Stomorska Village

Stomorska is not in Split. It is a small village on the north-eastern coast of the island of Šolta, close to the strait that separates Šolta from Brač, and it is generally described as the oldest coastal settlement on the island. The 2021 census recorded 319 residents across an area of about 3.1 square kilometres, and the village lies roughly 12 kilometres from Rogač, Šolta's main ferry port. Everything about the place still points back to the sea: a deep, well-sheltered bay, a waterfront of old stone houses, and a working harbour that has been in use for centuries.

A Working Port on Šolta's North-East Coast

Stomorska's history is the history of Šolta's sailors. Its residents were skilled seamen who owned their own sailing boats and used them to carry wheat, lime, wine, olive oil and other goods off the island, at a time when Šolta had to pay levies to Split. That trade ran to the mainland and on towards Italy, and it gave a village of a few hundred people a maritime tradition out of all proportion to its size. Boatbuilding followed naturally, with a small yard established locally, and traditional wooden sailing boats are still built and maintained here; there are usually one or two in the harbour among the modern yachts and the small local fishing boats known as kaići.

Under Austro-Hungarian administration the settlements of Šolta were recorded under Italian names, and Stomorska appears in those registers as Stomosca. The village church of St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors, was built in the 1870s, alongside an old school building that now serves as a space for tastings, exhibitions and community events. The village itself has kept its shape: authentic Dalmatian stone houses along the waterfront, a handful of konobas and cafés, and beaches on both sides of the bay.

Scale is the point here. The permanent population of a few hundred is matched by capacity for only around 500 visitors, so even at the height of August the village never turns into a resort. The D111 road ties it into the rest of the island, but the waterfront is still the centre of daily life, and the traffic that matters arrives by water. Fishing boats, charter yachts and the occasional wooden sailing boat share the same short quay.

The Island Around It

Šolta covers 58.98 square kilometres and lies west of Brač and south of Split, its highest point the summit of Vela Straža at 236 metres. The island had a Roman settlement known as Solentia, and its population history tells a familiar Dalmatian story: a peak of 3,687 residents in 1900, a long decline to a low of 1,470 in 1981, and a partial recovery since, with the 2021 census recording 1,975 people across eight settlements. Grohote is the largest of them; Rogač handles the ferries, Maslinica is the main fishing harbour, and Nečujam has become the island's tourism centre.

The economy still rests on vineyards, olives, fruit, fishing and tourism rather than on any single industry, and the western interior holds a productive agricultural field roughly six kilometres by two. Šolta's most interesting export is genetic: the Dobričić grape, native to the island, has been shown by DNA analysis to be one of the parents of the variety that became California's Zinfandel. Olive oil from the island has a similarly serious reputation, and both turn up regularly on local menus in Stomorska.

The island's other historic sites are within easy reach of the village. Nečujam, the largest bay on Šolta, branches into six or seven smaller coves and holds the submerged remains of a Roman fish pond associated with Emperor Diocletian: a stone barrier about 64 metres long that once closed off part of the bay to keep fish alive. The same village is where Marko Marulić, generally called the father of Croatian literature, spent long stretches writing, and the house he stayed in still stands in the centre of the settlement. Šolta was occupied during the Second World War and saw Allied commando operations in 1944, which is why concrete bunkers still turn up in odd corners of the coast.

Getting to the island without your own boat is simple. Jadrolinija's car ferry on line 636 runs between Split and Rogač, and the crossing takes about one hour, which is short enough that Šolta works as a day trip from the city. From Rogač it is a further 12 kilometres by road to Stomorska.

The Harbour and the Bay Today

The bay at Stomorska cuts deep into the coast and is well protected from most directions, which is precisely why it became a port in the first place. There is a small marina with water and electricity on the quay, restaurants and cafés a few steps from the mooring, and pebble and rocky beaches within easy walking distance on either side of the entrance, most of them shallow enough for swimming straight off the boat. The northern exposure means a strong bura can send an uncomfortable swell into the bay, but in settled summer conditions it is one of the calmer overnight stops in the immediate Split area.

Its combination of shelter, short distance from the mainland and a waterfront that has not been overbuilt is why many gulet cruises from Split call in here, either for a lunch and swim stop or for a night at anchor on the way to or from Šolta's quieter southern bays and the neighbouring islands of Brač and Drvenik.