Molat

Molat is a small island in the Zadar Archipelago, northwest of Zadar between the islands of Ist and Silba. It covers about 22.8 square kilometres and is home to three settlements — Molat, Zapuntel and Brgulje — which together had 197 residents at the 2011 census, a steep decline from a historical peak of over a thousand.

Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos mentioned the island around 950 AD, and in 1151 it was donated to the St Krsevan monastery in Zadar by Desa, Duke of Zahumlje. Traces of earlier Illyrian hillforts — Lokardenik, Gracina, Straza and Knezak — are still found across the island. Molat came under Venetian rule in 1409 and remained so for centuries. During the Second World War, Italian fascist forces ran a detention camp on the island through which tens of thousands of prisoners passed, a grim chapter still noted in the island's history.

Today Molat's economy still rests on farming, sheep-raising, fishing and tourism, and the island is reached by ferry from Zadar. Quiet and sparsely populated, Molat is many gulet cruises in Croatia call in here as one of the outer stops on the Zadar Archipelago.