Zlatni Rat
Zlatni rat
Interesting facts
- The cape has been protected by law since 1965 and is now listed as a significant landscape covering about 12.8 hectares.
- Measured in 2015, its eastern shore was about 377 metres long and its western shore about 479 metres, figures that keep changing with the weather.
- Most of the reshaping happens between autumn and spring; in summer the daily maestral keeps the tip straight or bent towards the east.
- The sea on the western side is usually the warmer one, even though that side takes most of the afternoon wind and waves.
- The spit juts out where the Hvar Channel is narrowest, which helps accelerate the westerly winds that windsurfers come for.
- In the local Chakavian dialect rat means cape, which is why the beach is known in English as both Golden Cape and Golden Horn.
- Bol has hosted rounds of the PWA World Tour, the professional windsurfing circuit, thanks to the wind channelled past the cape.
Why it is worth it
Zlatni Rat, the "Golden Cape", is a tongue of fine pebbles that runs out from the southern coast of the island of Brač into the Hvar Channel, about two kilometres west of the harbour town of Bol. It is the most photographed beach in Croatia, and the reason is plain from above: a long, narrow point, white along its edges and green with pines at its root, pushed out into the deep blue Adriatic like the blade of a spearhead. On the eastern and western sides the shoreline runs for several hundred metres each, and the water shallows gently over the pebbles, turning a vivid turquoise.
What sets it apart is that the shape is not fixed. The tip of the spit swings with the wind, the waves and the currents. When the southeasterly jugo blows, the point is pushed towards the west; the regular afternoon maestral bends it back to the east. In a strong storm the outline can change within hours, so no two aerial photographs of Zlatni Rat are quite the same. That same reliable maestral, funnelled between Brač and Hvar, has made Bol one of the best-known windsurfing spots in the Adriatic, and in 2008 the beach hosted the Red Bull Golden Jump, a kiteboarding contest held over the spit itself.
The pine grove at the base of the cape hides a reminder that this coast was prized long before tourism: the remains of a Roman country villa, including a small pool. To see the spit as a whole, the best place is Vidova Gora, the mountain that rises steeply behind Bol; from its summit the golden point looks like a drawing on the sea, with Hvar opposite. The walk from Bol to the beach follows a shaded seaside promenade under the pines, which is part of the pleasure.
Getting there
Zlatni Rat is about 2 km west of Bol on the island of Brač; Split, on the mainland, is about 32 km away. Brač Airport (BWK), a small island airport, is only about 5 km away. From Split harbour, passenger catamarans run directly to Bol in a little over an hour. From Bol harbour a paved promenade through the pines leads to the beach in around twenty to thirty minutes on foot.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Zlatni Rat, often referred to as the Golden Cape or Golden Horn, is a spit of land located about 2 kilometres west from the harbour town of Bol on the southern coast of the Croatian island of Brač, in the region of Dalmatia. It extends southward into the Hvar Channel, a body of water in the Adriatic Sea between the islands of Brač and Hvar, which is home to strong currents. The landform itself is mostly composed of a white pebble beach, with a Mediterranean pine grove taking up the remainder.
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