Selca, Brač

Selca
Municipality
[[File:|Church|149px]] [[File:|Palace|149px]] [[File:|Town Square|300px]] [[File:|View|149px]] [[File:|Statue|149px]] From upper left: Parish Church, Old Palace, town square, view from west, and the Statue of John Paul II in the Church's garden.
Selca Location of Selca within Croatia
Coordinates: 43°17′42″N 16°50′49″E / 43.295°N 16.847°E / 43.295; 16.847Coordinates: 43°17′42″N 16°50′49″E / 43.295°N 16.847°E / 43.295; 16.847
Country	Croatia
County	Split-Dalmatia County
Founded	1184
Government
• Body	Municipality of Selca
• Mayor	Ivan Marijančević
Area
• Total	53 km2 (20 sq mi)
Elevation	571 m (1,873 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	1,804
Postal code	21425
Area code(s)	+385 (HR) + 21 (Selca)
Patron saints	Gospa od Karmela
Website	www.selca.hr

Selca is a municipality on the island of Brač in Croatia in the Split-Dalmatia County. It has a population of 1,804 (2011 census), 97.17% of which are Croats. Towns included in the municipality are: Selca, Sumartin, Povlja, Novo Selo which are home to numerous historical sites of various importance such as the Parish Church in Selca, which later came to be known as the "Cathedral of Brač", the 18th century church in Povlja, where the Charter of Povlja was found as well as the 10th century Church of Nikola located in Sumartin.

Selca is located on the hills of Pliša, on the east side of the Island of Brač.

The town of Selca has a population of approximately 1000 people. According to the 2011 census, the whole municipality of Selca has a population of 1'804, the majority of which are Croats that make up 97,17%. The most practiced religion is Catholicism.

Selca is first mentioned in the Charter of Povlja in 1184.

As an agricultural settlement, Selca began its existence as a small part of the parish (the smallest administrative unit within the Christian Church) of Gornji Humac. Thanks to stone masonry the settlement later began to evolve rapidly, which then led to an administrative reorganisation that made Selca its own parish in 1815. Local demographics statistics show a boom in the numbers of inhabitants, going from a population of 124 in 1678. to a population of 400 in 1763. The small church which could take only 20 people was then expanded, as did the village itself with newly built houses and administrative establishments. The town slowly took the form of a well-established economic center on the east side of the Island of Brač. The first school on said side of the Island then opened its doors in 1859.

In 1943, shortly before the capitulation of Fascist Italy, the Italian army had burned large parts of Selca down, along with 6 other settlements on the Island of Brač, an event that left visible traces to this day. The manifestation was named Croatia rediviva: Ča, Kaj, Što - baštinski dani, organized in 2008, commemorates the day of the attack. The festival is held annually, and every poet reads his own verses, in one of the three Croatian literary idioms, at the main stone-covered square of Stjepan Radić in front of numerous interested admirers of the Croatian literary word.