The school workshop
Students carving with chisel and mallet, open to enter.
Lemurek at English Wikipedia — Public domain · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 4.0
A town at the head of a deep narrow inlet on the northern coast, its houses **uniformly white** because they are built from the stone quarried in the hill directly above. **Brač stone** is this town''s entire subject. It has been cut here since Roman times, and **Diocletian''s Palace** in Split was built from it, along with buildings in Venice, Budapest and Vienna, and the Hungarian parliament. The widely repeated claim that it went into the **White House** in Washington is **unproven**, and guidebooks repeat it without a source. What genuinely makes the town unique is its **stonemasonry school**, one of very few left in Europe. Founded in **1909**, its students learn to carve with **hand chisel and mallet** in the traditional way — not with machines. Visitors can enter the workshop and watch them work, and their carvings are scattered through the town. The inlet is narrow and deep, so the town appears to sit in a basin, with stone ships moored in front of it. Note: **visit the school in term time** — it is mostly closed during the summer holidays, which is when most visitors come.
Students carving with chisel and mallet, open to enter.
Deep and enclosed, so the town seems to sit in a basin.
The stone that built Split and parts of Venice.
Pučišća — about 25 km east of Supetar
A **very pure white limestone**, low in impurities and even-grained — which is what makes it sought after: it carves finely without crumbling, weathers well, and stays white. It has been quarried here since the **second century AD**, and the oldest documented major use is **Diocletian''s Palace** in Split (around 300 AD). Over the centuries it went to Venice, Trieste, Vienna and Budapest, and among its known buildings is the **Hungarian parliament**. ⚠ The **White House** claim, repeated constantly in guidebooks, has **no support**: the White House is built of sandstone from a quarry in Virginia, and that is documented. The story is most likely a confusion with other buildings, or later marketing. ⚠ The quarries are still working today and are visible from the road above Pučišća.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.