Mali Losinj

Mali Lošinj is the main town on Lošinj Island, tucked into the most sheltered stretch of the bay on the island's sunny eastern side. It's first mentioned in records from 1398 as "Malo selo" — ironically, given that it's now by far the larger of the island's two Lošinj towns, with Veli Lošinj ("big village") a few kilometers south.

The town's real growth came from the sea. By 1868 Mali Lošinj had eleven shipyards and had become one of the busiest merchant marine centers on the Adriatic. American author Kenneth Roberts, visiting in 1938, wrote that the town had around 400 sea captains living there — a striking number for a place roughly the size of Monhegan Island in Maine. Walk along the seafront today and the 19th-century captains' houses are still standing, a direct legacy of that era.

Rule over the town changed hands more than once: Austro-Hungarian control from 1797, Italian sovereignty between 1920 and 1947, incorporation into Yugoslavia, and Croatian independence in 1991. The population has fallen a long way from its shipping-era peak of 13,634 in 1910 — the 2021 census counted 7,537 residents across the wider municipality, with about 5,561 living in the town itself.

Mali Lošinj shares the island's mild winters and dense pine cover that made Austro-Hungarian-era doctors take notice of the local air — it's actually Veli Lošinj, a short drive down the coast, that holds the official 1892 "climatic health resort" designation, but the same sheltered, pine-scented climate covers the whole island.

The Fritzy Palace houses the Lošinj Museum's art collections, including the Piperata Collection of Old Masters and a set of works by the Croatian painter Andro Vid Mihičić. Overlooking the town, the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin was built between 1696 and 1775 and holds relics of St. Romulus alongside a Nativity painting by an 18th-century Venetian artist.

The town's biggest cultural draw, though, is the Museum of Apoxyomenos, opened in 2016 in the Kvarner Palace right on the harbor. It exists for a single object: a 2,000-year-old bronze Greek statue that a Belgian tourist spotted on the seabed near the islet of Vele Orjule in 1996, lying at a depth of about 45 meters. Divers finally raised it in 1999, and it's now one of the only well-preserved Hellenistic bronzes in the world — rare enough that Mali Lošinj built an entire museum around it.

The Lošinj Aromatic Garden, a short walk up from the harbor, grows more than 250 native herbs and plants and doubles as a spot to learn about the island's traditional medicinal plants. On the other side of town, the Čikat area combines a pine forest, a rocky bay, and a beach that's popular with campers and hikers rather than sunbathers looking for sand.

As the main harbor on the island, Mali Lošinj has been a working anchorage since long before yachting existed, and many gulet cruises in Croatia call in here today. Private yachts typically berth on the southwest side of the port, where depths range from about 2 to 12 meters. Cikat Bay, just outside the main harbor, is a popular secondary anchorage — and one where the Blue World Institute's resident dolphins are occasionally spotted passing through.