Biševo

It was built in the middle of the 11th century by a priest Ivan Gaudijev Grlić and handed over to the Benedictine Monks from the Tremiti islands. The Church of St. Silvester was built in the pre-Romanesque style, but its shape has changed in later centuries – the 18th and the 20th centuries. The Benedictines arrived to Biševo and erected their monastery near the church. This church preserved one of the oldest paintings of the Blessed Virgin in Dalmatia, a Venetian paintwork from the 13th century (1220) – the Madonna from Biševo. Today its home is the Cathedral of St. Stephen (Sv. Stjepan) in the town of Hvar.

A battery is an artillery military unit consisting of artillery weapons. It consists of 50-60 soldiers and 3-6 artillery pieces. There is a stationary artillery battery with four cannons at cape Gatula. Fortification objects are dug in beneath the surface. Masking of the open section of the gun position facilitated its camouflage into the environment and allowed the soldiers to spend more time underground. A total of 74 artillery batteries existed along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, with 31 located on the mainland and 43 on islands. The island with the largest number of batteries was Vis (7), followed by Korčula and Lošinj (4 each), then Veli and Mali Brijun, Cres, Žirje, Veli Drvenik, Hvar and Mljet (2 each).

The autochthonous Croatian grape variety plavac mali is the most important variety of the central and south Dalmatia. As it is strong, it is often called “the wild wine”. Its special taste comes from the aeolian sand, the high-quality substrate it thrives on. The Plavac Mali wine is the first wine to receive the protected geographical indication in the Republic of Croatia. Due to its characteristics, the Biševo Plavac was a very popular wine on the European market in the end of 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. In that period, the outbreak of phylloxera (Dactulosphaira vitifoliae) struck Europe, destroying almost all European vineyards. Luckily, the phylloxera has difficulties developing in sandy soil, so vineyards of Biševo survived through the European wine crisis.

The traditional products of Vis and Biševo area include wine and food products. The premium wines are produced from the indigenous grape varieties known since ancient Greeks, vugava and plavac mali. The desserts made of carob are healthy, as carob abounds in calcium, potassium, as well as vitamins B and E. Carob pods are also used in the production of Rogačica brandy. A number of delicacies, such as smokvenjak – a dried fig cake, are made of delicious figs in the traditional manner. This cake is known as hib (from “hlib”, meaning “a little bread”). Dried and ground lemon and orange peels, arancini and limuncini – candied orange and lemon peels, bitter orange or lemon jams represent only a part of the marvellous products selection. They are accompanied by various liqueuers, capers and pickled samphire and the inevitable olive oil.