From the old bathing facility to new plans
On one of the surviving plans for the bathing facility at Punta, among the carefully drawn lines of the shore, there is a simple label: “Old bathing facility”. Nearby, a new facility is marked, with an adjoining area reserved for future expansion.
These three labels capture an important part of Karlobag’s history. Before the new plans, commissions and official permits, a place for bathing already existed here. The 1898 dossier now provides earlier documentary evidence of the municipal initiative to establish a bathing facility, while the label on the later plan records an older facility. The new facility was intended to build on the town’s emerging relationship with the sea as a place of leisure.
Dragutin Hirc, who visited Karlobag in 1895, describes an earlier, modest bathing place beside a small inlet: a little stone building roofed with boards, two benches and a few nails. The municipal initiative of 1898 introduced a planned facility with six cabins and a net-enclosed bathing area in the sea — the first purpose-built municipal bathing facility covered by this account.
Source: Dragutin Hirc, Lika i Plitvička jezera: putne uspomene [Lika and the Plitvice Lakes: Travel Recollections], Zagreb, 1900.
1898: establishing the early municipal bathing facility
The papers of 1898 document an early municipal initiative to establish a bathing facility in Baška draga. This was an earlier undertaking, roughly two decades before the permission issued in 1918 for the later, larger bathing facility. It should also be distinguished from the simple bathing place described by Hirc in 1895.
In its application of 27 May 1898, the Municipal Administration proposed six changing cabins and a bathing area enclosed by netting, 40 metres long and 30 metres wide. A surviving drawing dated 28 May 1898 shows the cabins, entrance, road, sea and netted enclosure, with Punta marked beside it.
The Port Office supported the proposal on 28 May. It reported that the facility, on the beach behind the church, would not obstruct navigation and would help keep the shore clean. The planned net of tarred rope was intended to protect bathers against possible shark attacks.
The declaration of 18 July 1898 records the municipality’s undertaking to pay for construction, renounce ownership claims over the shore and remove the structure at its own expense if required. It bears the municipal seal. On 9 August 1898, the Port Office forwarded the stamped declaration, certified by the district authority in Gospić, to Rijeka.
The documents of 1898 trace the establishment of the municipal bathing facility, while the later plan of 1913 explicitly marks an “Old bathing facility”. The surviving records connect the earlier bathing tradition with plans for a larger new facility, although they do not record the exact opening date of the facility established in 1898.
A new role for the waterfront
For centuries, Karlobag’s waterfront was a place of work, shipping and trade. Ships called at its quays, business was conducted and connections with other places were maintained. At the beginning of the twentieth century, another use of this space became increasingly evident: spending time by the sea, bathing and summer holidays.
The old bathing facility belonged to an earlier stage of this development. The 1898 dossier includes a design with six cabins and a netted bathing area. The later site drawing clearly distinguishes the old facility from the larger new project and the area reserved for expansion.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, seaside bathing facilities operated in both Senj and Karlobag. In 1905, Karlobag recorded 42 visitors, compared with 34 in Senj. Most visitors came from other parts of Croatia and Slavonia, while foreign visitors were few. Local residents visited Karlobag’s bathing facility more often than Senj’s. These figures reflect the still modest scale of bathing-related visitor traffic; they do not represent the total number of bathing visits during the year.
Data source: Statistički godišnjak Kraljevina Hrvatske i Slavonije [Statistical Yearbook of the Kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia], vol. I (1905), Zagreb, 1913, pp. 279–280.
A new bathing facility at Punta
The design predates the surviving record of the site inspection: the plan is dated “Gospić, February 1913.” Its author was Royal Engineer Stanko Flögl, named under the heading “Prepared by”. The new facility and an area for its expansion had already been drawn beside the old bathing facility. The plan therefore documents planning for the later, larger facility in 1913; the later papers, dating from 1915 to 1918, trace the administrative proceedings.
The design entitled “Bathing Facility at Punta in Karlobag” reveals a carefully developed proposal for the new facility. It shows the building’s appearance, a longitudinal section and its position in relation to the shore. A row of changing cabins, access routes and space for visitors were intended to form a coherent whole.
The area reserved for expansion shows that the design also anticipated the facility’s future needs.
Changing cabins, a sunbathing area and paths were intended to adapt the shore for bathers and connect the different parts of the facility.
Summer 1915: inspecting the site of the future facility
The minutes drawn up in Karlobag on 6 July 1915 provide details of the site intended for the public bathing facility. They state that land on cadastral plot 239 had already been filled in. Part was to be used for cabins, with the remainder serving as a sunbathing area and a path.
This detail shows that preparations along the shore were already under way while the necessary approvals were still being sought.
In addition to the proposed construction, the commission had to consider the right to use the site. Because the land lay only a little above sea level, it was regarded as public domain. The municipality’s proposal therefore had to comply with the rules of the maritime administration.
Two sets of minutes were drawn up on 6 July 1915: one on the construction of the bathing facility and another on the legal status of the shore. The construction hearing also involved representatives of the port authorities in Senj and Karlobag.
From Karlobag via Gospić to Rijeka
The surviving correspondence allows us to follow the project as it passed between the municipal administration, the district authority in Gospić and the Maritime Authority in Rijeka.
The surviving reminders from 1915 and 1916 repeatedly request four copies of the plans and a certified copy of the minutes. The forwarding letter bears the printed date 19 July 1915, while its receipt stamp is dated 8 July 1916. Both dates are presented with the document.
Before construction could begin, the boundaries of the proposed works had to be defined, responsibilities clarified and the conditions for using the shore established. The surviving letters show how the project was gradually brought into line with these requirements.
The Maritime Authority’s decision in 1916
The Maritime Authority granted a thirty-year concession for the shore by decision No. 2928. The district decision of 1918 states that this maritime approval was issued on 16 August 1916. It set out the conditions of use and the right of appeal, and required a separate decision by the autonomous Croatian-Slavonian administration. The maritime approval and the district permission of 1918 are separate stages of the same procedure.
Permission to build
An important milestone was the decision issued by the Royal District Authority in Gospić on 31 March 1918. It permitted the construction of the bathing facility as indicated in red on the plan and authorised a thirty-year concession for the use of the seashore.
The right of use came with obligations. If the land became necessary for public use or for maritime or commercial purposes before the concession expired, it had to be handed back to the maritime administration.
The decision confirms the approval of the project and the conditions governing the use of the shore. The archival material presented here does not establish the exact date when the new bathing facility was completed or opened.
According to the Croatian Encyclopaedia, the town bathing facility was built in 1920. That source does not give an exact opening date.
A waterfront for leisure
From a modest bathing facility in the late nineteenth century to a design with changing cabins, a sunbathing area and room for expansion, Karlobag’s waterfront gradually acquired a new role. Alongside shipping and trade, increasing space was devoted to bathing and summer leisure.
The surviving plans and papers bring this moment of change into focus: the town’s intention took shape as a design, which then underwent inspections and approval procedures. These documents preserve part of the early history of Karlobag as a summer destination.
