Supetar

History

Old Supetar was situated on the small peninsula where there is now a graveyard. The settlement came to an end during the early Christian era. In the late Middle Ages, a new settlement started around the bay known as St. Peter's, from which the town derives its name. The town was called something like *Sanpetro in the Romance language spoken on Brač in early medieval times, and Romance -an- in front of a consonant regularly got borrowed as a nasal 'o' into Old Croatian (also from Germanic languages, and not only early Romance languages, which is why there is a name Fruška gora instead of *Franška gora, named after the Germanic tribe of Franks), and the nasal 'o' gives 'u' in Modern Croatian, giving the modern name Supetar. The present settlement of Supetar was founded in the 16th century when people living in Nerežišća, about inland, began to use it as their harbour. The town's main period of development occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries when Supetar took over from Nerežišća as the administrative centre of the island of Brač. Every year in June, Supetar has an annual festival for Saint Peter’s day, the patron saint of Supetar.