Upper Brela

Why it is worth your time

Upper Brela is what this place was before it came down to the sea: an old village on the Biokovo's slope, three hundred metres above the shore, with stone houses, small churches and dry walls that generations stacked around little fields. Until the middle of the 20th century life was up here, in the lee from pirates and near the pastures, and down below there were only sheds and the odd boat; only with tourism did the centre of gravity move to the coast, and the upper village half-emptied. Today one comes here for three things: the peace, the stone architecture that has not been turned into apartments, and the view that from these terraces takes in the whole riviera, from Punta Rata to Brac and Hvar on the horizon.

The drive takes some ten minutes on a narrow road, and on foot one arrives by paths through the olives in an hour of climbing. A few family taverns offer lamb and homemade wine, and on Sundays the whole village can smell of it. To understand Brela it is worth climbing: below is the sea, but up here stands the story.