Vis is a Croatian island in the Adriatic Sea, of all the inhabited Croatian islands, it is the farthest from the coast. The highest peak of Vis is called Hum, 587 m high.
There are two towns and municipalities on the island, and Komiža, both located on the seacoast. There are smaller settlements on the island's interior: Podselje, Marinje zemlje, Podšpilje, and Podstražje.

Vis was inhabited by the time of the Neolithic period. In the 4th century B.C., the tyrant of Siracuse, Dionysius the Elder, founded the colony Issa on the island. Later, it became an independent city-state, and even minted its own money and founded its own colonies elsewhere. In the first century B.C., the island was held by the Liburnians, a Venetic[7] tribe.In the 4th century BC Syracusan Greeks colonised the Island. Its importance in the region ended with the first Illyro-Roman war (29-219 B.C.. Having sided with Pompeus during the period of civil struggles in Rome, became an "oppidum civium Romanorum" in 47 B.C.

A part of the Byzantine Theme of Dalmatia, in 925 Croatian Monarch Tomislav took over administration over the island of "Ies". After the death of Croatian ruler Krešimir, a war of succession erupted and the Narentines under Serbian Prince Časlav Klonimirović took the island by 948, however they managed to rule it for only a short period, as the Byzantines restored control. Brothers of Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja Miroslav and Stracimir made raids on Vis in 1184 and 1185.

The island then passed, for several centuries, under the rule of the Republic of Venice, until 1797. During this time large settlements developed on the coast (Comisa, now Komiža and Lissa, now Vis). Administratively the island of Lissa was for centuries bound to the island of Lesina, now Hvar. The Venetian influence is still recognizable in architecture, and many words In the local Croatian dialect are venetian in origin.

After the short-lived Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, with Italian as the official language, it passed under the rule of Austrian Empire. It maintained its Italian name of Lissa. At the end of World War I, it passed under Italian rule in the period 1918 and 1921, according to the Treaty of London, and then was ceded to Yugoslavia following the Treaty of Rapallo, even though Lissa was at that time mostly populated by Italians. Almost all its population was re-located to islands and cities in Italian Dalmatia, shortly after the exchange between Lissa, assigned to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and Lagosta, assigned to Italy.

Re-occupied by Italy between 1941 and 1943, at the end of the World War II the island returned to Yugoslavia. In 1991 it became part of independent Croatia.