Sailing ships and painted houses in the great harbour of Mali Lošinj

Museums & History

Mali Lošinj & the Museum of Apoxyomenos

Lošinj · Kvarner & Islands

QUICK INFORMATION

CATEGORY
Museums & History
COUNTRY
Croatia
REGION
Lošinj · Kvarner & Islands
DURATION
1–2 days

ABOUT THIS ATTRACTION

Mali Lošinj’s great curved harbour was once the tuna capital of the Adriatic; today its waterfront cafés and boatyards face a museum that holds the Apoxyomenos — a Greek-style bronze athlete raised from the sea bed near Veli Lošinj in 1996 and restored over a decade — one of the finest ancient bronzes anywhere. Above the town, the lookout over the bay gives the full sweep of the largest island town on the Adriatic.

HISTORY & BACKGROUND

The story behind it

Mali Lošinj boomed in the 18th and 19th centuries on tuna, shipbuilding and Mediterranean trade — its fleet sailed as far as the Pacific. The Austrian health era began in 1892 when the island’s climate spa was founded; pine forests were planted deliberately to scent the air, and the harbour’s painted villas date from that Belle Époque. The Apoxyomenos, a Roman copy of a Greek original from the school of Lysippos, lay encrusted between rocks at 40 m depth for two millennia before sponge divers found it.

WHAT TO SEE

What to see here

More here soon — the road is still being mapped.

GOOD TO KNOW

Facts & Curiosities

01

The Apoxyomenos bronze — a 1st-century BC athlete cleaning himself with a strigil — is the island’s signature treasure.

02

Mali Lošinj was the Adriatic’s tuna-fishing capital into the 20th century; the trade built the harbour’s villas.

03

The island’s pine forests were planted in the 1890s as part of the Austrian climate-spa project.

04

The town is the largest settlement on any Adriatic island, with roughly 6,000 residents.

MAP & LOCATION

Mali Lošinj & the Museum of Apoxyomenos

Mali Lošinj & the Museum of Apoxyomenos, Lošinj, Kvarner & Islands, Croatia

44.5176, 14.5151

Open in OpenStreetMap

FOOD & DRINK

Where to eat nearby

01

Restaurant Barbara — harbour dining in Mali Lošinj

02

Veli Lošinj’s seafront cafés

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HOTELS & STAYS

Where to stay nearby

01

Hotel Bellevue — a wellness resort above the bay

02

Apartments in Mali and Veli Lošinj

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INTERESTS

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PART OF

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