Preko

Preko is a town on the island of Ugljan in Zadar County, sitting directly across the channel from the city of Zadar, and its name means exactly that: across. The Zadar-Preko crossing is Croatia's busiest ferry connection, with up to 29 sailings a day in peak summer and a passage of roughly 20 to 25 minutes. According to the 2021 census the municipality has 3,556 residents, with something like 1,250 to 1,500 of them living in Preko itself.

The Town and Its Municipality

The municipality covers 54.6 square kilometres and takes in eight settlements: Preko itself, Ugljan with 1,024 residents, Lukoran with 478, Sutomišćica with 380, Poljana with 321, and the three small island communities of Sestrunj with 45, Ošljak with 35 and Rivanj with 23. Preko is the administrative centre of the island and the point where almost everyone arrives, because the ferry from Zadar docks in the middle of town. Jadrolinija runs the crossing as line 431, which also calls at Ošljak on the way.

Ugljan is the first island of the Zadar archipelago, 50.2 square kilometres in area, some 22 kilometres long and around 4 kilometres wide. The Zadar Channel separates it from the mainland, and the narrow Ždrelac strait divides it from Pašman to the southeast; the two islands have been joined by a road bridge since 1973. The island's name comes from ulje, the Croatian word for oil, and it earns it: most of Ugljan is under olive groves, some of them centuries old, and olive oil has been produced here for well over two thousand years.

The older part of Preko keeps a typical Dalmatian character, with narrow stone lanes, low houses and the summer villas built by Zadar's patrician families back when the island served as their retreat across the water. Because the town faces the city rather than the open sea, the view from the waterfront is of Zadar's rooftops and bell towers, only a few minutes away by boat.

St Michael's Fortress Above the Town

On the hill behind Preko, at roughly 265 metres, stands St Michael's Fortress, known in Croatian as Utvrda sv. Mihovila and one of the oldest fortified sites on the Adriatic. Archaeological finds show an Iron Age hillfort occupied the summit as early as the 4th century BC, and in the 6th century the Byzantines built a fortress here as part of a chain of strongpoints guarding the sea routes along the coast.

A Benedictine monastery and church were established inside the walls in the 11th century and functioned until the 15th, and the Republic of Venice rebuilt the fortifications in 1202, during the Fourth Crusade. The castle went on to play a defensive role in the Venetian sieges of Zadar in 1345 and 1346. Its later history is largely one of damage: the fortress church was destroyed in the Second World War, the site was hit again during the Croatian War of Independence, and a telecommunications station now occupies the top.

The climb is the reason most people make the trip. A marked trail runs about 2.5 kilometres up from Preko and takes roughly an hour on foot, and there is also a road to a car park near the summit for anyone who would rather drive. From the walls you look out over more than 200 islands of the Zadar archipelago, the Kornati National Park to the south and the Velebit range rising behind Zadar. The ruins themselves are unmaintained, with crumbling masonry, loose stone and uneven ground, so it pays to watch your footing.

Churches, Galevac and Ošljak

Beside the ferry dock stands the church of St John the Baptist, built in stone at the end of the 11th century and preserved in its original form together with a good deal of its stone church furniture. It is regarded as one of the most valuable examples of early Romanesque architecture on the island, and the first documentary mention of it dates from 1 March 1377, when its chaplain Grgur appears in the records. In the centre of town is the church of Our Lady of the Rosary, founded in 1765 on the foundations of an older building.

About 80 metres off the Preko waterfront lies the wooded islet of Galevac, known locally as Školjić, with a Franciscan monastery built in the 15th century. Over the centuries the monastery housed a printing house, a grammar school and a quarantine station, and the Franciscans were the main force behind education and culture in Preko and the villages around it. Its library holds a collection of old and rare books that has been protected as a Cultural Good of the Republic of Croatia since 2016.

The municipality also includes Ošljak, which at 0.39 square kilometres is the smallest inhabited island in Croatia, with 35 residents at the 2021 census. Locals call it Lazaret, because in the 17th century it served as the isolation hospital where plague and leprosy cases from the whole Zadar region were quarantined. A two-kilometre path crosses the island, passing a lighthouse and the remains of old windmills on the way up to a 90-metre summit.

Beaches and Arriving by Sea

Preko's best-known beach is Jaz, a shallow, gently shelving stretch on the edge of town that suits small children and has carried Blue Flag status. It is one of the few genuinely sandy beaches in the Zadar area, which is unusual on a coast built almost entirely of pebble and rock.

For boats, Preko is a convenient stop rather than a full-service base. The ferry traffic dominates the harbour, so most yachts lie off or use the moorings nearby before heading south toward the Kornati. Thanks to its short hop from Zadar's harbour, many gulet cruises in Croatia call in here.