Gradac (), is a municipality in southern

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. It is situated halfway between

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

and

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik, historically known as Ragusa, is a city in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, by the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, a Port, seaport and the centre of the Dubrovni ...

. The town of

Ploče Ploče (, ) is a town and seaport in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. Geography Ploče is located on the Adriatic coast in Dalmatia just north of the Neretva Delta and is the natural seaside endpoint of most north-south routes through th ...

is 12 km south of Gradac, while the town of

Makarska Makarska () is a town on the Adriatic coastline of Croatia, about southeast of Split (city), Split and northwest of Dubrovnik, in the Split-Dalmatia County. Makarska is a prominent regional tourist center, located on a horseshoe-shaped bay bet ...

is 42 km north. The municipality, consisting of the coastal settlements Drvenik,

Zaostrog Zaostrog () is a tourist town and harbor along the Adriatic Sea in southern Dalmatia, Croatia. It is located between Makarska and Ploče. It consists of two parts, an older part below a steep limestone section of the Biokovo mountain range, and a n ...

Podaca Podaca is a coastal village and tourist locality in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, halfway between big urban centers of Split and Dubrovnik, or more closely cities of Makarska and Ploče, in the Gradac municipality, across from Pelješac peninsula a ...

Brist Brist is a village in southern Dalmatia, Croatia, population 400 (census 2011). Located on the Adriatic coast between Makarska and Ploče Ploče (, ) is a town and seaport in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia. Geography Ploče is located ...

and Gradac itself, marks the end of the riviera and the county.

Demographics

The municipality has very low density of permanent population (mostly native to Dalmatia, or the rest of Croatia and neighboring

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

), with handful of people outside of the region. In 2021, the municipality had 2,401 residents in the following 5 settlements: *

, population 351 * Drvenik, population 420 *Gradac, population 989 *

, population 421 *

, population 220

History

The Gradac area was inhabited before prehistoric times. Numerous stone mounds dating back to the

Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

and Early

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

s have been found in the area. In

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

, the Gradac area was most likely the seat of the Roman

civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by Roman law, law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilitie ...

Biston, which as a coastal center belonged to the colony of

Narona Narona () was an Ancient Greek trading post on the Illyrian coast and later Roman city and bishopric, located in the Neretva valley in present-day Vid, Croatia, which remains a Latin Catholic titular see. History It was founded as a Greek em ...

, an important Roman stronghold on what is now Croatian territory. At the locality of Gradina a cornice fragment of the monumental building from the 2nd-3rd century was found, as well as Roman coin pieces. Near the Laguna hotel were found many tombs, hence it is thought that on this location there was once a Roman

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

The medieval town of Lapčan, or Labinac, which, under the name of Labineca, was mentioned by the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

emperor

Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, a ...

, mid-10th century, was situated on the territory of today's Gradac. Under its present name, Gradac was mentioned for the first time in 1649. It was named after the stronghold that was situated on the elevation above the present-day church of St. Michael, and which was built probably during the

Cretan War (1645–1669) The Cretan War (; ), also known as the War of Candia () or the fifth Ottoman–Venetian war, was a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta, the Papal States and France) against the Ottoman ...

as a defence against the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

.Radovan Radovinovič, ''The Croatian Adriatic Tourist Guide'', pg. 306, Naklada Naprijed - Zagreb (1999), According to the drawing made by the Venetian military engineer and cartographer Giuseppe Santini, representing the naval and continental battles between the Venetians and Ottomans at Gradac in the year 1666, the tower is shown in flames.

Culture

The remnants of the old tower from the 16th century can be found in the abandoned village of Čista above Gradac, the seat of the ancient Fragostin's district. Surrounding it are still the remnants of rows of abandoned houses with typical architectonic features of the region. One of the oldest existing edifices in the territory of Gradac is the chapel of St. Pasquale on the Mt. Plana, with a barrel shaped vault, and a saddle roof. Next to the old parish church of St. Antonio there is a local cemetery and the new parish church of St. Michael built in 1852, precisely in the zone of Gradina, the ancient Roman locality. In the church, there are three marble altars with statues. The most interesting among them is the old wooden statue of St. Rocco. In the church there is also the old baptismal stone font, originating probably from the old church. Gradac is very well known for it antifascist and partisan history. Gradac has a memorial to citizens killed by the

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Before war in the 1990s, Gradac had a memorial statue of an unknown soldier made by well-known Croatian sculptor

Antun Augustinčić Antun Augustinčić (4 May 1900 – 10 May 1979) was a Croatian sculptor active in Yugoslavia and the United States. Along with Ivan Meštrović and Frano Kršinić, he is considered one of the three most important Croatian sculptors of the 2 ...

dedicated to partisan uprising during Second World War. It was destroyed in 1992.

References

External links

Weather forecast for Gradac
at AccuWeather.com {{Coord, 43, 06, 17, N, 17, 20, 28, E, region:HR_type:city(3615)_source:dewiki, display=title Populated places in Split-Dalmatia County Municipalities of Croatia Populated coastal places in Croatia

Demographics

History

Culture

See also

References

External links