Postira is situated in the middle of the north coast of the island, more than any other place it faces the open sea. According to some authors the name derives from the Latin noun pastura meaning “a pasture” (this word got its present form already at the end of the 8th century due to Roman-Croatian influences). Postira was created when the inhabitants from the interior of the island and refugees from the mainland settled this bay. The small central street is particularly interesting because of its pavement of sea cobblestones (kogule) arranged in ornamental patterns, and leading up from the seafront to beyond the parish church. The original folk architecture is interspersed in Postira with the houses of old landowners.
Vladimir Nazor, one of the most famous Croatian poets and short-story writers of the 20th century, was born in Postira.
Because of its open position towards the Brač Channel, the Postira Promontory is a place where one can uniquely experience the morning sun as it appears above Mt Biokovo on the mainland, and its setting at the beginning of evening, when it sinks down gradually like a large red ball into the shining horizon where the sea meets the sky.
There are three significant archaeological sites in the Postira area. One is in the cove of Lovrečina, about five kilometres to the east of the town, where there are probably the most picturesque ruins of a large Early Christian single-aisled basilica with a transept and with a baptistery in the form of a cross sunk below the level of the ground. Above it rises a baldachin (ciborium) on four columns, with carved stone capitals and straight stone beams (parts of the chancel screen, a capital and other remains of the stone furniture are in Škrip Museum, and one sarcophagus from this site is placed at the entrance to the Split Cathedral).
At the end of the cove there are remains of an ancient and late-Roman settlement (a holiday and agricultural area), and remains of an ancient pier can be seen in the sea. Recently the remains of a Benedictine monastery from the 12th century have been discovered.
Another site is Mirje on Mali brig, with abundant Early Christian finds including an Early Christian basilica (its ten fragments of chancel screens witness the existence of an Early Christian church from the 5/6th century and are in the [krip Museum). There are also the remains of a Roman villa rustica. In the Middle Ages there was a pre-Benedictine and later Benedictine monastery here with a portico-observation post above the channel between island and mainland.
A third archaeological site is situated on the eastern side of the Postira parish church, where the walls of an Early Christian basilica and baptistery, fragments of frescoes and some ancient remains were discovered in 1988. The parish Church of St John the Baptist in Postira was built in the middle of the 16th century, and reconstructed in following centuries. Its oldest part is an apse with fortified windows and embrasures. Inside the church, especially interesting are the altar with the statue of Our Lady of Carmel and the paintings of the Calvary. The first story written by Vladimir Nazor The Angel in the Bell-tower was about the bell-tower of the Postira church. There are two other older small churches in Postira with open bell-cotes. These are the churches of St Anthony, in the centre of the quayside, and the Holy Spirit in the cemetery of 1614. There was once a small church of St Marija in one of the central small streets, this was under the jurisdiction of the Split chapter, the inheritor of the Benedictine monastery, and is today the Church of St Nicholas.
From Splitska to Postira, and then further on towards the attractive Lovrečina cove, there is a beautiful old road under the branches of dense pine trees, with fine clear views across the channel.
