70km (44 miles) S of Rijeka
When Croatians hear the word Baska, they immediately think about the 900-year-old tablet that is one of the nation's most important archaeological discoveries. The Baska Tablet is a large stone engraved with the oldest surviving text in Glagolitic script, and it is kept in Zagreb's Academy of Arts and Sciences. Besides its value as a cultural artifact, the Baska stone is also the first record of a Croatian king. It commemorates a gift from the first Croat King, Zvonimir, to the church. The tablet was found in 1851 in the floor of a little church at Bas on Krk and thus its name, but on Krk, the word Baska is also synonymous with sun, surf, and beaches.
The town of Baska is a sun worshipper's paradise with 2,500 hours of rays a year and more than 30 beaches of various sizes. The people who settled here in Roman times wouldn't recognize what this former fishing village has become, partly because it originally was on a hilltop before being relocated closer to the sea following the 16th-century Venetian Wars. Remnants of that era's structures still can be seen in the town's streets and tangled alleyways. Today's Baska retains much of the charm of bygone days, but it is also full of gleaming resorts and offers loads of activities for tourists.
