Hvar's Venetian fort, Fortiza or Spanjola (in local usage), is a highlight of any visit to Hvar town. Its striking position perched on top of a 100 meters high hill makes it hard to miss, which of course was the point. The climb up to the fort is gentle and pleasant and the views from the top are majestic. The multi-leveled fortification system has been well-restored, evoking the days when Hvar was a lynchpin of the Venetian empire.

Together with the town walls, Fortiza protected the town for centuries. It was so important to Hvar's development that its depicted on the town's coat-of-arms. The Venetians completed the fort in 1551 but the foundations were older. It was to protect an earlier Illyrian settlement in the first millennium BC. This early fort later became the site of a Byzantine citadel, around the 6th century AD.

A shelter against the Turks

Traces of this earlier fortress are still on the southern side of Fortiza. Construction of the current fortress began in 1282 shortly after the town turned to the Venetians for protection against the pirates rampaging through the Adriatic. Still it was the town that financed the construction from the proceeds of selling salt. At one point in the 14th century, Spanish engineers participated in the project which is how the fort acquired its nickname, Spanjola.

When Turks attacked the town in 1571, the entire population took shelter within the fort as the enemy plundered the town and set it on fire. And eight years later, a lightening bolt struck the fort igniting a store of gunpowder which blew up and caused massive damage to the fort and its substructure. Repairs ensued and when the Austrians took over in the early 19th century, the fortress was remodeled with larger barracks and raised battlements.