When Venice fell to Napoleon in 1797, he gave Dalmatia to the Austrians who built their barracks inside this castle. When Austria, in turn fell after the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805, the French took Hvar back. This in turn brought out the Russians who bombarded the island a few years later.A pleasant walk through aloe and scrub bush leads to this fort built by Spanish engineers during the 16th century and called the Spanish Fort ever since. (Spain has spent the centuries before mostly attacking the Moors in a successful attempt to get them out of Andalusia.) Hvar residents survived the Ottoman onslaught in 1571 by taking refuge here. Before this fort, a medieval castle occupied this obviously strategic high ground.Our luck was not as good. We found the fort closed due to high winds -- but not so high that we couldn't easily walk up here on a sunny mid-October afternoon. Fortunately, no Ottoman Turks were to be found.
First | Previous Picture | Next Picture | Last
