Hvar

About this audio guide

This guide to Hvar's harbor square centers on Matija Ivanic, who in fifteen ten led an armed uprising of ordinary islanders against the noble families who taxed and worked them while paying almost nothing themselves. It follows how his men took the square, drove out or burned the nobles' houses, and how Ivanic effectively ran Hvar for a stretch of years, commanding two thousand men and a fleet of galleys while Venice tried negotiation and then a bounty on his head. Stand at the edge of the square now, past the yacht engines and the cafe chatter, where that standoff played out.