Stari Grad Plain (Croatia)

Stari Grad Plain (Starogradsko polje) is a fertile agricultural plain on the Adriatic island of Hvar, Croatia, divided into geometrical parcels by Greek colonists from the island of Paros in the 4th century BC and farmed continuously in the same pattern ever since. UNESCO inscribed it on the World Heritage List in 2008 as a cultural landscape under criteria (ii), (iii), and (v), describing it as a comprehensive system of land use and agricultural colonization by the Greeks whose land organization, based on geometrical parcels with dry stone wall boundaries (the chora), is exemplary.¹

Greek colonization and land division

A Greek city consisted of an urban center, the asty (άστυ), and an agricultural territory under the city's administration, the chora (χωρα).

Surveying proceeded from two principal axes. Right angles set out on east-west markers produced the north-south axes; precise measurements confirmed that the east-west parcel axes are highly regular, with slight deviations on the main north-south and east-west axes. The point where the two main axes cross, the omphalos, was the starting point of the survey. The basic modular unit is the striga, a parcel of 1 x 5 stadia, that is 180 m x 900 m.

The research of Marin Zaninović of Zagreb, published in Prilozi Instituta za arheologiju u Zagrebu in 2018, identified the characteristic oblong parcels from aerial photographs and documented the preserved inscribed boundary stone.⁵

The Greek division left a permanent stamp. The system was completed from the first by a rainwater recovery system using tanks and gutters, and the landscape also contains trims, small stone shelters.¹

Recognition as a Greek cadastre

Agricultural history

The plain has always carried the Mediterranean triad of vine, olive, and wheat, with their proportions shaping the look of the landscape. Vine was dominant from the 17th to the 20th century and gave the field its specific character of a tended plain, described as "a sea of vineyards". Big changes began in the 1960s, when tourism became the dominant economic branch on the island.² Grapes and olives remain the main crops, joined over time by lavender and figs.^{1 • 6} At 1,376 hectares the plain is the biggest single area of fertile land on Hvar and on all of Croatia's Adriatic islands.⁴

Integrity, threats, and management

UNESCO records the Greek cadastral system as fully respected during the plain's continuous agricultural use, perfectly identifiable today and changed very little; the dry stone walls are authentic, built of the same materials used and reused since the Greek foundation.¹ Under criterion (v), however, the plain and its environment are an example of very ancient traditional human settlement now under threat from modern economic development, particularly rural depopulation and the abandonment of traditional farming practices.¹

A management plan and a dedicated authority, the Agency for the Management of Stari Grad Plain, are intended to enable archaeological excavation, foster sustainable agricultural development in the chora, and control urban and tourism development near the property.^{1 • 7} The agency was founded by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Management, the Municipality of Jelsa, and the City of Stari Grad.⁷ The plain is also inscribed in the Croatian Register of Cultural Assets.⁴

References

1. Stari Grad Plain, UNESCO World Heritage Centre
2. Aldo Čavić (2017). The Field of Stari Grad as a Cultivated Agricultural Landscape Through History. Prilozi povijesti otoka Hvara XIII(1)
3. Stari Grad Plain & Stari Grad – UNESCO World Heritage, Stari Grad Museum
4. A Guide to the Stari Grad Plain, Visit Jelsa
5. Marin Zaninović (2018). How I identified a Greek cadastre (chora) on the Stari Grad Plain. Prilozi Instituta za arheologiju u Zagrebu 35
6. Stari Grad Plain, Debonda
7. Faros i faroska hora, Agencija za upravljanje Starogradskim poljem

Initially written Oct 20, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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