Continuing our look on January 27, 2018 at Croatian nominee for 2018 European Best Destination, the island of Hvar, a look at its most aromatic attraction – lavender.
Soon after I moved to Hvar permanently back in 2003, another Brit also arrived, with the intention to develop property. We became great friends and I will never forget the first night we went out together after a good day’s house hunting. His girlfriend was visiting from the UK and was clearly enchanted with Hvar. But something was wrong.
“Does this island have lavender? I am allergic to lavender, and something doesn’t feel right.”
{Photo Romulic and Stojcic)
“Lavender? Here?” replied my new friend. “No lavender here,” he reassured her, oblivious to the fact that he had just moved to the Lavender Island, which was perhaps not the wisest move if he was looking for a longterm relationship with his girl. They broke up shortly afterwards, although I am not sure one could blame just the lavender.
Hvar’s lavender story fascinates me, and it is a product which perhaps best symbolises the island’s natural beauty, aromatic fields and recuperative qualities. Lavender oil is highly prized and (as I was to learn) a lot of effort for a small return, and during the glory days of lavender production, how stunning its fields must have been (see the photo above from a time gone by). The small village of Velo Grablje was the centre of lavender production for all Dalmatia, and at one point Hvar was the 8th biggest lavender producer in the world.
Hvar’s lavender origins are captured in legend and reality. The legend has it that a poor villager from Velo Grablje was in love with a girl of higher status. The love was reciprocated, but his social situation meant that they could never be married. The poor youth took his woes to the local priest, who advised him to plant lavender, a crop which would bring him money. the young man followed the priest’s unusual advice, was soon exporting lavender oil to Paris, built the best house in the village and got his girl.
The reality is best told by a descendant of the grandfather of lavender in Velo Grablje, a story we covered in depth earlier.
Taxation, emigration and devastating forest fires have sadly reduced Hvar’s lavender fields to a fraction of what they once were, but they still hold their magic, and the time to see them in full bloom is mid-June to early July. At that time of year, you will see several cars seemingly abandoned at the side of the old road from Hvar Town to Stari Grad, as drivers and passengers wander into the fields for aromatic selfies.
Hvar’s lavender fortunes were revived with the forming of a local NGO called Pjover in the lavender village of Velo Grablje. A group of dedicated youngsters, with ancestral links to the village, decided to work to revive the traditions and heritage of the village, and they have achieved spectacular success in under a decade, attracting EU funds, almost tripling the permanent population from 5 to 14, and putting the village most firmly back on the map due to its lavender traditions.
This has been done most notably in the form of the annual lavender festival, which takes place in late June. A two-day event, which includes workshops, events, a concert and various stands offering all sorts of lavender products – lavender ice cream and lavender bread and butter pudding were two of my favourites – and includes a demonstration of the distilling process. I was fortunate enough to take part in this a few years ago, and my feet smelled great for a week, as the fat Englishman was tasked with jumping up and down on bundles of freshly harvested lavender plants in a metal tank to compress them. The lavender oil was produced soon afterwards.
{Photo Romulic and Stojcic)
Given the huge interest in lavender on Hvar, there is a huge tourism opportunity, as well as a commercial one, to meet the growing interest and demand. There are some very cool projects underway, including the planned first lavender museum, close to the new fields planted at Agroturizam Pharos in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Stari Grad Plain. But my favourite lavender project on Hvar is a private one belonging to celebrated paparazzi, Jadran Lazic, on top of the island. Jadran planted 350 lavender bushes a few years ago, bushes which continue to grow and give him an annual yield of lavender oil. A Dalmatian boy at heart, he puts a couple of drops on his pillow in Los Angeles each night and sleeps like a baby dreaming of Dalmatia.
It has been a privilege to have been to his annual lavender harvest three times now, each time more interesting that the last, and absolutely worth the 4am start. Check out Jadran’s lavender project above.
And while Jadran may sleep like a baby with just a couple of drops on his pillow, a local called Boris Buncuga discovered what can happen if you fall asleep drunk next to a lavender distillery. He woke up as Lavanderman, Hvar’s very first superhero. Dressed in a lavender leotard, yellow cape and driving a white Vespa, I never realised quite what Lavanderman’s powers included, apart from an incredible ability to seduce foreign women, until I left my laptop on a street in Zagreb, and Lavanderman came to the rescue. But that is another story…
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