Walking through the numerous narrow alleyways of the old town, almost at every corner you’ll discover a quaint little square or a charming house.  One of them is especially cherished by the locals and interesting to tourists. After all, there aren’t many houses in the world with an official name, and let alone a name as peculiar as this one – “The House of a Happy Man”.

This beautiful Renaissance house got its name by a Latin inscription above the entrance that reads, in translation: “I thank thee, Lord, for having lived in this world” (GRATIAS AGO TIBI DNE QUIA FUI IN HOC MONDO). It is believed that it used to be the house of Ivan Primojević, a lawyer and the ambassador of Omiš commune in Venice.

Unfortunately, not much is known today about its original owner, but the house itself has luckily been well preserved over the centuries and today represents one of the most beautiful examples of classic Dalmatian architecture of the Venetian period.

“The House of a Happy Man” was originally built with the workshops and living room on the ground floor, sleeping quarters on the first floor and the kitchen on the top floor. Such an organization of the interior had baffled historians for a long time, until they finally figured out why medieval architects designed the interior in such a, seemingly, inpractical way.

The reason lay in the fact that many houses of the period suffered destruction by fire, and sources of fire are at home most commonly found in the kitchen. As houses with kitchens on lower floors were mostly turned into ashes in fires, the medieval inhabitants of Omiš realized with time that lifting the kitchen up to higher floors would significantly reduce the possible damage caused by fires, which soon made this particular form of interior design a standard in Omiš.

“The House of a Happy Man ” was one of the first ones in town to have been built in this – at the time still innovative – manner.  Who knows, this may well be the reason why its owner‘s happiness 😉