ECONOMY
Gospodarstvo na otoku Braču možemo podijeliti u nekoliko osnovnih grana:
TOURISM is based on the beauty of the island, historical sites, local atmosphere, local dishes and clean sea. Its development started during XX century, especially after World War II. Today there are several hotel companies on the island, but the primacy is kept by Bol and Supetar. A private accommodiation is offered in all settlements on the island's coast. Hotel accommodation is on the highest level. A number of travel agencies, restaurants and bars, discoteques, sports facilities and playgrounds as well as many historical and natural sites throughout the island offer complete service. (photo by R. Barilla)
STONE-MASONING dates back to Roman times when people extracted stone and worked with it in quarries Rasohe, Plate and Zastražišće, even before Diocletian's palace construction, which was finished in year 303. There have worked hundreds of Roman slaves and notable citizens who have created monuments, like the pagan altars and stone sarcophagi, evidenced by the relief of Hercules, the stonecutter's patron, not far from Splitska, and an altar dedicated to Hercules, in 1884 yr. found in quarry Plate. Treated stone was transported to the port of Splitska, and than by boat to Split to be used for the palace construction. Brač stone was used by the famous architects, such as Juraj Dalmatinac Andrija Aleši, Nicholas of Florence, Ivan Meštrović. From the island itself came famous sculptors like Ivan Rendić, Branko Dešković, Valerije Michieli, Petar Jakšić, Mirka Ostoja... Brač stone is high appreciated all over the world: White House in Washington, the former World Trade Center in New York, of cathedrals and squares in the construction in North America and Europe have been built of it. This craft still exists on the island. (Photo by R. Barilla)
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE RAISING are represented mostly in olive groves, vineyards, citrus farming and sheep breeding. OLIVE is the island's symbol. It is not known whether the olive trees were brought by Greeks or Romans on the island, but probably its cultivation is old as the island's civilization.
In 1800 there were 25 small mills, and in 1900 the first olive oil cooperative business in Croatia was established. Today there are about 500 000 trees on the island. Viticulture and wine production has a centuries-old tradition, and there is evidence that already 2000 years ago the Roman Empire cultivated vines and produced wine on the island. According the legend, the grape was brougth on the island by the refugees from Troy. In 1900 the First Dalmatian Wine Cooperative was established in Bol. At that time up to 25 000 hectoliters of wine was produced. However, in the early twentieth century, phylloxera ravaged Brač and destroyed nearly all the vineyards. In the last fifty years the island has been planted with about 150 000 new seedlings. Sheep breeding is still the most common branch of livestock on the island with about 10 000 head of sheep, which peacefully graze around the gentle hills of Brač. (photo by R. Barilla)
SHIPBUILDING AND FISHERIES are firmly connected. A SHIPBUILDING is noted in a document from the 1576. The petition in Commune of Brač from XVIII. century mentioned the islanders in trading with many ship of high-capacity. Thus, in 1796, Brac shipping owned 52 patented and 37 non-patented ship, not counting the small and fishing boats. All of it made it it the third naval force on this side of the Adriatic. Today on the island there are two shipyards: in Milna and Sumartinu. Fisheries is a craft, life style, well known for the islanders from times immemorial. Lot of them are still very active in fish hunting, either professionally or recreationally. Many times during the hard past, the fish meant life and survival, sardines particular. Today, there is only one fish factory, "Sardina" in Postira. The factory was established in 1906. It sells its products on five continents in over thirty countries, with annual production of around 20 million cans of sardines, tuna, mackerel and hake. Annually, the fisheries grow over million sea bass, giltheads and tunas. In 1955, Mario Puratić from Sumartin, immigrant in the USA, obtained an international fame in fisheries. He gained the fame for the invention of the pulley for set up and pull-out of fishing nets (power block), which has enhanced the professional fishing. In 1975, U.S. Patent Office awarded him with "the inventor of the year" diploma and listed him among 100 of greatest scientist in the United States during XX. century. (Photo by R. Barilla)