| Slowly but surely, the monks improved their quarters and started to use the plentiful rock to construct buildings. The first church, consecrated to the Assumption of Mary, was completed in 1614. Eventually a monastery, living quarters and farm buildings grew up. This complex, built flush against the sheer rock and totally in harmony with its surroundings, is absolutely breathtaking to behold.
The diligence of the monks was boundless. The Blaca buildings were destroyed several times over by fire and flood, but the monks each time simply made sure their next rendering was better than the last. They improved public roads and regulated watercourses to tame the seasonal floods. Their diligence in the fields, coaxing life out of the stone, resulted in an extensive and thriving farmstead with vineyards and olive groves, orchards and vegetable gardens. To sustain this miracle of agriculture the brothers built greenhouses and an irrigation system for watering crops and animals. They developed unique stone beehives which still stand today in their hundreds, surrounded by rosemary plants to a plentiful supply of aromatic honey every year.
The rights and responsibilities of the members of the community were enshrined in 1570 in the regulations of the first Agricultural Co-operative, based on the principles of voluntary work, communal ownership and profit-sharing. All work, all transactions and all business connections were painstakingly documented, providing a valuable collection of historical and meteorological records. In the 18th century the hermitage obtained its first boats and developed trade links throughout the Mediterranean. You can see a figurehead from one of Blaca’s cargo ships in Brač’s Native Museum, which famously won a David and Goliath battle with an English corvette in Split harbour. Goods were not sold for money but exchanged for items needed by the community such as books and furniture.
Blaca has a beautiful library with almost 8 000 books, a printing press and a music room with a piano that was carried here on foot. You can look round the simple but elegantly furnished rooms where the brothers lived and worked, all preserved as an in situ museum. An observatory with a research library and the third most powerful telescope in Croatia is listed as a cultural monument. Blaca also played a vital part in the community with its school, which managed to function even through the years when communism threatened the existence of religious communities. Due to the monastery’s isolated position, in cold weather the pupils were asked to bring log for the fire every day in return for their schooling.
In the oldest building of the complex, right next to the cliff by the church is the heart of the monastery, the kitchen. The fire in the hearth was kept burning throughout the year and, according to local custom, only put out at Easter when the fireplace was cleaned out blessed. This communal centre of brotherhood is where the events of the day were discussed over a well-earned meal.
The last Blaca friar died in 1963, ending this miraculous story that lasted for four centuries. In 2007, the complex was entered on the tentative list of UNESCO monuments of cultural heritage. The hermitage remains very close to peoples’ hearts, with a pilgrimage taking place every year on the first Saturday after the Feast of the Assumption. This is a wonderful place to visit for all the reasons we’ve mentioned, but perhaps the most important one is that this is a place that puts in focus the power of human endeavour, and a place of peace and hope that strengthens the spirit.
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