Cres: The Great Unspoilt Island of the Kvarner Gulf
Cres is the main town and largest settlement on the island of the same name, the largest island in Croatia by area at 405.78 km², located in the Kvarner Gulf in northern Croatia. The town has 2,716 inhabitants (2021 census). The island, with a total population of around 3,000, is among the least developed tourist destinations in the Adriatic, preserving a pristine landscape of abandoned villages, maquis-covered hills, and secluded coves.
History The island has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic. The Greeks named it Chersos ("barren land"), and the Romans incorporated it into the province of Liburnia in the 1st century BC. After the fall of Rome, it passed to the Byzantine Empire and then to the medieval Croatian kingdom. From the 10th century, the Republic of Venice held influence over the island until the fall of the Serenissima in 1797, whereupon it passed to the Austrian Empire. Under the Treaty of Rapallo (1920), it was ceded to Italy and did not return to Yugoslavia until 1947.
Nature and Heritage The island's principal natural asset is Lake Vrana, Cres's only freshwater reservoir and one of the deepest in Eastern Europe (76 m deep, 50 m below sea level), which also supplies the island of Lošinj. The island is home to one of the most important colonies of Eurasian griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) in the eastern Mediterranean. In the town of Cres, a Renaissance clock tower, a loggia, and a church from the 15th–16th centuries have been preserved. The hilltop village of Lubenice, perched on a cliff, is one of the most photogenic landscapes on the Adriatic.
Points of interest: - Population (town): 2,716 inhabitants (2021 census). Island area: 405.78 km². - Getting there: Ferry from Rijeka, from the island of Krk (Merag–Valbiska), or from Istria (Brestova–Porozina).