July the 13th, 2026 – A former well known luxury nudist paradise is unfortunately now one of Dalmatia’s most striking ruins of all.
Just a few kilometres from the centre of beautiful Primošten lies the now eerily abandoned Marina Lučica resort. The ruin is a once-celebrated naturist destination that has become one of Croatia’s most recognisable examples of unrealised tourism development. Instead of holidaymakers, the sprawling complex now attracts urban explorers, photographers and YouTubers documenting its decades-long and rather saddening decline.
Opened in 1971, Index writes that Marina Lučica was among the most modern hotels on the Adriatic coast. Designed by renowned Croatian architect Lovro Perković, the resort featured around 700 rooms along with extensive tourist facilities overlooking the sea. During the 1970s and 1980s, it gained an international reputation as one of the Adriatic’s premier naturist resorts, playing a significant role in Primošten’s tourism industry.
Local tourism officials say the closure of Marina Lučica has had lasting consequences for the destination. According to the Primošten Tourist Board, the hotel’s accommodation capacity alone once matched the combined capacity of all hotels on the nearby Raduča peninsula. Reopening the complex would effectively double the town’s hotel capacity, underlining its importance to the local economy.
The hotel ceased operations in 1991 during Croatia’s War of Independence and has remained abandoned ever since. Over the following decades, the property changed hands several times as successive investors announced ambitious redevelopment plans that never materialised. A Hungarian company purchased the resort in 2001 with a promise to renovate it by 2005, but the project stalled. Later owners also failed to revive the site despite acquiring surrounding land and unveiling large-scale investment proposals.
In 2019, local authorities presented plans for “Marina Lučica 2,” a 98 million euro tourism project that envisioned a new 1,200-bed luxury resort known as Prim Bay Resort. Construction was expected to begin back in 2020, with the complex opening in 2022. Although infrastructure agreements were signed and architectural renderings were released, no construction has taken place, and the site remains unchanged.
Despite its deteriorated condition, Marina Lučica is increasingly recognised for its architectural value. Students from the Arts Academy in Split have visited the site to study its construction, while Primošten’s latest urban development plan suggests the building may qualify as protected cultural heritage. The plan calls for the hotel to be restored in its original architectural form rather than demolished, with any future development designed to complement the landmark structure.
Thirty-five years after welcoming its last guests, Marina Lučica stands as both a reminder of Croatia’s golden era of Adriatic tourism and a symbol of decades of failed privatisations, unrealised investments and missed opportunities. While new planning documents continue to envision the return of a hotel on the site, the once-luxurious seaside resort remains an imposing ruin overlooking the Dalmatian coast.
