Vrgada Island

Vrgada is a small island in the southeastern part of the Zadar archipelago, lying roughly halfway between Zadar and Šibenik and about 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km) off the mainland, opposite the villages of Pakoštane and Drage. It covers 3.7 square kilometres, rises to 112 metres at the summit of Srabljinovac, and has a single settlement, also called Vrgada, wrapped in pine forest on the sheltered northern side. What makes it unusual among Croatian islands of this size is how little has been built on it, and how far back its written record goes.

Geography and Setting

Around two thirds of Vrgada is covered in dense Mediterranean pine forest, which is why the island reads as green from a distance in a part of the Adriatic where much of the coastline is bare karst. Its north-eastern shore is broken up by a series of small coves, and it is these that give boats sheltered spots to anchor away from the busier stretches of the mainland coast.

The island is often called the golden island because of its sandy coves, a genuine rarity on this coast, where almost everything is pebble or rock. The best known of them is Podbrizi, also called the Golden or Red Beach by locals after the colour of the sand and the cliff behind it, and it is routinely listed among the most attractive beaches in the Adriatic. Vrgada sits directly on the line between Zadar and Šibenik, which is what puts it on so many charter routes without it ever becoming a major destination.

Administratively Vrgada is a settlement in the municipality of Pakoštane, in Zadar County, and it lies in the water between the southern end of Pašman and the mainland shore, north-west of Murter and south of Biograd na Moru. Some 13 smaller islets are scattered around it, and the views out over them from the island's high ground are the main reward for the walk up. Beyond Podbrizi there are several other coves and beaches, including the larger bay of Kranje on the southern side, plus the small harbour of Pocrikve, also known as Pržine, used by local fishing boats.

A Thousand Years in the Records

Vrgada was settled in prehistory by the Liburnians, the Illyrian tribe that controlled this stretch of the northern Adriatic, and later by the Romans, who are said to have known it as Insula rubricata, the red island, after its distinctive red cliff. The Byzantines followed, and the remains of a Byzantine military fortress from the sixth century, the era of Emperor Justinian, still stand on the Gradina hill. Croats settled the island from the ninth century onwards, and the early Christian church of St Andrew dates to that period.

The written record begins properly in 950, when the island appears as the fortified settlement of Lumbricaton in the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Venetian chronicles of the tenth and eleventh centuries call it Levigrada, a charter of St Chrysogonus from 1096 gives it as Lumbricata, and the Croatian form Lapkat is recorded from the fourteenth century. The reason for all that attention is strategic: the channel between Vrgada and Pašman was the main navigable strait here, and fortresses on both islands watched it for enemy fleets and pirates.

Under Venice the island passed through a succession of feudal holders, granted to Nikola Zloradis in 1416, to Jacob Farina in 1453 and to the Klokočić family in 1652. In 1682 the Damiani family from Brač bought Vrgada outright and took the title Conti di Vergada; they were the last owners and left after the First World War, leaving behind the ruins of their baroque manor house. The parish church of the Holy Trinity completes the small stock of historic buildings on the island.

Life on a Car-Free Island

There are no cars on Vrgada. Transport is on foot or by tricycle, there is a single shop, and the island's economy still runs on agriculture and fishing rather than on any large-scale tourism development. The resident population is small and declining in the way most Dalmatian islands are: earlier figures put it at around 249, while the 2021 census counted 209 people living there year-round, a density of well under a hundred per square kilometre. In summer the numbers swell with day visitors and returning families, but the island never acquires the infrastructure of a resort, and the single village on the northern shore remains the only built-up spot on it.

Getting there is straightforward without a boat of your own. The public ferry line 415 connects Vrgada with Pakoštane and Biograd na Moru throughout the year, with the crossing from Pakoštane taking about 30 minutes. That short hop is also what makes the island a popular day trip from the Biograd riviera.

Anchoring at Vrgada

For boats, the attraction is the combination of shelter and emptiness. The main port of call, known simply as Luka, sits on the sheltered northern side of the island beside the village, while the small coves along the north-eastern coast offer quieter alternatives for a lunch stop. With no road traffic ashore and almost no development beyond the single village, the anchorage stays quiet in a way that is increasingly hard to find between Zadar and Šibenik in high season.

Its position on the direct line between the two cities makes Vrgada a classic stop on a Sibenik blue cruise itinerary, typically as a swim or lunch stop between longer legs, or as an overnight anchorage before pushing on towards the Kornati islands to the north-west.