The municipality consists of 46 islands with a total population of 792 people,[3] of which 94.7% are ethnic Croats, and a land area of approximately 53 square kilometres (20 sq mi).

The Romans conquered and settled the entire area, retaining control until the Avar invasions and Slavic migrations in the 7th century.

In 1000 AD the Venetians attacked and destroyed the settlement due to the island's participation in piracy along the Adriatic coast.

Austria then ruled the island for the next century, then Italy for 30 years after World War I, and finally Yugoslavia until it became a part of the independent Republic of Croatia.

Prežba is connected to the main island by a bridge at the village of Pasadur ("golden passage" in the local dialect, coming from Italian "passo d'oro").

[citation needed] The town of Lastovo is spread over the steep banks of a natural amphitheatre overlooking a fertile field, facing away from the sea.

[citation needed] Despite major fires in 1971, 1998 and 2003,[7] about 60% of Lastovo is covered with forest, mostly Holm Oaks and Aleppo Pines and Mediterranean underbrush.

The underwater life is the richest in the entire Adriatic, featuring lobsters, crayfish, octopus and many high prized fish such as John Dory and Groupers.

[9] Lastovo has a dynamic landscape consisting of 46 hills and 46 karstic fields that often contain layers of red soil and quartz sand.

On the southern coast is a large, deep bay at Skrivena Luka which offers protection from the bura and westerly winds.

[13] Lastovo possesses all the basic characteristics of the Mediterranean climate, dominated by mild, moist winters and warm, long, and dry summers.

[2] The first traces of human presence on the island were found in the Rača cave where continuous evidence of habitation reaches as far as the late Neolithic Age.

The Romans left traces of their long rule on the island, in the form of the so-called villa rustica estates (residential farming units) and the water catchment areas known as the lokve.

Around 950, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos mentions Lastovo in his De Administrando Imperio by its Croatian name Lastobon.

[16] In 998 the Venetian Doge Pietro Orseolo II launched large military operations against Croatian and Neretvian pirates along the Adriatic and its islands, which culminated in 1000 with the destruction of the town of Lastovo.

[12] Scarcity of accurate historical documents and an almost complete silence covering the events on the island in the early Middle Ages are trustworthy signs of a great autonomy of Lastovo in that period.

[17] However, Ragusa purchased Lastovo from Stefan Uroš I king of Serbia who had rights over the island as ruler of parts of Hum.

[12] During the Ottoman conquests, Lastovo was very often a target of pirates from Ulcinj, leading to the introduction of mandatory guard service.

This case included from Lastovo the defendants who formed a band or group of vigilante style vampire hunters.

Between 18 January and 3 February 1813, the Royal Navy frigate HMS Apollo and troops captured Lastovo and Korčula.

[citation needed] As a consequence, under the Rapallo agreement of 1920, Italy received in Dalmatia only Zara (today Zadar), due to its Italian majority, and Lagosta.

On 8 September 1943, after the declaration of the Armistice with Italy, the Italian Army collapsed and Josip Broz Tito's Partisans took over the island, incorporating it into Yugoslavia.

[citation needed] After World War II, Lastovo experienced the same fate as the neighbouring island Vis.

Legend has it that Catalan pirates attacked neighbouring Korčula and sent a Turkish messenger to Lastovo to tell the islanders to surrender or they would be next.

Jure (St. George) for help and their prayers were answered: a storm destroyed the pirates' ships and the inhabitants of Lastovo caught the messenger.

[citation needed] On the graveyard on the southern edge is the little church of Saint Mary in the field from the 14th century and is considered as most attractive on 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.

Another church called St Peter in Ubli built somewhere in the 11th–13th centuries was demolished by the Italians in 1933 to make way for extra fishing sheds.

[citation needed] 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.

[citation needed] For many centuries the only religion on the island has been Roman Catholicism, which has contributed to the preservation of the Latin names of certain settlements.