Although the talk is here about one island, the fishermen still call its greater, western part Greater Pločica and its eastern part Smaller Pločica. In winter, just a few meters wide land ridge connecting the two parts of the island is often flooded by waves crashing from both sides. The islet situated six nautical miles south from the island of Hvar and only somewhat shorter is the navigation to the island of Šćedro, in the north-west. The position of the islet was ideal for navigation signalling in the sea corridor which connects the channel of Pelješac and the channel of Korčula. This was also the reason why the Austo-Hungarian Monarchy in the highest, western part of the islet - at that time completely bare - built a lighthouse in 1887. The tamarisk, fig trees and olives were planted later by lighthouse keepers who were there on duty.
The tower with light was installed at the façade of the one-storey lighthouse building whose vast interior measures 165 square meters. The building is surrounded by a large stone yard and its old wall. From the yard and through the autochthonous Mediterranean bushes there is a neatly arranged path leading to the small port in the central part of the north shore of the islet. There, in the only islet’s lee from strong south and western winds, there is a lift for the boat and the boat shed. When the winds would get too strong, the lighthouse keepers would house their boat there - their only connection with the civilization, four miles away at Prigradica, in the north coast of the island of Korčula.
Oral transmissions of the oldest living fishermen in Korčula have reported about once very rich underwater world of Pločica. Once, the lighthouse keepers from Korčula used to pull nets full of red scorpion fishes and dusky groupers. On the islet people were born, have lived and died for generations. There, the lighthouse keepers lived with their families, feeding on caught fish and agricultural products grown in the poor soil of karst sinkholes protected by dry stone walls. In one room of the lighthouse building a child was born when because of inclement weather it was not possible to cross the channel and go to Korčula; in the other room a lighthouse keeper closed his eyes for the last time.
In the central part of the south coast of the Islet there stands a century old stone cross, a memory to the death of a fisherman on the rocks beneath. From the eastern shore of the islet beautiful, unique sunsets can be admired. The sun sinks into the blueness of the horizon, with the silhouette of the century old lighthouse building, wherefrom the light beam directs navigating ships to the left and right from Pločica that dwells alone in the blue vastness.
The lighthouse was restored according to original drafts in autumn 2001, when it was also touristically valorised. In the building there are two renovated comfortable apartments for 14 persons. About the beauties of the tourist offer of Pločica and its underwater world many respectable European and American magazines have published their reports and now these beauties are evidenced also on the stamp.
Neven Šerić, PhD
The big lighthouse building in the north-east promontory of the island of Vis is adorned by one of the tallest towers of the Adriatic. From its erection, the turret with the light has been among the most important signal lights in the aquatorium. The importance of navigation through always uncomfortable Channel of Vis has determined the length of the light beam of Stončica which has a range of 17 nautical miles. The lighthouse is today very important also because of the dense night traffic in this part of the Adriatic. Lees and bays of the island of Vis are also targeted shelters in the night navigation routes from the directions of Hvar, Korčula and Lastovo.
The promontory of Stončica, after which the lighthouse was named, protrudes into the sea blueness and has until the erection of the lighthouse presented a high risk in night navigation. The lighthouse was built in 1865 on the promontory separating the bay of Stončica, west from the lighthouse, from the bay of Smokvina, on its eastern side. The lighthouse building is unusual and is unlike any other on the east side of the Adriatic. Because of its very important strategic position, the building also functioned as a barrack and for the reasons of defence it was digged into firm rocks of the promontory.
The interior of the building has a surface of 250 square meters and in its corridors one's own steps echo creepily. As concerns space lay out, the architecture of old Austro-Hungarian barracks can be recognised. Next to the main building there are secondary buildings that once served as ammunition and shell warehouses and today there is an authentically arranged Dalmatian tavern. The lighthouse is today connected to island's power supply. In the old cistern rain water is still collected, since by road to Vis there are eight kilometres and the lighthouse keepers go there to do their shopping only when they run out of supplies. The landing-place where once stone blocks for the lighthouse were unloaded is situated in the western lee of the promontory. From there a path, about 50 meters long, leads to the lighthouse courtyard.
The lighthouse Sućuraj was built in the most eastern promontory of the island of Hvar. At that point the island is the closest to the mainland. Just for that reason on the spot where today the lighthouse stands, people once fleeing from Turkish hordes used to get ashore. So, in the 15th century there developed the settlement Sućuraj, about 500 meters away from the lighthouse that was named after it. In the twilight the silhouette of the today automated lighthouse vanishes in a hundred years old pine tree wood in its background. The play of shadows is broken only by the sharp flash of the white light from the lighthouse’s turret, since in the lighthouse there is no crew - it was withdrawn after the light had been automated in the 90-ies of the 20th century.
The lighthouse was built by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and ever since has this object played an important role in the night navigation towards the estuary of the river Neretva but has also served as an orientation point in the navigation through three important sea channels. The lighthouse, about ten metres away from the sea is on three sides surrounded by rocky, low coast and is partly protected from the waves by high massive stone wall. The light in the square stone tower rotates 14 metres above sea level. In the garden that surrounds the lighthouse there are several century old tamarisk trees that resist winter wind - bora and the blasts of winter winds from the south. The lighthouse is connected to the electrical network; an old water cistern is preserved, that was once used by the lighthouse crews.
The lighthouse building with the tower is the best preserved historical monument in this part of the island of Hvar. The church of St George - after which the settlement and the lighthouse were named - was destroyed at the end of the 19th century. From the village to the lighthouse there is an old macadam road about five hundred metres long, also built by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The road ends in the fenced courtyard of the lighthouse building with the net surface area of 80 square metres in the ground floor and about 30 in the attic. From the lighthouse there is a path to the village Sveti Juraj (St. George) and the well known Grapčeva Cave. This karst cave is known after the legend which tells us that there the fight between Odysseus and the Cyclops Polifem took place. Archaeological findings date from the fourth millennium before Christ and special attraction is the oldest known drawing of the ship in European continent, from Neolithic period.
