Read More About Most Popular Croatian Cities
According Lonely Planet's Croatia edition written by Jeanne Oliver, Croatian Top destinations : Dubrovnik, Hvar , Split , Korcula , Brela , Plitvice Lakes , Baska on island Krk , Pula , Rovinj , Samobor , Zagreb, Varazdin, Brac, Cavtat, Trogir, Makarska, Losinj, Orebic, Porec, Rab, Sibenik, Vis, Jelsa, Pula, Ciovo, Istria, Trstenik, Vinisce, Novalja, Omis, Opatija
Book accommodation in Croatia :
Baska Voda
Brac
Cavtat
Ciovo and Trogir
Dubrovnik
Hvar
Istria
Jelsa
Kastel Stafilic
Makarska
Makarska Riviera
Mali Lošinj
North Dalmatia
Novalja
Omis
Opatija
Orebic
Peljesac Peninsula
Porec
Pula
Rab
Rovinj
Sibenik Region
Split
Split Region
Trogir
Trstenik
Vinisce
Vis
Zagreb
About Korčula
The town of Korcula, the historical centre of the island, has a very nice location in the Peljesac Channel. It is also known for its outstanding cultural and historical heritage and a long tradition in seafaring, shipbuilding and stone-masonry. It is the birthplace of the adventurer and traveller Marco Polo. Today Korcula is an important tourist centre...
General information
The town of Korcula, the historical centre of the island, has a very nice location in the Peljesac Channel. It is also known for its outstanding cultural and historical heritage and a long tradition in seafaring, shipbuilding and stone-masonry. It is the birthplace of the adventurer and traveller Marco Polo. Today Korcula is an important tourist centre. Tourism has a years-long tradition on the island. The first modern hotel, Korcula, was opened in 1912, in a building erected in 1871. Hotel guests have been enjoying the sunset at the hotel terrace for decades, which is a unique experience in the early summer.
Visitor opportunities of the island of Korcula include various types of accommodation - hotels, apartments, campsites, marina; sports and recreational facilities, especially interesting are water sports; organized excursions and a rich cultural life and entertainment programs. Cultural events of "Moreska" and "Kumpanija" have become world-famous. Gastronomic offer includes famous fish specialities and exquisite, top-class local wines (Posip, Rukatac, Grk, Plavac), due to which Korcula is also called "the island of wines". The local cuisine is also famous for traditional cakes and sweets, such as "cukarini", "krostule" and "prikle".
Korcula has numerous tennis courts. Windsurfing and yachting equipment may be rented. Interesting excursions are one-day or longer sailing or yachting tours and diving expeditions led by professional divers.
The most important cultural event is the traditional chivalrous game called "Moreska". It has been performed in Korcula since the 15th century and is of Spanish origin. It is a battle between the army of the White King and the army of the Black King, who fight for the princess abducted by the Black King. After a fierce fight with swords, in seven battle figures and a dramatic dialogue, the White King defeats the Black King and sets the princess free. The fight is accompanied by a battle march performed by a brass band.
Moreska is performed every year on the 29th of July, together with the celebration of St. Todor, but also on several occasions during the tourist season.
Other traditional feasts in Korcula include the carnival, which starts on the Epiphany, and the Holy Week, with the procession of guilds - especially impressive is the procession on Good Friday. -Other religious feasts are the day of Sts. Peter and Paul (29th of June) with bonfires, the festivities of the Assumption of Our Lady (15th of August) and the feast of St. Martin, with baptizing of young wine (in November). Many cultural and sports events take place during the summer months: music festivals, theatre and folk music performances, sports contests, yachting regattas, etc.
Korcula ACI Marina has 220 berths in the sea and 100 places on the ground.
KORCULA, a town and port on the north-eastern coast of the island of Korcula, situated on a small peninsula which is connected with the island by a narrow isthmus.
The surrounding coastal area is covered with pine forests. East of the port is a small group of islets. The climate is mild; an average air temperature in January is 9.8 °C and in July 26.9 °C; the island is famous for a long insolation. Economy is based on farming, growing of vines, olives and fruit, fishing, shipbuilding, stone processing, tourism and nautical tourism. The regional road connects the town of Korcula with all major places on the island. The port consists of the western and the eastern part. Korcula Marina is located in a cove on the eastern side of the town. Korcula has regular ferry lines with the mainland (Korcula - Orebic).
Visitor opportunities of the island of Korcula include various types of accommodation - hotels, apartments, campsites, marina; sports and recreational facilities, especially interesting are water sports; organized excursions and a rich cultural life and entertainment programs. Cultural events of "Moreska" and "Kumpanija" have become world-famous. Gastronomic offer includes famous fish specialities and exquisite, top-class local wines (Posip, Rukatac, Grk, Plavac), due to which Korcula is also called "the island of wines". The local cuisine is also famous for traditional cakes and sweets, such as "cukarini", "krostule" and "prikle".
Korcula has numerous tennis courts. Windsurfing and yachting equipment may be rented. Interesting excursions are one-day or longer sailing or yachting tours and diving expeditions led by professional divers.
The most important cultural event is the traditional chivalrous game called "Moreska". It has been performed in Korcula since the 15th century and is of Spanish origin. It is a battle between the army of the White King and the army of the Black King, who fight for the princess abducted by the Black King. After a fierce fight with swords, in seven battle figures and a dramatic dialogue, the White King defeats the Black King and sets the princess free. The fight is accompanied by a battle march performed by a brass band.
Moreska is performed every year on the 29th of July, together with the celebration of St. Todor, but also on several occasions during the tourist season.
Other traditional feasts in Korcula include the carnival, which starts on the Epiphany, and the Holy Week, with the procession of guilds - especially impressive is the procession on Good Friday. -Other religious feasts are the day of Sts. Peter and Paul (29th of June) with bonfires, the festivities of the Assumption of Our Lady (15th of August) and the feast of St. Martin, with baptizing of young wine (in November). Many cultural and sports events take place during the summer months: music festivals, theatre and folk music performances, sports contests, yachting regattas, etc.
Korcula ACI Marina has 220 berths in the sea and 100 places on the ground.
KORCULA, a town and port on the north-eastern coast of the island of Korcula, situated on a small peninsula which is connected with the island by a narrow isthmus.
The surrounding coastal area is covered with pine forests. East of the port is a small group of islets. The climate is mild; an average air temperature in January is 9.8 °C and in July 26.9 °C; the island is famous for a long insolation. Economy is based on farming, growing of vines, olives and fruit, fishing, shipbuilding, stone processing, tourism and nautical tourism. The regional road connects the town of Korcula with all major places on the island. The port consists of the western and the eastern part. Korcula Marina is located in a cove on the eastern side of the town. Korcula has regular ferry lines with the mainland (Korcula - Orebic).
Heritage
A neo-Baroque stairway (1907) leads from the pier along the open loggia (1584) to the old part of the town. In the middle of the square is the cathedral of St. Mark (only the apses of three naves have been preserved of the original cathedral from the 14th c.). This Gothic structure was finished at the end of the 15th century in the transitional Gothic-Renaissance style. Among the first constructors was Bonino from Milan (main portal, 1412); Hranic Drago-sevic and Ratko Ivancic also participated in the construction, and at the end of the century also Marko Andrijic (lantern of the bell tower). In 1525 Marko Milic Pavlovic built a large votive chapel of St. Roch (Rocco) along the northern cave. The altarpiece of the Holy Trinity in the southern apse is a work by Leandro Bassano. In the sanctuary are the choir stalls (Vicko Tironi, 1795-1796), the ciborium above the main altar with the presentation of the Annunciation (made by Marko Andrijic, 1486-1490), the altarpiece St. Mark with St. Bartholomew and St. Jerome (an early work by Jacopo Tintoretto from 1550), the relief with a motif of Lamb of God from the 13th century, as well as the painting of the Annunciation (with some traits of Tintoretto's style). In the chapel of St. Roch (Rocco), on the Baroque altar of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, all three paintings are works by Carlo Ridolfi (1642); the author of carved figures of the saints on the Baroque marble altar of St. Roch (Rocco) is Franjo Ciocic-Cucic (around 1576). In the ground floor of the bell tower (adapted in 1967-1969) is a baptismal font, with sev-eral plastics: Christ Resurrected (Frano Krsinic, 1968), Pieta (Ivan Mestrovic, 1915) and Our Lady (Ivo Kerdic, 1926). In the southern nave of the church, next to cannon-balls and halberds from the times of the wars with the Ottomans in 1571, is an icon from the 14th century, The Assumption (Vela Gospa) from the monastery in Badija.
Opposite of the cathedral is the deserted Arneri palace, built in the ornate Gothic style, with a nice Renaissance cloister. Next to it is the Gabrielis palace, built in Renaissance style (16th c.), in which in 1957 the Town Museum was opened, with various exhibits related to shipbuilding, seafaring and stone-masonry of Korcula, and an art gallery. Next to the cathedral is the Bishop's palace (Korcula was the diocesan seat from 1300 to 1828), built in the transitional Renaissance-Baroque style (17th c.), with the rich Abbey Treasury, established in 1954, which features liturgical vessels and mass vestments. Important is also the polyptych by Blaz Jurjev Trogiranin from 1431. On the small square is the Municipal Hall (ground floor with arcades from 1525, the first floor added to it in 1866). Next to it is the chapel of Our Lady of Ploce, erected in 1531 to commemorate the battles of Aragonians and Venetians in front of Korcula in 1483. It houses the painting of Our Lady with a golden shroud from 1722 and two Venetian cannons. The tower Mali Revelin (Small Revelin) got its present aspect in 1499. In front of the Municipal Hall is a pillar, erected in 1569, and opposite of the Hall the church of St. Michael (mentioned in 1408; restored in 1615) with a Renaissance pulpit; the painting on the Baroque marble altar is a work by Domenico Maggioto.
From the old part of the town of Korcula, the gate called Kopnena Vrata (Gate of the Mainland) (1650) leads trough Revelin, a monumental tower of a quadrangular ground-plan (1493-1496), to the bridge. This is the beginning of the way along the former town ramparts. Following this way, one reaches the church of All Saints (beginning of the 15th c., later restored), with the coffered ceiling (painted by Tripo Kokolja around 1713), the polyptych of Our Lady the Co-redeemer by Blaz Jurjev Trogiranin (1438-1439) and the ciborium (15th c.) below which is the carved Baroque Pieta by Raphael Donner. The church is connected with a hall which houses the Gallery of Icons, a painting of the local Renaissance school and a procession crucifix by Ivan Progonovic (15th c.). In the northern part of the peninsula is the semicircular Tiepolo Tower, and on the western coast, at the brim of the pier, the Barbarigo Tower.
The western coastal way, along a small cove, leads to the Dominican monastery with the two-nave church of St. Nicholas the older nave was finished around 1505 and reconstructed in 1665. The right nave features the altar palla The Martyrdom of St. Peter the Martyr (old copy of Tizian's painting), while the new nave houses the Baroque altar of St. Nicholas (1629). The monastery possesses a collection of works of art.
In the vicinity, on Cape Sveti Nikola (St. Nicholas), is the Memorial Museum of Maksimi-li-jan Vanka (1889-1963), opened in 1968 in a small summer mansion, which houses a collection of the artist's paintings, drawings, terracotta and various documents. From the outskirts in front of the Gate of the Mainland the way leads to the Hober park and the fortress of St. Blaise, erected in 1813 by the English (Fort Wellington), on a hill which dominates above the town. In the outskirts called Biline is the classicist octagonal church of St. Justin.
Opposite of the cathedral is the deserted Arneri palace, built in the ornate Gothic style, with a nice Renaissance cloister. Next to it is the Gabrielis palace, built in Renaissance style (16th c.), in which in 1957 the Town Museum was opened, with various exhibits related to shipbuilding, seafaring and stone-masonry of Korcula, and an art gallery. Next to the cathedral is the Bishop's palace (Korcula was the diocesan seat from 1300 to 1828), built in the transitional Renaissance-Baroque style (17th c.), with the rich Abbey Treasury, established in 1954, which features liturgical vessels and mass vestments. Important is also the polyptych by Blaz Jurjev Trogiranin from 1431. On the small square is the Municipal Hall (ground floor with arcades from 1525, the first floor added to it in 1866). Next to it is the chapel of Our Lady of Ploce, erected in 1531 to commemorate the battles of Aragonians and Venetians in front of Korcula in 1483. It houses the painting of Our Lady with a golden shroud from 1722 and two Venetian cannons. The tower Mali Revelin (Small Revelin) got its present aspect in 1499. In front of the Municipal Hall is a pillar, erected in 1569, and opposite of the Hall the church of St. Michael (mentioned in 1408; restored in 1615) with a Renaissance pulpit; the painting on the Baroque marble altar is a work by Domenico Maggioto.
From the old part of the town of Korcula, the gate called Kopnena Vrata (Gate of the Mainland) (1650) leads trough Revelin, a monumental tower of a quadrangular ground-plan (1493-1496), to the bridge. This is the beginning of the way along the former town ramparts. Following this way, one reaches the church of All Saints (beginning of the 15th c., later restored), with the coffered ceiling (painted by Tripo Kokolja around 1713), the polyptych of Our Lady the Co-redeemer by Blaz Jurjev Trogiranin (1438-1439) and the ciborium (15th c.) below which is the carved Baroque Pieta by Raphael Donner. The church is connected with a hall which houses the Gallery of Icons, a painting of the local Renaissance school and a procession crucifix by Ivan Progonovic (15th c.). In the northern part of the peninsula is the semicircular Tiepolo Tower, and on the western coast, at the brim of the pier, the Barbarigo Tower.
The western coastal way, along a small cove, leads to the Dominican monastery with the two-nave church of St. Nicholas the older nave was finished around 1505 and reconstructed in 1665. The right nave features the altar palla The Martyrdom of St. Peter the Martyr (old copy of Tizian's painting), while the new nave houses the Baroque altar of St. Nicholas (1629). The monastery possesses a collection of works of art.
In the vicinity, on Cape Sveti Nikola (St. Nicholas), is the Memorial Museum of Maksimi-li-jan Vanka (1889-1963), opened in 1968 in a small summer mansion, which houses a collection of the artist's paintings, drawings, terracotta and various documents. From the outskirts in front of the Gate of the Mainland the way leads to the Hober park and the fortress of St. Blaise, erected in 1813 by the English (Fort Wellington), on a hill which dominates above the town. In the outskirts called Biline is the classicist octagonal church of St. Justin.
Information provided by: 
