Pag (town)

Pag is the largest town on the island of Pag, in Zadar County, Croatia, on the Adriatic coast, with 2,343 residents in its urban core and 3,175 across the whole municipality at the 2021 census. First recorded under its name in the 10th century, the settlement was sold to Venice in 1403, and in 1443 its inhabitants relocated to build a new town at the present site, laid out according to contemporary Venetian urban planning. Population declined sharply in the early 20th century after agricultural blight and emigration, and further after the Second World War, but during the 1991 war for Croatian independence the town served as a crucial land link between the separated northern and southern parts of the country.