the island. Near the ferry port in Ubli an archaeological find of the remains of a 6th century church dedicated to Sv Petar (Saint Peter) are situated. Other churches of interest are Sv Luka (St Luke) built in the typical Croatian 11th century sacral architecture, and Sv Jurje (St George) at Pre�ba also built in the 11th century, was demolished between the two World Wars. Another church called St Peter in Ubli built somewhere in the 11th�13th centuries was also unfortunately demolished by the Italians in 1933 to make way for extra fishing sheds. All together there are a total of 46 churches, making the number 46 omnipresent since the island also has 46 hills, covers 46 square kilometres, has 46 fields, and contains 46 islands in the archipelago.
Architecture
The town's buildings date mainly from the 15th and 16th centuries when the construction of about 20 Renaissance houses redefined the village's appearance. Most of them have high broad terraces which have become the "trade mark" look of Lastovo houses. Their unusual cylindrical chimneys that the locals call fumari are picturesque and unusual since they look like miniature minarets, although there is no record of Arab or Turkish influence ever directly reaching this area. The ornate chimney on the 16th century Biza Antica house is probably the oldest preserved chimney in Dalmatia. The lighthouse built on Lastovo's southern tip in 1839 predates all other lighthouses in Croatia.
Language
Inhabitants speak the ?akavian dialect of the Croatian language, maintaining a unique Jekavian variant possibly due to the influence from hundreds of years of association within the Dubrovnik Republic and also due to the island's remoteness. The first mentioned inhabitants of Lastovo were recorded in the 13th century Dubrovnik archives and the Statute of Lastovo, written in Italian and Latin, clearly indicates that most of the population had exclusively Croatian folk names. For many
