The bell tower
Appearing lighter as it rises, a Dalmatian visual device.
japus โ CC BY 2.5 ยท Bernard Gagnon โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Bernard Gagnon โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Bernard Gagnon โ CC BY-SA 4.0
It stands at the eastern end of St Stephen''s Square and closes it, so its facade is the view everyone walking up the square sees. It was built on the site of a Benedictine monastery destroyed by the Ottomans in the attack of **1571**, and completed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries โ making it **late Renaissance** rather than Gothic, unlike most Dalmatian cathedrals. The front is white stone in three sections with a curved gable, and beside it stands a **four-storey bell tower** in which each storey has more windows than the one below โ one window, then two, then three, then four. The effect is that the tower appears **lighter as it rises**, a well-known Dalmatian visual device. Inside are baroque altars and paintings, and its best-known holding, a thirteenth-century Byzantine **icon of the Virgin**. Beside the cathedral is the **Bishop''s Museum**, holding church treasures and manuscripts. Note: **its hours are short and irregular** โ many visitors find it closed; morning is the best chance.
Appearing lighter as it rises, a Dalmatian visual device.
Thirteenth-century Byzantine, the cathedral''s best-known piece.
Beside it, holding church treasures and manuscripts.
Eastern end of St Stephen''s Square, Hvar Town
It sits above the **Arsenal** at the far end of St Stephen''s Square, and opened in **1612**. What matters about it is not its age alone โ older theatres exist โ but that it was **built for nobles and commoners to enter together**, at a time when theatres were confined to a court or a single class. That is what makes it the first **municipal** theatre in Europe in this sense: owned by the town and open to its people. The interior is small: a horseshoe hall with wooden boxes and nineteenth-century painting. โ **It was closed for restoration for many years** and has since reopened in part, so its status changes โ check locally before relying on it. โ The Arsenal beneath, a vaulted sixteenth-century shipyard, is sometimes covered by the same ticket.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet โ be the first.