April the 18th, 2026 – Have you ever heard of Babac? This Croatian island in the Zadar archipelago has no boat services, around four permanent residents and only recently actually got public lighting. If you’re looking for true peace, then this little oasis in the Pašman channel is the place for you.
As Putni kofer/Ivana Vasarevic writes, the genuinely astonishing beauty of the Croatian coastline and islands is always spoken of in superlatives. With the heat of another scorching summer just a month or so away, it’s the perfect time to plan a break somewhere along this expansive and heavily indented coastline. The expansive Zadar archipelago is full of beautiful islands that are easy to fall head over heels in love with at first sight. They include Dugi otok, Molat, Olib, Silba, Pašman, Ugljan… And then there are the smaller ones that don’t get quite the same level of attention.
Meet the little island of Babac, a paradise of unreal beauty and the only inhabited island in the entire Pašman channel. That channel consists of a group of 16 islets scattered between Pašman itself and the mainland, in the most beautiful part of the crystalline Adriatic Sea.
babac – no boat services, four residents and the recent addition of… public lighting
Babic is home to about four permanent residents, there are no regular boat services, and it’s part of the otherwise more well known area of Sveti Filip i Jakov, located directly across from Turanj. Its closest neighbour is the famous Galešnjak, the islet shaped like a love heart that has delighted the world. As stated, Babac has no regular boat services, which lies only 680 metres from the mainland. It actually only very recently received public lighting, with fibre optic cable and high-speed internet bringing it into the 21st century – at least to a degree.
If you’re a true lover of peace, quiet and nature, then beautiful Babac is absolutely the right place for you. The area of this Adriatic pearl is only 0.787 square kilometres, and its coastline stretches for about 4.6 kilometres. The largest number of inhabitants, 35, was recorded on the island back in 1953. Today, you will find barely 36 houses on Babac, there have been no children for a long time now, and there are only four permanent residents left. During the summer, however, everything is bustling with life there. Locals who have since dispersed around the world return to their home, and more and more tourists arrive, eager for a taste of real untouched nature and a peace, quiet and solitude.
there can be no dalmatian island without a fortress, a church and a lighthouse
Although small, Babic of course has a church, Sveti Andrija (or St. Andrew, if you prefer), which, according to historical data, was built back in the 13th century. There’s also a characteristic lighthouse dating back to 1874, and the remains of a famous fortress from the 15th century, which was once the summer residence of the noble de Soppe family. Of its ancient walls, only the facade with the entrance door and the family coat of arms have been preserved, which can also be seen on the aforementioned church.
The Babac fortress is actually a rectangular area enclosed by a wall, within which old village houses used to be located. During the frequent Ottoman incursions, it served as an occasional refuge for the population from the mainland.
Country house architecture was extremely popular among Zadar’s nobles and wealthy citizens. They moved this type of construction from the insecure hinterland to their island estates in order to escape the Ottoman threat, as well as the plague and scarcity that marked the end of the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition, it is known that the islet of Babac had its own mills and salt works as early as the 14th century, and that livestock was already being kept on the island back during that period.
