Mali Lošinj: The "Island of Vitality" and the Adriatic's Largest Island Town
Mali Lošinj is a town in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, on the island of Lošinj in Croatia's Kvarner Gulf. With 7,537 inhabitants (2021 census) —5,561 in the urban core— it is the largest town on any Adriatic island. Its name, literally "small Lošinj," appears in documents for the first time in 1398 under the name Malo selo ("small village").
History Stable colonisation of the island began in the 12th century, when twelve Croatian families fleeing the Mongol invasion from Hungary settled in St Martin's Bay. Initially farmers and livestock keepers, the inhabitants evolved towards fishing, shipbuilding, and maritime trade. The 19th century was the golden age: Mali Lošinj came to have 11 shipyards and its merchant fleet was the most active on the Adriatic —ahead of Rijeka, Trieste, and Venice—. American writer Kenneth Roberts noted in 1938 that there were "four hundred sea captains living in Lussinpiccolo." The arrival of the steamship and the phylloxera epidemic marked the decline of this prosperity. In 1947, after Italian administration (1920–47), the island was incorporated into Yugoslavia.
Heritage and nature The 1999 discovery of a 1st–2nd century BC Greek bronze statue —the Apoxyomenos— on the seabed near Lošinj, and its permanent display in Mali Lošinj's Kvarner Museum, is today the island's main cultural attraction. The Čikat forest park, with its 19th-century Austrian aristocratic villas, and the Čikat Underwater Park with replicas of Venetian cannons and amphorae complete the offering. More than 200 bottlenose dolphins live permanently in the island's waters.
Points of interest: - Population: 7,537 (municipality, 2021); 5,561 (urban core). The largest town on any Adriatic island. - Getting there: Ferry from Rijeka or Zadar; flights to Lošinj Airport.