Osor, Croatia

Osor (Italian: Ossero) is a village and a small port on the Cres island in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia, population 60 (2011 census).

Osor lies at 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, Osor, before the channel was cut.

The first settlements of the area date in the 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, in the 10th century, it came under Croatian rule. 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.

After World War II Osor-Ossero was a part of the Republic of Yugoslavia.

Today, Osor is a tourist-oriented town in the Republic of Croatia, with sculptures of Ivan Meštrović and others scattered around the center. Several camping sites are located in the surroundings.

The bishopric of what was called in Latin Absorus was founded circa 600, maybe as early as the 6th century, as a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Late Roman province Dalmatia Inferior's capital Salona (later of Split), but the first bishop of the see whose name is known was Dominicus in the last third of the 9th century. It has also bee called Absor and Lusin.

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