Today's name of the island is of Greek origin (from the Greek Pharos - lighthouse). From this name the Romans formed the name Pharia. Dalmatian Romans turned it into Fara, and in the early Middle Ages the settled Croats replaced the consonant f with a group of consonants hv, and changed the name to Hvar.
Hvar belongs to the group of central Dalmatian islands. It is located in the Split-Dalmatia County, in the middle of a group of islands that are part of this county. North of it is the island of Brac, and south of the islands of Scedro, Vis, Paklinski islands, Korcula and the Peljesac peninsula.
It is 72 km long and 10.5 km wide in the wider part. Its total length of the coast is 254.2 km. It covers an area of 299.7 km2, which makes it the fourth largest Croatian island. The highest peak is Sv. Nikola (on which the chapel is located) which is 628 m high.
The length of the road connecting the town of Hvar on the west and Sucuraj on the east side of the island is 84 km. The island of Hvar is mostly covered with pine forest, which creates an extremely pleasant climate and vineyards that produce up to 50,000 hectoliters of wine per year.