Brač is an island in the Adriatic Sea within Croatia, with an area of , making it the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest in the Adriatic. It is separated from the mainland by the Brač Channel, which is wide. The island's tallest peak, Vidova gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at , making it the highest point of the Adriatic islands. The island has a population of 13,931, living in twenty-two settlements, ranging from the main town Supetar, with more than 3,400 inhabitants, to Murvica, where less than two dozen people live. Brač Airport on Brač is the largest airport of all islands surrounding Split.
Brač is known as a tourist destination, for the Zlatni Rat beach in Bol, the marina in Milna, the white limestone which was used for the palace of Diocletian, the stone mason school in Pučišća, the oldest preserved text written in the Croatian language, the author Vladimir Nazor, its olive oil with protected designation of origin, the Kopačina cave near Donji Humac with archaeological findings dating to the 12th millennium BCE, the Blaca hermitage, and other things.
Name
Brač () is known in the local Chakavian Broč (). In Latin or , in Italian . The Greek name of the island was Elaphousa, apparently derived from elaphos "stag". Based on this, it has been speculated that the original name of the island may have been derived from Messapic *brentos ("stag"). The Messapic word is deduced from a gloss "brendon — elaphon [deer]". Polybius and Plinius record the name of the island as Brattia. Other names through history for Brač have been Brectia, Bractia, Brazia, Elaphusa, Bretanide and Krateiai (in the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, identification unsure).
Geography
Brač is with an area of the largest island in Dalmatia, and the third largest island in the Adriatic Sea overall. The island is roughly oval-shaped, being almost wide from east to west, and about north to south. Brač has a long and folded coastline with a length of more than , with numerous smaller and larges bays. Particularly noticeable are the natural harbours of Supetar, Splitska, Pučišća, and Povlja, Sumartin, Milna and Bobovišća.
Brač is separated from the mainland to the north by the Brač Channel, which is wide and down to 78m deep. To the north it faces Split and Omiš. To the east it is separated from the mainland by a continuation of the Brač channel, with distances between at Baška voda up to at Makarska. To the south it faces the neighbouring island of Hvar, separated by the Hvar Channel with a maximal depth of 91m. The closest distance is between Murvica and the northern beaches of Hvar with less than , up to about at the east and west ends of Brač. To the west, it is separated from the island of Šolta by the Split Gates, which is about 800m wide. The uninhabited islet of Mrduja lies in the Split Gates. In an annual event, people from Brač and people from Šolta play a game of tug of war over the islet.
The island has been called the island without water (otok bez vode), but it does have a small number of sweet water springs. Most of the water needs to be brought from the mainland from the Cetina river through a pipe. An artificial tunnel has been built from the northern side of the island through the mountain to the south side, in order to allow the pipe to continue and serve not only Bol and Murvica, the two sole settlements on the southern side of the island, but also to continue to the neighbouring island Hvar.
The island is more rugged and mountainous than any of the other Dalmatian islands. The island's tallest peak, Vidova gora, or Mount St. Vid, stands at , making it the highest island point of the Adriatic islands. The south side of the island is particularly steep, as the distance from the beach to the Vidova Gora peak in only about – and up. The steepness of the south side makes the many natural bays hard to reach. Because of that, the south side of the island only has two settlements, Bol and tiny Murvica. It also makes the south side particularly amenable for vineyards. The inner north west and the inner south east of the island are high plateaus. Until the middle ages, most of the population lived on these inland plateaus.
Geology
The island is mostly made of limestone, which has shaped the history and economy of the island. The limestone originated in the Cretaceous about 100 million years ago, but Brač became an island only after the last ice age, (within the last 12,000 years, in the Holocene). Due to erosion and sedimentation, the island also has sandstone, breccia, clay, and terra rossa.