Bol, Brac island
Bol is situated on the southern part of the island Brac, and is the oldest town on the coast of Brac. This little town was founded long ago and became an extraordinary tourist oasis because of the wide gravel and sandy beaches which expands over 10 km and the sources of drinking water. It is not possible to avoid the Zlatni rat, certainly the most beautiful beach on the Adriatic sea, whose cape is turning one moment to one side and the other moment to the other side playing a strange game with the wind and the waves.Above Bol is rising the coronet of Bols hills, the illlyrian fortress Kostilo (660 m) and the Vidova gora (778 m), the highest top of the Adriatic islands. Bol is only 15 km away from the international tourist and sports airport "Brac", and excellent connected with the fast lines to the coast, but also with a ferry- line from Supetar.
It fascinates with crystal clear water, wonderful nature and the virgin beauty of the stony island houses the Croatian poet Tin Ujevicsung about. This little town has kept its Mediterranean spirit. The narrow, stony little roads and the wide piazzetas are simple and typically mediteranneous noisy.
You will open in Bol the doors of history, which are going back to the ancient times. The Roman piscinas testify it and the grave monuments (stela) and relief. There are also the old Christian sarcophagus with the engraved crosses, the pre Romanic church of St. Ivan and St. Tudor (11th century.) on which foundations is discovered an late antique group of buildings, the residence of the bishop (12th century), the church Madonna of graces (15.-17th century.), the fortified gothic summer palace (end of 15th and beginning of 16th. century), the renaissance and baroque palace with the worthy gallery of contemporary Croatian art 'Branislav Deskovic' (end of 17th century) and the local church Madonna of Karmel with the motive of an angel with the handkerchief of Veronica (finished at the end of the 18lh century).
The croatized name Bol (latin vallum, earth wall) is mentioned in the year 1184 because of the council of the island authorities, when the manuscript Povaljske listine originated (the oldest Cyrillic paper wrote with Croatian language). A special importance for the spiritual and cultural life of Bol was the founding of the Dominican community in 1462, and the construction of the monastery in 1475 which keeps today collections of pre historical and ancient maritime archeology, Roman and early Croatian architecture and sculpture, a numismatic collection, and collections of incunabula's and sacral objects. The museum has also a painting Madonna with child and Saints from the Venetian painter Tintoretto from 1563.
Bol has more than 2500 beds in private accommodation. Beside a huge number of little restaurants by the sea, discotheques and clubs, this place offers also relaxing moments with tender Dalmatian klapa (a capella songs), concerts of prominent opera singers, theatre, and art exhibitions of popular Croatian artists who have found in the silence of Bol their moments of inspiration. As the biggest tourist centre on the island,
Bol offers its guests twenty playing-grounds, a big tennis stadium with 1820 sitting places on which every year the tennis elite is coming together - the players of the popular competitions Jadranska rivijera and WTA Croatian Bol ladies Open.
Bol is ideal for the lovers of little football, volleyball, basketball, byciclis, and the extreme sports (trekking, free climbing...), the water sports like diving and windsurfing. In the aquatorium of Bol you will find a true paradise for surfers, always attractive because of the extraordinary good winds.
You can't get acquainted with Brac if you don't push off from its coasts. The nearby Vidova gora is a paradise for adventurers and mountaineers, collectors of mushrooms, sparogs and healing plants. In the Mountain resort 'Vladimir Nazor' you can invigorate yourself with specialities from Brac, and you will maybe hear old Slavic myths like the one of Sevid, the cult of light.
Certainly you have to visit the glagolitic hermitage Blaca with a monastery from the 16th century, and the Dragons cave (Zmajeva spilja) with interesting reliefs. Bol in its excursion program offers regularly visits to the neighbour island Hvar and the towns Split and Dubrovnik.
