The Island
Komiža lies on the western shore of Vis, the remotest inhabited Croatian island, facing the open sea and Biševo. That remoteness shaped it: its speech and its fishing destiny alike.
Vaccomeza, 1146
The first record of Komiža's name is almost nine centuries old. The island is older still: ancient Issa was the first Greek colony in the Adriatic.
The falkuša and Palagruža
Komiža's fishermen developed the falkuša — a gajeta with removable washboards (folki) for the races to Palagruža, the Adriatic's most distant archipelago. The Rota Palagruzona regatta was first recorded in 1593 and revived in 2009. Fishing grounds were assigned by an annual lot-drawing — the brušket.
The town of the śardela
Komiža lived off the sardine for centuries. A proverb says: O boj ga Komiži kad ne smardi — woe to Komiža when it doesn't smell of salted fish, because that means no catch.
Biševo
Across the channel lies Biševo with its Blue Cave — an island that shared Komiža's speech and Komiža's fate, today almost without inhabitants.
San Pedro
In the late 19th century Komižani emigrated en masse to San Pedro, California, and built the American fishing industry there — Martin Bogdanović of Komiža founded in 1917 the company that became StarKist. San Pedro and Komiža are sister cities today.
Kaźote
Komiža is a town of nicknames: families have been known by their kaźote for centuries, and the oldest recorded one — Hraśtić — dates from 1612.