Island of Rab
On the eastern part of the Adriatic Sea, there is a real little pearl that many visitors fall in love with at first sight. The reason why many decide to spend their vacation on the island of Rab is precisely the combination of natural wealth, pleasant climatic conditions and cultural heritage, which makes this destination suitable for various forms of tourism during most of the year. The island of love and happiness, as it is often called, owes its name mainly to the abundance of forests that cover about 40% of its surface – the people of Liburni called it “Arba” in the olden days, which means dark, green, i.e. wooded, and Greek and Roman geographers accepted continued to use that name.
It is precisely the Kalifront peninsula, which together with Draška cove, where our family house and accommodation is located, forms the western coast of the island of Rab, is one of the largest holm oak forest communities in Europe. Apart from Kalifront, the west coast is adorned by the archipelago of Draška cove, which consists of three uninhabited islets near our accommodation: Maman, Šailovac and Sridnjak. These are small islands where you cannot find even the slightest influence of human civilization, so they are particularly attractive to many tourists because of the cleanliness of the sea and seabed, untouched natural beaches and bays, as well as the rich flora and fauna that you can find in the area.
The Mediterranean climate that is characteristic of the island of Rab means warm and pleasant summers and mild winters and has greatly contributed to the wealth of flora and fauna in this area, which the local population has recognized very well by continuing the thousand-year-old tradition of growing numerous agricultural crops as well as dealing with livestock and fishing.
This is exactly what allows you and many other visitors to the island to enjoy local specialties of Mediterranean cuisine in our restaurants and try some of the locally recognizable fish and meat dishes that are additionally refined with local olive oil!
In addition to the rich flora and fauna, many nature lovers can also enjoy the many natural beaches with which Rab is enriched, and the most famous of them is certainly the Paradise beach, only a ten-minute drive from our accommodation! The two kilometers of uninterrupted sandy paradise have been recognized by the foreign media and countless times ranked this beach among the most attractive beaches in the world, and with nearby islets, the cave “Medova rupa” and numerous sports and recreational facilities, it is ideal for visitors of all ages.
Rabska fjera – the most attractive event of the year
The largest and oldest medieval festival in this part of Europe is a kind of celebration of more than two thousand years of organized social life on the island, it takes place every year from July 25 to 27 and is the ideal time to visit the old town! The view of the old town with its four bell towers is a real monument to the rich history of the island of Rab, and it is divided into four main streets that mark the four seasons: Riva, Donja ulica, Srednja ulica and Gornja ulica. They are “intersected” by twelve smaller alleys that mark the months of the year, while the height of the bell towers represents the average air temperature in a certain season.
During the duration of this festival, as well as other days of the summer season, the old town is the center of all important events on the island, and on its streets you can learn about numerous crafts from that time, such as wool knitting, metal forging, stone carving and many others. On the square of St. Christopher, the patron saint of the city of Rab, you can witness knightly games and an archery tournament organized by the Association of Rab Crossbowmen. On the same square you can also find sculptures of the Rab shepherdess Draga and Kalifront, about whom there is a legendary love ballad. At the end of the square and at the very entrance to Srednja ulica, you can see the bust of Markantun de Dominis, one of the most famous residents of Rab, known for his study of the influence of the Sun and the Moon on the tides, as well as for his assertions about the existence of a date line – the place where night turns into day and where a new one begins year!
If you leave the square and continue your way along the stone steps of Bobotine Street, you may come across a memorial plaque dedicated to the controversial British abdicated King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson, who visited the island of Rab in 1936, and many proud residents of Rab will say that this is where Edward made a historical decision that he did not want to be king, although there are no historically proven facts for this. Nevertheless, the people of Rab will forever remember his visit because of the controversial nudism in Kandarola bay at the time, about which the famous musical “Kralj je gol” (eng. The king is naked”) was written and which is considered the beginning of nudist tourism on the island of Rab.
The stairs will take you to Gornja street, at the end of which there is the church and bell tower of St. Justina and the smaller Pjaceta square, where you can try the Rab specialty called šulčić. The dough is made in deep oil and served together with salted anchovies, homemade prosciutto or cheese, and the youngest can also try a more modern variant with sweet fillings.
Church and bell tower of St. Justine, the belfry was built the latest and the only one in the Baroque style, and it was built in honor of all the dead and missing inhabitants of the island of Rab who participated in the historic naval battle near Lepanto in 1571. The Rab galley was led by Ivan de Dominis, and the forgotten hero of one of the greatest naval battles in the history of civilization, Nikola Spalatin from Rab, stood out in particular. Although the Rab galley returned from the battle, of the 800 participants, as many as 500 of them died or disappeared, which is almost every tenth inhabitant of Rab, or every other fertile male – which greatly affected the demographic picture of the island. In their honor, in 2005, a commemorative plaque was placed on the church of St. Justina.
The path can then take you in two directions – if you are a lover of desserts, the stairs will lead you to the House of Rab cake, the most recognizable specialty of Rab, and this dessert was first served in 1177 during the visit of Pope Alexander III and remained a special privilege that was served only on the courts of the richest noble families. Today, this delicacy is available to you and in the House of Rab cake you can not only try it, but you can also try your hand at making this traditional Rab dessert!
On the other side of the square, steps will take you to the promenade, which the Habsburg prince Alois von Liechenstein, enchanted by the beauty of Rab, had built at the beginning of the 20th century. On it, you can learn about the medieval life of Rab fishermen and trades such as fishing net weaving, and the most attractive thing is definitely to try some of the fish specialties in such an environment. Above the promenade is one of the most beautiful park-forests in the Mediterranean and the most beautiful work of the Rab forester Pravdoje Belija – Park Komrčar. Komrčar, as a part of the old city core, covers an area of 10 ha and is much larger than the urban part over which it was built, which makes the city of Rab unique in the world !
