Mali Lošinj

Sister cities

• Thiene

History

The town was first mentioned in 1398, under the name Malo selo ("small village"). In 1868, it experienced its golden year. There were as many as eleven shipyards, and it became the place with the largest and most developed merchant marine in the Adriatic Sea, even ahead of cities like Rijeka, Trieste and Venice. American author Kenneth Roberts observed that the little town, like some in southern Maine, seemed to have "produced a hundred seamen for each one produced elsewhere." Writing in 1938, Roberts said there were currently "four hundred sea captains living on Lussinpiccolo, which is about the size of Monhegan Island- captains of all sorts of vessels, from thirty thousand ton liners to hundred ton merchant brigs." With the invention of the steam engine a stagnation in development ensued, and with the outbreak of the grapevine disease peronospora. Previously part of the Venetian Republic, Mali Lošinj passed under Austrian-Hungarian rule in 1797 with the Treaty of Campo Formio. The isle remained under Austrian-Hungarian rule until 1918. After World War I, under the provisions of the Treaty of Rapallo it was given to the Kingdom of Italy. In 1947, it was incorporated into Yugoslavia. Its incorporation into socialist Yugoslavia led to mass emigration of its Italian population. After World War II there were only 2,200 residents left. In 1991, it became part of present-day Croatia. In the summer of 2019, the fire department JVP Grada Mali Lošinj saved a young caver who was stuck 10 below ground in a cave near Srem, a hamlet of Belej.

Most-observed species

• Dalmatian Wall Lizard

  Podarcis melisellensis (Braun, 1877) · Squamata
  168
• Mastic Tree

  Pistacia lentiscus L. · Magnoliopsida
  135
• Yellow-legged Gull

  Larus michahellis J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  117
• Myrtle

  Myrtus communis L. · Magnoliopsida
  105
• European Shag

  Phalacrocorax aristotelis (Linnaeus, 1761) · Aves
  94
• Common Smilax

  Smilax aspera L. · Liliopsida
  77
• Barn Swallow

  Hirundo rustica Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  75
• Rock Samphire

  Crithmum maritimum L. · Magnoliopsida
  73

Most recent

• M 4.6 — 2025-02-11
  5 km NE of Starigrad, Croatia
• M 4.7 — 2023-02-16
  3 km W of Baška, Croatia
• M 4.6 — 2020-11-01
  2 km NE of Starigrad, Croatia
• M 3.5 — 2020-05-13
  3 km NE of Crikvenica, Croatia
• M 4 — 2017-08-08
  3 km SSW of Jadranovo, Croatia
• M 3.3 — 2016-05-08
  8 km NNE of Oto?ac, Croatia