… included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008 ―

he Stari Grad Plain was continuously planted with vines, but also with grain during Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Fig trees lined the edges of the plots and the less fertile areas. Almonds (bajami) have always grown closer to the settlements, almost in their very gardens. The olive groves, with carob growing among them, rose up the low hills of the Plain, as they do today. Up until recently, you could also see the terraced lavender fields which followed the decline of the grapevine in the 20^th century. Today they are overcome by the Aleppo pine which slowly descends to the edges of the settlements.

The archaeological significance of the Stari Grad Plain was recognized back in 1993 when it was protected as an archaeological site.

Because of its best-preserved Greek plot division system in the Mediterranean, the Stari Grad Plain was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008, along with Stari Grad’s old town centre.

… a cultural landscape shaped by millennia ―

The large plain, in the centre of the island, changed its name as its masters changed: the Greek Khora Pharu (pronunciation – Hora Farau), the Roman Ager Pharensis, the Medieval Campus Sancti Stephani (the Plain of St. Stephen), and today’s Stari Grad Plain. The Plain has always been the belly of the island, sustaining life for thousands of years.

The Plain is actually a cultural landscape shaped by millennia. Its basic architecture was determined 24 centuries ago by the Greek colonists, who divided it into rectangular plots of 1 x 5 stadia (around 180 x 190 m) bounded by dry stone wall, with major paths intersecting it horizontally and vertically at regular intervals. The plot division system of the Stari Grad Plain represents one of the masterpieces of Greek culture in the Mediterranean.