St Mary''s tower
Romanesque, 25 metres, and the only one that can be climbed.
Herbert Ortner — CC BY 4.0 · GEO-TM — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Los Paseos from Earth — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Los Paseos from Earth — CC BY-SA 2.0
A town on a narrow peninsula with an unmistakable silhouette: **four bell towers** in a line above packed roofs, so the town is recognisable from the sea before you reach it. The towers are of different periods between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, the tallest and finest belonging to **St Mary the Great** — Romanesque, about 25 metres, and the only one that can be climbed. The town itself is **three parallel streets** running the length of the peninsula: the upper (Gornja) for nobles and churches, the middle (Srednja) for merchants and craftsmen, the lower (Donja) on the water for fishermen and the harbour. That medieval division is still legible in the kind of buildings on each. Its walls and defensive towers survive for most of their length. Note: Rab was among the first European destinations to permit **naturist bathing** — since 1936, after a visit by King Edward VIII — and still has beaches designated for it, clearly marked and separate from the general beaches. Note: the lanes are stepped and paved in smooth stone, slippery in rain.
Romanesque, 25 metres, and the only one that can be climbed.
The medieval class division still legible in the buildings.
Four towers above the roofs, from the water at sunset.
Rab town, southern peninsula
They are not one building''s towers but **the towers of four different churches** that happen to stand in a line along the narrow peninsula. From north to south: the tower of **St Andrew''s** monastery (twelfth century, the oldest), **St Mary the Great** (the tallest at about 25 metres, and the only one open to climb), **St Justine''s**, and **St John the Baptist''s**, which survives alone after its church collapsed. They line up because the peninsula is so narrow that there was only one axis to build on. ⚠ From below it is hard to see all four together — **the best angle is from the sea** or the opposite quay, and the finest light is at sunset. ⚠ St Mary''s is climbed by a narrow wooden stair, with a view over the other three.
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