Podaca

Podaca is a tourist locality situated in the south part of the Makarska riviera at the foot Of Mt Biokovo, about 35 km distanc from Makarska .The locality is divided in three hamlets:Kapec,Viskovica vala and Ravanje. Nowadays, Podaca as a part of the Makarska littoral is completely oriented towards tourism . There are about 660 inhabitants living at Podaca mainly engaged in toursm. The locality has available about 1100 beds in private rooms , apartments and suits, ca. 300 beds in the tourist village Morenia and about 600 accommodation units at the camping site "Uvala borova" (The pine bay). Beautiful beaches in the peacefulness of the pinewood and the gastronomic offer of Dalmatian folk – cuisine as well as the vicinity of attractive daytrip destinations make Podaca a very desirable place for vacation. Podaca has developed upon the rocky slopes of Biokovo,in a position suitable for defence,and its history reaches far into the Stone Age which is documented by archeological finds, such as a stone grain mortar preserved in the Franciscan monastery at Zaostrog . There are many burial mounds at the foot of Biokovo as a testimony of times when this area was inhabited by the Illyrians (2000 BC – Ist-century). At the times of the Roman Empire this area was governed by Narona, which is documented by many archeological finds, such as a broken um with a silver coin of the Roman emperor Severio (193.-211.AD) found in this region. A testimony of those times is also a wall fragment next to which was also found a medieval stone capital very similar to the capitals of our early Croatian churches. When the Croats during the great movement of the peoples setted in the Makarska littoral (the 6th-8th-centuries) they had inhabited also this region, but high above in the slopes of the mountain for easier defence and also in order to make good use of the Biokovo pastures. In this region the Croats had constantly fought battles against the Venetians and the Croatian maritime power reached its peak during the era of the Kacic clan from Omiš, and their fall (in 1280) was also the end of the Croatian maritime power. At Gornja Podaca, dating from the 11th and 12th-centures, there is the early Croatian church of St. John with the tombs of the Kacic family, which was a votive foundation of the Kacic family. St.John's church in the Cemetery at Podaca was built in the pre-Romanesque times in the 11th and 12th centuries and it is considered to be one of the most important pre-Romanesque churches in Dalmatia. In 1492., not far from St.John's church, there was built St. Stephen's church which was demolished in the 18th century to cede the place to the present church which was built in 1762. Surrounding the church is the cemetery with a medieval Bosnian standing tomb-stone. Under its present name Podaca is first mentioned in 1571. The village grew on the slopes of Biokovo, close to St.John theBaptist's church. This area dominates still today over the present locality and its name is Gornja Podaca (Upper Podaca). At the entrance to the village there is a well preserved Tover which was built for defence from the Turkish attacks. After an earthquake in 1962., almost entire population moved to the coastal area where a new church was built to Our Lady of Annunciation.