Brusje
The first village behind Hvar towards the interior of the island, on the road to Stari Grad is Brusje (6.5 km from Hvar). The village developed from temporary dwellings of shepherds in the early 16th c. The church (from 1731) has been enlarged on two occasions. On the facade, the figure of St. George on horseback. The altar piece in the church depicting St. Anthony the Abbot and other saints by B. Zelotti (1532—1592) was brought here from the Dominican monastery in Hvar.
The figure of St. George in the altar piece decorating the main altar is set against a background showing the islands of Brae and Šolta (Split Channel). The painting is a gift of the contemporary Croatian painter Ivo Dulčić of Brusje. The Rectory was originally the country seat of Bishop Bonajuti (1736—1759). The elevation with these buildings and the local cemetery commands a wide panoramic view.
On the right-hand side of the road before Brusje, and on the left behind Brusje, on the road to Stari Grad, stand the ruins of two small patrician summer residences from the 16th c. The first is called Njivice, the second Moncirovo (maceria ~ ruins). Five kilometres behind Brusje we reach the village of Velo Grablje which came into existence before the 15th c. developing probably from the country estates of the old patrician families Ozor and Gazari.
A lovely walk along the bed of a dried-up brook will bring us from Velo Grablje to Male Grablje 2 km below. Clinging precariously to the steep rock side, the village looks like a pirates' stronghold. It is no longer inhabited, the inhabitants having moved down into new houses in Milna Cove. From Malo Grablje one can proceed to Milna returning from there to Hvar either by the ancient road or by ship.
Descending to the north coast of the island, several coves belonging to the island can be reached. After Vira, there is Jagodna, a very wooded cove, then Kosmaca, Carnica, Lozna, Tatinja and finally Grabovac. In the following cove of Lucisce, there are the remains of a villa with a preserved chapel of the noble Bertučević. A humanist and a poet, Jerolim, and his son Hortenzije, came from this family (16th century). In the bay of Gradišće there is a prehistoric fortification from the second millennium BC. Illyrian and ancient ceramics have been found here. After Gradišće, there are the coves of Radocinol, Konopljikova and Maslinica, with the country houses of the nobles of Hvar and the families of maritime tradition.
The former inhabitants were mostly involved with cattle-breeding and agriculture, while today priority is given mostly to the cultivation and processing of lavender, which plays an important role in the island's exports.
Milna (Vis)
Vis town
Rukavac
Komiza
