Supetar (, it, San Pietro della Brazza) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares ...

on the northern side of the

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see names in other languages) is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of the Adriatic Sea, stre ...

n island of

Brač Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide. The island's talles ...

, in the

Split-Dalmatia County Split-Dalmatia County ( hr, Splitsko-dalmatinska županija ) is a central-southern Dalmatian county in Croatia. The administrative center is Split. The population of the county is 455,242 (2011). The land area is 14.106,40 km2. Split-Dalm ...

, in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

. It became the island's official centre in 1827. The Town of Supetar includes Supetar itself and the three villages: Splitska, Škrip and Mirca. With a population of 3,213, it is the island's largest town. It is accessible by ferry ( Jadrolinija, the ferry ride from the mainland city of

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertain ...

takes 45 minutes) or via Brač Airport which is located 30 kilometres to the southeast.

History

Old Supetar was situated on the small peninsula where there is now a graveyard. The settlement came to an end during the early Christian era. In the late Middle Ages a new settlement started around the bay known as St. Peter's, from which the town derives its name. It originated from Sv. Petar during the Latin population of the town. "Sv" stands for "Sveti", meaning saint, therefore it takes its name from

Saint Peter ) (Simeon, Simon) , birth_date = , birth_place = Bethsaida, Gaulanitis, Syria, Roman Empire , death_date = Between AD 64–68 , death_place = probably Vatican Hill, Rome, Italia, Roman Empire , parents = John (or Jonah; Jona) , occupa ...

, which is the name's English equivalent translation. The present settlement of Supetar was founded in the 16th century when people living in Nerežišća, about inland, began to use it as their harbour. The town's main period of development occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries when Supetar took over from Nerežišća as the administrative centre of the island of Brač.Jane Foster
''Footprint Croatia''
pg. 237, Footprint Handbooks (2004),

The town

The Parish church of St. Peter (Sveti Petar) stands on the side of an old chapel which was restored in 1773 in a Baroque architectural style. At that time it also received a new aisle and bell tower. It was extended in 1887. In the church there are paintings by the local artist Feliks Tironi from the second half of the 18th century and a Baroque altarpiece by an unknown Venetian artist of the 18th century. In the old part of the church there are some gravestones with Croatian inscriptions and at the entrance to the church there is a font made of two large Gothic capitals. On the left of the church building there is a sundial and beneath it a sarcophagus with the date 1774 engraved. In the Sunday school classrooms there are paintings from the Venetian era (16th and 17th centuries). The well, decorated with reliefs, is the work of Johannes Mazzonius from 1734. Supetar graveyard beside the Chapel St. Nicholas (Sveti Nikola Putnik) there are two old Christian sarcophagi and several gravestones (Pieta), which are the work of Ivan Rendić of Supetar (1849–1932), and the mausoleum of the Petrinović family with portraits and sculptures, by the sculptor Toma Rosandić (1878–1958).

Population

Supetar in the news

Slobodna Dalmacija ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' () is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split. The first issue of ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' was published on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the city ...

'' daily reported in 2009 that a housing development called Adriatica is being built in

McKinney, Texas McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas. It is Collin County's third-largest city, after Plano, Texas, Plano and Frisco, Texas, Frisco. A suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, McKinney is about north of Dallas. ...

, United States, by real estate developer Jeff Blackard as a partial faithful replica of Supetar.Million Dollars for a Villa in American Supetar''
article on Adriatica McKinney in

Notable people

* Tonči Matulić (born 1966), Catholic priest, author, university professor, and bioethicist

References

External links

Supetar Tourist Board

at Geonames.com
Supetar-Brač Online
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Croatia Populated coastal places in Croatia Brač Populated places in Split-Dalmatia County