Osor is a village and a small port on Cres Island in the Northern Adriatic, with a population of 60.
Osor lies on a narrow channel that separates islands Cres and Lošinj. The channel was built in Roman times to make sailing possible. Now the islands are connected with a rotating bridge. Originally Cres and Lošinj were one island, called Osor, before the channel was cut.
The first settlements of the area date to prehistoric times. In Roman times, Osor, then called Apsoros, was an important center of trade on the route to the ports of Northern Adriatic. After the fall of Roman Empire, Osor became a part of Byzantine Empire and was a seat of diocese since the 6th century.
In 840 it was burned down by Saracens, coming under Croatian rule in the 10th century. In the 14th century it was under the rule of the Republic of Venice, in the 19th under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and after First World War part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Today, Osor is a tourist-oriented town in the Republic of Croatia, with sculptures of Ivan Meštrović and others scattered around the centre.
