Location and name
With the size of 394,6 km2, Brac is the most spacious island in Dalmatia. It is anchored like a huge ship in the picturesque archipelago of the Dalmatian islands. Brač today has some twenty settlements of which the most well known is Bol.
Bol is a very large town; the first and oldest on the coast of Brac. The location was not chosen as the other coastal resorts on the amphitheatric slopes of sheltered bays, but on the separate south shore with its imposing cliffs.
The jewels of Bol; the fortified Kostilo, the Illyrian fortress and Vidova Gora, the peak of the Adriatic rise steadily above Bol.
The name Bol originates from Latin word vallum, meaning „rampart", "earthy settlement". Latin word vallum has the same meaning as old Croatian meaning of the world coast (="trench", "rampart"). The name was most likely due to the Roman army crossing of the Vallum and Slavic coast.
Bol was first mentioned as a settlement in the building list made by the Povalja in 1184 (Monks of the Dominican monastery). Bol was also mentioned as a town on 10 October 1475 when Prince Zacharia donated the Glavica peninsula to the Dominicans.
