Town of Vis

     The town of Vis is situated in a large and naturally protected bay that was named after the protector of the city St. George, and it is located on the north side of the island. The port itself, the ferry dock is situated in the most recessed south western part of the bay, sheltered from the open sea by small Host island and Prirovo peninsula. The town was formed by merging the old villages Luka and Kut, parts of Vis that even today have maintained their own names. The oldest information about the island is the records of the Illyrian ruler Ion, who ruled the island between the 6th and the 5th century BC. Later, in the 4th century BC, Illyrians were expelled by the Greeks who were led by Dionysius of Syracuse, and founded the first Greek town on the eastern Adriatic coast – Polis Issa, today’s town of Vis. Issa was an independent state for centuries, it was regulated by law, minted its own money, founded its colonies on the mainland, and then became a part of the Roman Empire. In the 7th century the island was settled by Croats and was given the Croatian name – Vis, which has been preserved until today.

     When in the 5th century Venetians destroyed Vis, the residents retreated into the island’s interior Velo Selo, called Podselje today. However, the penetration and destruction of Velo Selo by the Catalans in the 15th century, convinced the residents that the distance between the sea and the interior of the island was easy to cross and that it didn’t offer any protection, so they returned to the area of today’s town of Vis, where they founded the site of Luka and Kut.

     From that time until the 20th century authorities on the island of Vis were constantly changing, so that the town, as well as the entire island, after the Venetian rule in1797, came under Austrian rule, in 1805 under French rule, and in 1811 under British rule, that in a short period of time fortified Vis port. From 1815 to 1918 Vis fell again under the rule of Austria and it was a time when the roads, lighthouses and harbours were built, drainage as well, the time when the island was regulated by laws, had its own cadastre and a land register, in other words,  it was the most organized time in the history of Vis. Recently, during World War II and after, during the existence of Yugoslavia,    Vis was named “unconquerable fortress of the Adriatic” because it was the most important strategic point of Yugoslavia. Therefore, it did become a stronghold until the withdrawal of the JNA Army from the island on 30 May 1992. 

      Today, Vis has turned into tourism and agriculture – abandoned farms are being renewed, and investment in organic production is currently being developed in particular.

INTERESTING FACTS
• Vis is the oldest city in Croatia.
• In the early medieval Croatian kingdom, people of Vis were famous for their maritime skills and piracy.

• At the time of British rule Vis was a smuggling centre, and allowed piracy as a form of free trade. This was a period of abundance of sugar, coffee, wine, beer, rum, silk, gold, silver, watches, perfumes, jewels, fruit, cigars found nowhere else in the mainland.

• During the time under British rule,cricket was played, and today the first Croatian cricket club is founded on Vis and named after Admiral Sir William Hoste.
•The Battle of Vis, the famous battle between the Austrian and Italian fleets took place in the Vis Channel on 20 July 1866. A smaller and outdated Austrian fleet won the battle. It was the first major naval battle, in which armoured ships and steamboats took place, and also the first combat in the history of the world in which two armoured fleets clashed in the open sea.
• The monument to the Battle of Vis (“The lion of Vis“) was dismantled and taken by the Italian army after the occupation of Vis in 1918. The monument is now kept in Livorno, Italy.
• In the early 20th century at Vis lived about 12 000 people, and today the entire area of ​​the city counts only about 1 500people.