Pucisca

Pučišća is not in Split — it is a small town on the north coast of the island of Brač, in Split-Dalmatia County, built around a long, narrow bay. The 2021 census counted 1,341 residents in the town itself and 1,926 across the wider municipality.

Roman-era finds, including an altar to Jupiter uncovered at Stipanska Luka, point to early settlement here, but the town in its present form dates mostly from after 1420, when Venetian rule brought relative security and families from the inland villages of Pražnica and Straževnik moved down to the coast. Piracy remained a real threat for another century: in 1467 Ciprijan Žuvetić built the first of what would become around a dozen defensive towers, giving Pučišća its old nickname, Luka kula — "harbour of towers."

Pučišća's lasting fame, though, is built on stone. Brač's fine white limestone has been quarried in the hills above the town for centuries, and it was used in Diocletian's Palace in Split. Formal stonemasonry instruction on Brač began in 1906, and Pučišća's stonemason school, founded in 1909, is the only one of its kind in Croatia and one of very few schools left anywhere still teaching traditional hand-carving techniques.

Because Brač sits directly across the channel from Split, many gulet cruises from Split call in here, usually anchoring in Pučišća's sheltered bay for an afternoon walk through the old stone town.