Makarska is a prominent regional tourist center, located on a horseshoe-shaped bay between the Biokovo mountains and the Adriatic Sea.

In the Illyrian era this region was part of the broader alliance of tribes, led by the Ardaeans, founded in the third century BC in the Cetina area (Omiš) down to the River Vjosë in present-day Albania.

The town appears in the Tabula Peutingeriana as the port of Inaronia, but is mentioned as Muccurum, a larger settlement that grew up in the most inaccessible part of Biokovo mountain, probably at the very edge of the Roman civilisation.

In the 7th century the region between the Cetina and Neretva was occupied by the Narentines, with Mokro, located in today's Makarska, as its administrative centre.

The doge of Venice Pietro I Candiano, whose Venetian fleet aimed to punish the piratesque activities of the town's vessels, was defeated here on September 18, 877[3] and had to pay tribute to the Narentines for the free passage of its ships on the Adriatic.

Making use of the rivalry between the Croatian leaders and their power struggles (1324–1326), the Bosnian Ban Stjepan II Kotromanić annexed the Makarska coastal area.

During Turkish rule the seat of the administrative and judicial authority was in Foča, Mostar, for a short time in Makarska itself and finally in Gabela on the River Neretva.

A period of dual leadership, marked with armed conflicts, destruction, and reprisals, lasted until 1684, until the danger of the Turks ended in 1699.

The Makarska representatives in the Dalmatian assembly in Zadar and the Imperial Council in Vienna demanded the introduction of Croatian for use in public life, but the authorities steadfastly opposed the idea.

It became a trading point for agricultural products, not only from the coastal area, but also from the hinterland (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and had shipping links with Trieste, Rijeka and Split.

[citation needed] All the natural advantages of the region were used to create in Makarska one of the best known tourist areas on the Croatian Adriatic.

In the late 1990s tourism was thriving again and in following decades created a speculative, rapid and wild construction boom with lot of highly problematic expansions (especially in Veliko Brdo), while with little or no urban planning at all.

The town is sharply separated from the interior by the mountain Biokovo (the highest peak of St. George, 1762 m), and it is connected with the central Dalmatian islands of Brač and Hvar by the Adriatic Sea, which modelled some of the most beautiful Croatian beaches in the Makarska Riviera.

The flysch zone between the mountain and the sea is only a few kilometres wide, so that the further expansion of the city goes to the east and west, i.e. to the neighbouring settlements of Tučepi and Krvavica.

Vegetation is the evergreen Mediterranean type, and subtropical flora (palm-trees, agaves, cacti) grow in the town and its surroundings.

According to the 2011 census, the total population of the town is 13,834, in the following settlements:[13] A 2019 study found that high school students in Makarska were the tallest in the Dinaric Alps (and the world), with males having an average height of 187.6 cm.