Blaca Monastery

Blaca Monastery, also known as the Blaca Hermitage, sits in a remote valley on the island of Brač — not Hvar, despite sometimes getting filed alongside it in travel write-ups. It was founded in 1551 by two Glagolitic monks who fled the Ottoman invasion of Poljica, on the mainland, and settled in a karst cave known as Ljubitovica.

Over the next four centuries, the hermits who lived there built the site into far more than a retreat: a working farm, a school for local children, and — less predictably — a private astronomical observatory. Through careful management of vineyards, olive groves and merchant shipping, the monastery built up real wealth, including a printing press and a library that now holds around 11,000 books, some predating 1800.

The last hermit to live at Blaca, Father Niko Miličević, died in 1963, ending more than 400 years of continuous occupation. Since 1994 the site has operated as a museum under the Brač Cultural Center, and in 2007 it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List. Inside, you can still see the old telescope, the printing press, a gramophone, and the classroom where local children were once taught.

Getting there is part of the experience — Blaca has no road access, so most visitors either hike in from Nerežišća or take a boat to the small bay below and walk the last stretch up the valley. It's a detour rather than a quick stop, but for anyone island-hopping through the Dalmatian islands, many visitors combine a day of sightseeing with a private gulet charter along the Croatia coast — and Brač, with Blaca as its standout inland attraction, fits naturally into that kind of route.