Grota
ST. PHILIP AND JACOB’S CAVE
Near the town of Makarska, just next to the old highway lies St. Philip and Jacob’s Cave. It is 6,5 m wide, 4m high in its highest point and lies 140 m above sea level. There is a chapel inside the cave – 3m wide, 4 m long and 3 m tall. The chapel altar is ornated with an oil painting (artist unknown) of St. Roch – the protector against plague.
The legend explains the chapel inside the cave: since the cave was used by locals as a shelter for the cattle during bad weather or war, they wanted to express their gratitude and started to build a chapel at the cave entrance. The problem was that every night someone was destroying their hard work. After supervising the entrance for a while they caught a little dark man, he asked them to stop using the cave as the shelter for the cattle and to build a church instead.