Deb had an early start to our day. Did anyone catch her sunrise pics?
We had a plan, after a strenuous days sailing yesterday (lazing around all day really does take it out of you) we thought we would take it easy today and explore Hvar. 😁
We walked over to the main town square and bought some more sunscreen, we have been through a fair bit on the holiday so far, sun feels much stronger here.
We decided to go to the Franciscan Monastery to see the “famous” Last Supper painting that is there. Rather than walk around the foreshore way we took the back streets. It was so much more interesting and away from all the people getting cruises, ferries and generally onto boats around the harbour. 
The buildings are all pretty old and there were some very picturesque views as we made our way through the zigzag of lanes.
We came out of the back lanes just across the bay from the Monastery, a pretty sight. We walked around and made our way into the 14-15th century complex. It is called the Franciscan Monastery and the Church of St Mary of Grace. 
As you enter you go into a centre courtyard that was used for water collection, it had a large water pitcher in the middle and was surrounded by cloisters.
We went into the church, a single-knave Gothic style. It felt old, the floors we made of tombstones of people buried beneath us. The church was divided in to two main “rooms” and a couple of small chapels to one side. The main room had an alter and a statue, and to the sides dark wooden seats for either the chorus or prominent people, hard to tell. The back room look like it was for the common people, fairly plain with rows of benches facing the alter. 
On the other side of the courtyard was a museum, that contained the painting of the Last Supper. We went in, the painting was pretty big, it covered the width of the room it is in, maybe 6+ metres wide and about 2m high.
The artist or artists, responsible for the work is subject to much debate, being done by either Matteo Roselli, or the School of Palma il Giovane, or Matteo Ingoli, but all around the early 17th century. The museum had other items from early Roman artefacts found in the surrounding waters and quite a few religious artefacts and paintings etc. Just outside the museum in a courtyard was a famous Cyprus Tree that has been declared a Botanic National Monument. It is estimated to be one of the oldest Cyprus Trees in Croatia at around 500 years old and has the unusual characteristic of having its branches in an elliptic cross section.
There was also a very healthy vegetable patch growing there. We both enjoyed our time there. From there we made our way back to the main square along the busy waterfront. Deb decided to go back to the hotel and I went up to the fort.
The fort is on top of the hill behind the town of Hvar. It is commonly known locally as Fortica (Italian for The Fort), or more formally as The Town Fortress.
While the fort as it is today commenced construction in the 11th century and was essentially finished in its current form by the middle of the 16th century its foundations have a history dating back to the 1st millennia BC. It is now a tourist attraction by day and an entertainment venue at other times. The views from the Fort are spectacular.
Dinner was meant to be at a restaurant on the harbour we had booked a table on Thursday. We arrived and someone had just sat at our table. They apologised profusely, but didn’t have a table we liked, so we moved on. We eventually found a place near the main square, Marigo Grill & Chill. It was very relaxed, we had pizza, and it was very good. Following that we stopped and got one last Hvar gelato, we sat on a bench and watched the world go by. A relaxing way to finish our time here.
Number of Views :242
