The town fortress or a citadel, perched on a hill above the old town and built on the site of the medieval one in the middle of the 16th century, encloses the city walls. In 1579 it was restored after a gun-powder explosion in which it had suffered considerable damages. During French rule some additional reinforcement building was done. The barracks and observation post were built during Austrian rule. Today, the fortress has been reconstructed as a modern tourist complex with diverse facilities. Once used exclusively as a fortified position, the citadel has become a belvedere very popular with tourists, since it commands a superb view of the town with its surroundings, especially by night when the floodlit stone forms of the ancient town appear against the dark skies.
During Napoleon rule in 1811, a fortress was constructed on the rather higher hill of St. Nicholas the Greater, east of the town fortress. Even today it is called "Napoleon". It was built where the medieval army and naval observation post and a small chapel once were. Today it is an observatory.
When entering the port from the left side, there is the so-called "batterie de gauche", named after the Tirolean revolutionary Andreas Hofer at the beginning of Austrian rule, on the projecting ridge. It is surrounded by pine trees. Today, there is a monument inside of it, erected in 1945, commemorating the fighters and wounded of the 7th Corps of the Military Hospital. This is one of the earliest monuments of its kind in Croatia.
On the left side of the port there is the Greek-Orthodox monastery of St. Veneranda-Petka, which in 1807 the French converted into the little fortress called "batterie de droite". The church tower of a former monastery church was pulled down, and a meteorological station erected on the remains. This edifice was turned into an open air theatre in 1953.
On the little island of Galesnik, at the entrance to Hvar port, Austria built a gun-emplacement in 1836.
