Best Things to See on Ugljan Island, Croatia

What is St. Michael's Fortress and can you visit it?

St. Michael's Fortress (Tvrđava sv. Mihovila) sits on a 265-metre hill northwest of Preko. A Benedictine monastery dedicated to St. Michael, a subsidiary of Zadar's St. Krševan monastery, occupied the site from the late 11th or early 12th century (Source: Croatian Wikipedia). Croatian Wikipedia dates the fortress itself to 1202, when Venetian forces built it after taking and destroying Zadar. Other sources are vaguer and do not fully agree. Night of Fortresses gives the 13th century for the Venetian construction, and TZ Preko says the fortress is first mentioned in the mid-14th century and was probably built on the foundations of an older 6th-century fort (Sources: Night of Fortresses; TZ Preko, cultural sights). According to Croatian Wikipedia, the Dominicans later took over the monastery in 1570, and the fortress reached its current trapezoid form in the 14th century. The Croatian Wikipedia entry describes it as the largest medieval stronghold in Dalmatia outside city walls, though this specific superlative is that source's own characterization rather than an independently ranked measurement. A major tower and the medieval church were demolished in 1948. Today the ruin is reachable via a paved, roughly 3-kilometre road suitable for cyclists, pedestrians and cars, with views over more than 200 islands of the Zadar archipelago, Kornati National Park, Zadar, Velebit and Ravni kotari (Source: TZ Preko, official tourist board).

• 265m hill above Preko, on the island's northwest side
• Origins as an 11th/12th-century Benedictine monastery; the Venetian fortress is dated to 1202 by Croatian Wikipedia, while other sources differ
• Reachable by a paved 3km road; suitable for walking, cycling or driving
• Free, open ruin rather than a ticketed monument; no opening hours to check

What is the monastery islet of Galevac (Školjić)?

Galevac, also called Školjić, is a small islet about 85 metres off the coast of Preko, roughly 300 by 200 metres in size (Source: Općina Preko, official municipal site). Franciscan Tertiaries arrived in 1446 after Zadar nobleman Bartolomeo de Milano gifted them the island, and built a monastery and church dedicated to St. Paul the Hermit. The church was repaired in 1516 and 1564 and consecrated in 1596 by the bishop of Nin, confirmed by a Latin inscription over the entrance. The 15th-century church and monastery inventory received protected cultural heritage status from the Croatian Ministry of Culture in 2013. Today the restored monastery hosts spiritual retreats and a Croatian-language school for the children of Croatian emigrants, with three friars in residence.

Why is Kali known for tuna?

Fish were scarce close to Kali's shore, so its fishermen sailed out into the Zadar Channel and the open Adriatic, and fishing grew more intensive from the 19th century onwards. They specialised in catching tuna with dedicated tuna nets, and from the second half of the 20th century they moved to purse seines for sardines and other small oily fish (Sources: Kali Tourist Board; eZadar.hr, 2020). The village itself is first recorded in a document from 1299 (Source: Kali Tourist Board). In 1996, two Croatian returnees from Australia established Kali Tuna, described by the company itself as the first tuna farm in the Mediterranean and a pioneer of farmed Atlantic bluefin tuna in the region (Source: Kali Tuna, official company history page, 2026). The company says its fish has long been in high demand on the Japanese market, where quality rules are strict (Source: Kali Tuna). Ownership followed the same route. A sale to the Japanese trading house J-Trading was announced in November 2014, and in March 2015 Kyodo News reported that J-Trading and the investment firm Integral had bought Kali Tuna (Sources: IntraFish, 2014; SeafoodNews, 2015). Many Kali residents also work as sailors on domestic and international shipping fleets.

What is Kukljica known for?

Kukljica is an older fishing settlement on Ugljan's southeastern side, noted locally as one of the pioneers of tourism among the Zadar islands. Its best-known beach is Zelena Punta, a pebble-and-concrete-slab beach shaded by pine forest, with a promenade running through the pines to the sea and views back toward Zadar (Source: Adriatic.hr beach guide). The Zelena Punta area also has a resort offering tennis, mini-golf, table tennis, diving, sailing, windsurfing and other sports facilities. Kukljica's tourist board lists trips to Telašćica Nature Park and Kornati National Park among the excursions you can arrange through its office, at the Zelena Punta reception or directly on the boats (Source: Kukljica Tourist Board, excursions page).

• Zelena Punta: pebble/concrete beach, pine-forest promenade, resort with sports facilities
• Kukljica village: older fishing settlement, early adopter of island tourism
• Coastal path continues toward the village center for walkers
• Boat excursions to Telašćica and the Kornati can be arranged in the village

What are Ugljan's mosaic benches?

Since 2014, a project called "Every place has its own bench" has been giving Ugljan's villages and bays a mosaic bench of their own, each decorated with motifs from that spot. Božica Kliman makes them together with locals and visitors, and the first one went up in 2014 in front of the Ugljan Tourist Board office (Source: TZ Preko, mosaic benches page). The tourist board describes ten benches, including the bench of the rising sun in Mostir Bay from 2015, a bench in Muline from 2016 that shows an olive and the ancient mill the hamlet is named after, and a bench in Čeprljanda dedicated to its summer festival (Source: TZ Preko).

• Project "Every place has its own bench", started by Božica Kliman in 2014
• First bench outside the Ugljan Tourist Board office, 2014
• Bench of the rising sun in Mostir Bay, 2015
• Muline bench with an olive and the ancient mill, 2016

What is the washerwomen's monument in Preko?

By the spring in Preko where the village women once rinsed laundry for Zadar households stands the statue "Naša mati" (Our Mother) by sculptor Anselmo Dorkin. It remembers 2 November 1891, when the boat taking the washerwomen (lavandijere) and the clean laundry to Zadar capsized in a violent southerly gale near the islet of Galevac (Školjić), and 16 women aged 14 to 75 drowned (Source: Morski.hr, regional news site). The song "Šesnaest lavandijera" (Sixteen washerwomen) by Stjepan Benzon, set to music by Ivica Stamać, keeps the story alive in the region. Only this one detailed source was found for the disaster, so read the specifics as single-sourced rather than double-checked.

What is Island Adventure?

Island Adventure is TZ Preko's name for a project that marked out olive and cycling paths across Ugljan's interior, built rest areas and lookouts, and added a cycling map and a mobile app. The tourist board now counts more than 100 kilometres of themed cycling and hiking paths plus two trail routes (Source: TZ Preko, Island Adventure page). Stops include the Path of Ancient Olive Trees, where old trees grow inside revitalised Roman land parcels, the rainwater pond Black Tear (Ćinta), and the Blue Tear pond (Cezunj) in Lukoran (Source: TZ Preko).

How many olive trees does Ugljan have, and what are the cycling trails like?

Ugljan is described by the official Zadar Region Tourist Board as covered with an estimated 200,000 olive trees, giving it the nickname "the Zadar garden" (Source: Zadar Region Tourist Board, official site). TZ Preko's own Island Adventure page puts the number far higher, at an estimated 700,000 olive trees, so treat either figure as a rough estimate (Source: TZ Preko, Island Adventure page). Preko's official tourism page lists roughly 100 kilometres of cycling paths across the island, varying in difficulty, with the easiest routes suited to families, plus hiking trails through the olive groves to hilltop viewpoints and coastal coves such as Svitla and Prtljug (Source: TZ Preko, official tourist board).