Igrane

Igrane is a picturesque village of Makarska coast.

Igrane is a picturesque village of Makarska coast. A series of old renovated houses on a steep slope with newly built buildings form a harmonious whole of settlements with 400 inhabitants that descends to the sea, harbor and long pebble and sandy beach. A slender belfry of the church of Our Lady of Ružarija rises above the place, . Also nearby is the Zalina Tower erected for the Viryans of the Kandia War, which reminds of the time of the Turks fighting that pointed out to Zale Antičić, where the tower was named.    

Igrane is today a well-known tourist destination with numerous hotels, holiday houses and apartments, a beautiful beach, and sports and entertainment events. Along the long beach towards Živogošće, along the promenade, there were built comfortable houses and villas, cafes, shops and restaurants. The Igrane, once a traditional olive grove, have not yet left their olive groves, but are renewing them, and the most up-to-date olive processing plant has been built together with the joint forces. In the past pelrana, in the ancient olive groves there is a church of Sv. Mihovil from the 11th century, the most important medieval monument on Makarska littoral. Near the harbor, in 1760 the Baroque summer residence Šimić-Ivanišević was built. The sarcophagi found in the cemetery testify to the existence of the settlement in the Roman times, and the name of Igrane is mentioned for the first time in 1466.  Igrane, above Biokovo on the north side, is an old settlement of Gornje Igrane, a mountainous village of several villages from which the inhabitants gradually moved to the sea where they had their land, vineyards and olive groves. Sometimes inaccessible, rarely inhabited, today, through these villages, a modern road runs from Vrgorac to Makarska.