page_title: Brač
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brač / History
context_page_description: Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of 396 square kilometres, 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 5 to 13 km wide. The island's tallest peak, Vidova gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at 780 m, making it the highest island point of the Adriatic islands. The island has a population of 13,956, living in numerous settlements, ranging from the main town Supetar, with more than 3,300 inhabitants, to Murvica, where less than two dozen people live. Brač Airport on Brač is the largest airport of all islands surrounding Split.
context_section_description: Archaeological findings in the Kopačina cave between Supetar and Donji Humac have been dated to the 12th millennium BC. These are some of the oldest traces of human habitation in Croatia. The findings show that the cave has been inhabited until the 3rd millennium BC (although not continuously). Some of the artefacts have originated in the Dalmatian hinterland, showing that Brač was part of a trade network with the mainland. In the Bronze Age and Iron Age, numerous villages existed.
  In the 4th century BC Greek colonisation spread over many Adriatic islands and along the coast, but none of them on Brač. Nevertheless, Greeks visited the island and also traded with the Illyrian inhabitants. The Greek name of the island was Elaphousa, apparently derived from elaphos "stag". Based on this, it has been speculated that the original name of the island may have been derived from Messapic  *brentos "stag". Polybius and Plinius record the name of the island as Brattia.
  Brač lay on the crossroads of several trade routes from Salona (today Solin) to Issa (today Vis) and the Po River.
  Greek artifacts were found in the bay of Vičja near Ložišća on the estate of the Rakela-Bugre brothers. Many of the objects belonging to this still unexamined site are now on display in the Archeological Museum of Split.
  Dalmatia fell under Roman rule in AD 9. 
  Salona became the capital of the new province and, probably because of its proximity to Salona, significant population centers were present on the island in the Roman period. 
  Signs of Roman habitation are still widespread, but they usually are limited to single Roman villas, cisterns, and especially early quarries between Škrip and Splitska. Splitska also became the most important harbour to carry stone to Salona and the whole of Dalmatia. Diocletian's Palace, which later became Split, was largely built with limestone that was quarried on Brač. Also agriculture, especially wine and olives, began in the same era.
  After the destruction of Salona by Avars and Slavs, Brač  became a refuge. Tradition has it that Škrip was founded by refugee Salonans, but the town is actually much older than that.
  In 872, the island was sacked by Saracen raiders.
  From 1268 to 1357 the island recognised the supremacy of the Republic of Venice, and after that they bowed to the Kingdom of Hungary. In the summer of 1390, together with the whole region, they accepted the rule of the Bosnian King Tvrtko Kotromanić, who died the next year. Soon after his death, Hungary claimed the island again. In this whole period, they kept their basic autonomy and old structures - the island was never rich or strategically interesting enough to justify serious intervention. Local nobility administered and ruled Brač and the seat of the council was Nerežišća in the island's center. The leader was selected from the noble families. Only in 1420 did the Venetian Republic reclaim the island, finally sending a representative to assume rule over it.
  
  The Black Death hit Brač from 1434-1436. For 1405, Hranković mentions in his chronicles that Brač has a population of 6,000 - but after the pandemic, only 2,000 people were still living on the island. The population recovered in the following years quickly, with many people moving in from the main land and the population also spreading from the inner parts of the island to the coast, where some of the old pre-Croatian settlements were resettled again. During this time, the Bosnian realm fell to the Ottoman Empire and many refugees settled on the islands, especially on Brač. Many towns were founded in that time and the population began moving from the interior of the island to its coast: to Bol, Milna, Postira, Povlja, Pučišća, Splitska, Sumartin, Supetar i Sutivan. Venice ruled for more than four centuries, until 1797, when the Habsburg Monarchy annexed most of its territory in a deal with Napoleonic France. The official language was Latin.
  During the Napoleonic Wars, Brač was conquered by the French Empire for a short time in 1806. In 1807, Prince-Bishop Petar I Njegoš of Montenegro managed to seize 
caption: Supetar harbour
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