Lošinj

Lošinj is a long narrow island in the Kvarner, and it markets itself as the **island of vitality** — a label with a documented basis rather than a purely promotional one. In **1892** the Austrian government declared it an **official health resort** after studies of its climate, and doctors began sending patients with respiratory conditions. The reason is that the island is covered in dense pine forest and over **a thousand plant species**, many of them aromatic, and the air is humid, salt-laden and carries their oils. Its two towns are **Mali Lošinj** — the largest island town on the Adriatic — and the smaller **Veli Lošinj**, despite its name meaning «the big one» (the names were historically reversed). Mali Lošinj holds the **Museum of Apoxyomenos**: a Greek bronze of the second century BC recovered from the seabed near the island in 1999, one of very few complete Greek bronzes surviving anywhere. Note: Lošinj is **joined to the island of Cres** by a swing bridge at Osor, so the two are visited together.