Vrnjak – the town of ghosts

If you like visits to the unknown, Vrnjak is just the place. This abandoned village ‘in the middle of nowhere’ is in fact a true little gem, and walking the road between derelict stone houses overgrown with ivy seems like time travel.

Vrnjak can be reached from Marušići in the south or from Kućibreg and Dugo Brdo in the north.

The village lies on a hill at an altitude of 320 metres above sea level. Its vacant houses with no windows and doors, and its wells, troughs and paths all overgrown with acacias, testify to the times when about a hundred people lived there. An abandoned church and a cemetery rest 50 metres above the village, on a hill overlooking the green heart of Istria. The church was built in 1892, as inscribed in the limestone above its portal, in honour of Our Lady of Sorrows.