Brač
— — the white the quarry leaves behind.
Not only on a wall.
“The island that built Diocletian's Palace. Brač limestone, pale and close-grained, has been cut from the quarries at Pučišća for nearly two thousand years and shipped across the Adriatic to face cathedrals and harbour walls. At the southern shore, Zlatni Rat reaches out from Bol as a long white tongue of shingle, redrawn by the wind each season. Above it all, Vidova Gora — the highest peak on any Adriatic island — looks south toward Hvar across water that holds the same chalk light as the stone.
Brač, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Brač is the largest island in central Dalmatia and the third-largest in the Adriatic, lying just south of Split across the Brač Channel. Its 396 square kilometres rise from olive terraces and pine forest to Vidova Gora at 778 metres, the highest summit on any Adriatic island. The main towns sit on the coast: Supetar on the north, Bol on the south facing Hvar, and the stonecutter's village of Pučišća on the eastern shore. Car ferries from Split reach Supetar in under an hour. The island has been inhabited since Illyrian times and was administered from Salona under Rome.
Brač limestone is the island's signature export. The quarries at Pučišća and Splitska have been worked since Roman times, and the stone faces Diocletian's Palace in Split, the cathedral at Šibenik, and the parliament buildings in Vienna and Budapest. It is famously claimed, with some local pride, to have clad parts of the White House in Washington. The Klesarska škola in Pučišća — the stonemasons' school — still teaches the trade by hand, students cutting with chisels and hammers in a courtyard open to visitors most weekdays.
Zlatni Rat, the Golden Horn, runs out from the shore at Bol as a half-kilometre spit of fine white shingle that the wind and current reshape through the summer. The point can swing east or west depending on which way the maestral has been blowing, so no two photographs from one season match. The water beyond turns from pale jade to a deep Adriatic blue within a few strokes. The beach is reached by a shaded waterfront path west from Bol, lined with pines.