Culture

Bekavci - Ivandić building complex

Among the characteristic compact residential and economic complexes that dominated the former image of Brela, that of the Bekavci-Ivandići families at Kričak is relatively well preserved. It was built by three brothers who in the 19th century came down from Podskalica under Biokovo, engaged in livestock rearing, viticulture and commerce. A compound of several houses came together around a closed yard with a picturesque portico from which the cellar was entered through four doors. The portico with its flattened arches on masonry pillars bore the terrace, accessed by two sets of steps. In the yard, entered from east and west, there is a mill for olives and a press for making wine, as well as a cistern with two well-heads. All of the houses are roofed with stone slabs. Added on the southern side of this complex, organised almost like a cloister, is a two storey building that once housed the Brela school. To the east was a space dominated by a huge nettle or hackberry tree where the Brela people not so long since had a produce market and a fish market. The retaining wall of the road, a little further off, incorporated niches into which they placed hives. 

This facility is is listed in the Register of Cultural Goods of Croatia.

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