Podaca – place of love and Dalmatian architecture

Podaca is a tourist destination situated along the Adriatic Motorway 2 km eastern from Zastrog. It comprises three settlements – Kapeć, Viskovića vala and Ravanje with 660 residents in total. Its settlers are primarily oriented to tourism, but fishing, agriculture and olive-growing as well..

Amiable houses, villas and apartments and few catering facilities make the basis of tourist development of this area. The old settlement Podaca above the Biokovo mountain is almost completely abandoned. It is mentioned for the first time early in the y. 1477. On a hill, in the old part of the settlement, beneath the mountain a tower was raised, nearby the St John’s Church in the graveyard, raised by the Kačić family. In addition to the St George’s and St Michael’s Church in Igrane, this one counts as one of the most significant monuments of early medieval architecture in the 12th century. By the entrance to the church one can find a memorial plate with the names of Kačić family members carved in, and near is also a medieval upright tombstone and this the gabled one. St Stephen’s Church from the y. 1492 is ruined in the 18th century to be replaced by the current church in 1772, and almost two hundred years later another church by the sea is raised – Our Lady of Visitation Church. One can often hear how Podaca is an encountering place of love and preserved Dalmatian architecture of the old village…

D. Šabić