Jadrolinija's first passenger ferry between Split and Hvar Town launched in 1947, shortening a journey that once required an overnight sail and two coastal transfers into a direct two-hour crossing. The line served as a lifeline for Hvar's lavender farmers and winemakers, who shipped their harvest to Split's markets each summer. By the 1990s, high-speed catamarans had cut the route to under an hour, and what began as a cargo-and-mail service evolved into one of the Adriatic's busiest leisure corridors. Today the port at Obala kneza Domagoja dispatches more than a dozen daily departures to Hvar during peak season, alongside private speedboat charters that weave through the Pakleni archipelago. The route threads the Split Archipelago, a scatter of limestone islets and submerged reefs that stretch south from Kaštela Bay to the open channel off Brač. Ferries hug the lee side of Brač Island before turning southwest toward Hvar's northern coast, passing the village of Milna and the forested cliffs of Šolta. Speedboat operators favor the outer route, skirting the edge of the Vis basin to reach the Blue Cave on Biševo Island — a sea-level grotto lit by refracted sunlight between 11:00 and 13:00 each day — before continuing east to Hvar Town. Catamaran services prioritize speed over scenery, docking at Stari Grad on Hvar's northern shore in 50 minutes, while traditional car ferries take the longer arc to accommodate vehicles and cargo. Hvar Town's harbor has anchored Venetian galleys, Napoleonic frigates, and Austro-Hungarian steamships. The 16th-century Arsenal overlooking the quay once repaired the Serenissima's Dalmatian fleet; its vaulted hall now hosts summer concerts. Above the waterfront, the Fortica fortress commands a 360-degree view of the Pakleni Islands, a chain of eleven uninhabited islets whose turquoise lagoons draw yacht traffic from across the Mediterranean. The town's Renaissance piazza, paved in white limestone, funnels visitors uphill toward the Cathedral of St. Stephen, a Gothic-Baroque hybrid whose treasury holds illuminated psalters and Venetian silverwork. Split's ferry port operates year-round, though winter schedules reduce to two daily crossings, and the Blue Cave tours suspend operations between November and March due to sea conditions.