My first encounter with island Cres was two years ago when we decided to spend summer vacation in Croatia.
Just a few hours drive from Zagreb, Cres with its beautiful pebble beaches and deep pine shady spots, proved to be the perfect spot for pensioners and people with small kids.
Situated in a small bay on the west coast of island, town Cres is the capital, but with its population of just few thousand seems like a small village. Used to be fishing town with a fish factory but now the main industry of the island is tourism.
Although Cres town was settled way before Christ, together with Osor, it became important maritime center during the Roman time. Sadly, not much of the original architecture is preserved.
During the 16th all the way through 18th century Cres island together with the neighboring islands was under the rule of Republic of Venice, the French and the Austrians. The locals were mostly engaged in fishing but the timber export had a huge influence on the shipping development. In the port of Cres one could see many sailing ships transporting wine, fish, cattle, oil and wood.
In 1896 the fish factory was built so the fish port got transferred west from the historical part of the city.
The coastal part of the city was finally finished in 2020 by construction of the new pier.
Today Cres is a typical small town with many narrow streets and small hidden backyards.
Most of the locals are engaged in hospitality in any given way so the town is the busiest during the summer periods when tourists from Czech Republic, Germany or other parts of Croatia inhabit the island.
As the town is rather dead…..small and there’s not much to do but to sunbathe, swim, enjoy a book read or loud noise coming from dozens of kids on the beach, we used the opportunity of having two grandmothers on the island with us to visit Lubenice and Osor. We even went for a lunch. Alone. But more on that in the post to follow 🙂
