Istria · medieval Glagolitic walls

Hum, Croatia: The 'Smallest Town in the World' (Population 27)

Hum has a town charter from 1102, a population of roughly 27, and is consistently described as the smallest town in the world. Every year an all-male assembly walks into the loggia and elects a mayor.

Hum, Istria — Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)

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Hum 🇭🇷

Virovitica-Podravina, Croatia · pop. 90

Hum sits on a hilltop in central Istria, the Croatian peninsula that juts into the northern Adriatic. It is fully enclosed by medieval walls, has two streets and three rows of houses — and a population of roughly 27 people. Croatia gives Hum the status of a grad ("town"), and the Guinness Book of Records has more than once called it the smallest town in the world.

A 12th-century town that never grew

Hum's earliest written record is from 1102. It was built as a fortified market and Episcopal seat, and was once an important regional centre — particularly for the Glagolitic script, the oldest known Slavic alphabet. The 11th-century Hum Graffito, carved into a wall in the nearby village of Roč, is one of the earliest surviving Glagolitic inscriptions.

By the modern era the surrounding region had urbanised around larger Istrian towns, but Hum's town charter was never rescinded. It has retained "town" status — and the formal civic apparatus that goes with it — even as its population dwindled to the low double digits.

An election held by walking into a building

Every year, on the second Sunday in June, Hum holds one of Europe's oldest surviving electoral rituals. The town's adult men gather in the loggia outside the gate, and the župan (mayor) of the previous year reads aloud the list of male candidates. Voters then walk into the loggia and indicate their choice by carving a notch into a wooden stick — a method preserved unchanged for centuries. The new mayor is announced, and the rest of the day is spent at the town festival.

Biska and a single restaurant

Hum's only restaurant, the Humska Konoba, serves Istrian specialties: pasta with truffle, prosciutto, and biska — a local mistletoe-and-herb brandy distilled in town, made to a recipe that the locals say is over 2,000 years old. Outside the walls is a small souvenir stand and a parking area. Inside the walls there are stone houses, a Romanesque church, the loggia, and almost nothing else.

Fun facts

Hum lies along the "Glagolitic Alley" — a 7-kilometre road between Roč and Hum dotted with eleven sculptures honouring the Glagolitic alphabet.
The annual election is restricted, by tradition, to adult men. The town has been debating whether to modernise the rule for decades.
There are only two streets in town. Locals refer to them simply as "the upper one" and "the lower one."
Hum's town gate features 12 monthly bronze figurines around its lock — added in 1981 by sculptor Branko Ungar.

Gallery

Hum on its hilltop, fully enclosed by medieval walls. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.

One of Hum's two streets — the village has only an upper and a lower lane. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.

Hum's bell tower, the most prominent landmark inside the walls. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.

The Church of the Assumption of Mary, the parish church inside the walls. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.

Sources

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Text on this page is original Terralocate editorial. Background facts compiled from the public sources listed above. Images via Wikimedia Commons under their respective licenses (typically CC BY-SA or public domain).