Milna

Milna occupies the best natural harbour on Brac, a deep, sheltered inlet on the island's western coast about 18 kilometres from Supetar. The Croatian word milna describes exactly that kind of place: a shallow, soft-bottomed bay that a boat can shelter in. Inside, the bay splits into two arms, Zalo and Pantera, which is why it stays calm when the channel outside does not.

The Bay of a Thousand Ships

The Venetians called it Valle di mille navi, the bay of a thousand ships, for the number of vessels that could ride out bad weather here. Milna itself is younger than that reputation suggests. The village grew up in the early 17th century around a fortified house, known locally as Angliscina, built by the Cerinic family of Nerezisca to protect their land holdings. It became the island's main port and held that position for roughly two centuries.

Shipowners, Captains and the Bracera

The stone houses along the waterfront date from the town's commercial peak in the 18th and 19th centuries, when Milna was home to shipowners and deep-sea captains whose vessels traded well beyond the Adriatic. Two shipyards worked here, turning out around sixteen sailing ships in the middle of the 19th century. The bracera, the small two-masted Adriatic cargo boat, takes its name from the Italian form of Brac and was built in yards like these. The baroque parish church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, finished in 1783, stands above the harbour with a Dalmatian bell tower and a collection of Venetian paintings inside.

Baterija and the French

On Cape Zaglav at the mouth of the bay stands the Baterija, a gun battery built in 1806 during the French administration of Dalmatia to keep the Russian fleet out of the central Dalmatian islands. It began with four cannon and was later strengthened to six. In December of that year a Russian reconnaissance brig, the Aleksandar, was sighted off the bay and General Marmont ordered it attacked and taken. The walk out to the battery is short and the view back down the inlet explains the position better than any plaque does.

Two Versions of the Same Town

Milna runs on two rhythms. In the morning the excursion boats and small cruise ships come in, and the single line of shops and cafes along the harbour fills up for a few hours. By late afternoon they have gone and the place reverts to a working village of a few hundred people, which is when the waterfront is worth walking. For anyone arriving on their own keel, the evening version is the one you get.

Wind and Shelter

The bay faces west, so a strong westerly is the direction that matters here; the two inner arms take care of most of it, and boats work their way further in when the forecast is unsettled. Through the summer the reliable wind is the maestral, a northwesterly sea breeze that fills in during the early afternoon and dies away around sunset. It is the wind that makes the crossing between Brac and the mainland pleasant, and the reason most boats leave Milna in the morning rather than at midday.

Berthing in Milna

Three marinas operate here, open year-round, which is unusual for an island this size. ACI Marina Milna has 157 berths in the water and around 15 ashore. The private Marina Vlaska takes 71 boats up to twenty metres. A third set of moorings sits in Zalo cove on the northern arm of the bay. Between them, and with the bay's shelter behind them, this is one of the safer places to leave a boat in central Dalmatia in summer. Lying a short sail across the channel from the mainland, Milna is a popular stop for gulet charter guests exploring Split, often as the first or last night of a week among the islands.