Historic Urban Ensemble of Rab

The town of Rab sits on a narrow peninsula in the middle of the southern, wooded coast of the island of the same name, in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. A walk along its stepped streets, past church bell towers and noble palaces, is one of the finest experiences of the Adriatic islands.

The core of the town grew out of a Liburnian settlement, which became a Roman municipium with a developed urban culture, and as early as the 6th century it is mentioned as a bishop's seat. Continuity lasts through the early Middle Ages, and it experienced a particular flowering from the 12th to the 15th century as a free town commune. The regular layout consists of three parallel longitudinal streets, upper, middle and lower, crossed by steep transverse streets with steps. The Gothic-Renaissance noble palaces stand out, and among the church buildings the cathedral, two monasteries and the ruins of the Benedictine basilica of St John the Evangelist.

The town core is a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-2700.

Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence.