Osor | The Kvarner Gulf

Set beside the narrow strait which divides Cres from Lošinj, OSOR is an erstwhile cathedral town which has shrunk to the size of a hamlet. It's the oldest settlement on either island, a prosperous Roman city which some historians believe once had a population of fifteen thousand, although a couple of thousand seems more realistic. Osor's regional importance survived into the medieval era, thanks in part to the reputation of eleventh-century holy man (and later saint) Gaudentius, who established the now ruined monastery of St Peter here and turned Osor into a centre of Glagolitic manuscript production. Driven out by local nobles, Gaudentius died in exile in Rome - from where his remains miraculously returned to Osor in a sea-borne wooden chest. They're now kept on the high altar of Osor's cathedral. Under Venetian rule, Osor was a typical casualty of the decline in Mediterranean trade which followed the discovery of America and the opening up of the trans-Atlantic economy. Visiting in 1771, the Italian traveller Abbe Fortis described it as the "corpse of a town, in which there are more houses than inhabitants".

Osor nowadays is a small village with a permanent population of around seventy, its streets exuding a peace that, on a hot summer's day, it seems nothing will ever disturb. The cobbled kernel of the village stands just above the Kavuada, the narrow channel, just 11m wide, which divides Cres and Lošinj. Dug either by the Romans or their Illyrian predecessors, it's now spanned by a swing bridge which opens at 9am and 5pm every day to let boats through.

Presiding over a funnel-shaped main square is the Church (originally cathedral) of the Assumption (Crkva Uznesenja), completed in 1497 and boasting an elegant trefoil facade in smooth, pale stone. The small Archeological Museum in the Venetian town hall opposite has Roman relics and a model of medieval Osor enclosed by extensive town walls, stretches of which survive in much reduced form.

On the other side of the square, a narrow street runs past the fifteenth-century Bishop's Palace, now a sporadically open lapidarium harbouring bits of masonry from Osor's many churches, several of which are covered with the plutej, a plait-like design characteristic of Croatian medieval art. The most imposing item on display is the bishop's throne, a composite work made from Romanesque stone fragments taken from the graveyard of St Mary's Church - the backrest is embellished with a fine carving of two birds hovering above a lion-like beast.Ten minutes north of the square, past the graveyard, lies Bijar Bay, where a small beach is overlooked by the ruins of the thirteenth-century Franciscan monastery, another important centre of Glagolitic culture in its day.

Rooms are available from Turist Biro on the main square, and there are two campsites: the beautifully situated Bijar with a shady seafront position on the northern side of town, and Preko Mosta , just across the bridge on the Lošinj side. For eating, Konoba Livio serves up decent pizza in a pleasant courtyard, while Konoba Bonifa & has a wider range of local seafood, Cres specialities like janjetina (lamb stew) and a lovely garden. The Osor Evenings (Osorske veceri) festival of chamber music stages performances in the Church of the Assumption from the second weekend of July to early August - the tourist office in Lošinj will have details.

ja_mageia

Dubrovnik

Places Around

Islands

Croatia