nicolas, one dressed in black tunics, the other in white, begin their procession in different churches. They later come together in the old Venetian square or Pjaca to sing the ancient melody Popule Meus in front the St. Stephens Cathedral.  

Lacemaking in Hvar and  Za križen procession have been inscribed on UNESCO Representative list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. For more information, please visit: http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011&RL=00245 and http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?lg=en&pg=00011&RL=00242.


Stari Grad plain

One of the remains of Hvar history is Stari Grad Plain, one of UNESCO World Heritage sites. This is a cultural landscape that has remained practically intact since it was first colonized by Ionian Greeks from Paros in the 4 th century BC. The original agricultural activity of this fertile plain, mainly centering on grapes and olives, has been maintained since Greek times to the present. The site is also a natural reserve. The landscape features ancient stone walls and trims, or small stone shelters, and bears testimony to the ancient geometrical system of land division, the chora, used by the ancient Greeks, which has remained virtually intact over 24 centuries. For more information on this site, please visit: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1240.