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Location of Vir in Croatia

Kaštelina castle

Vir (pronounced [v̞îːr]; Italian: Puntadura, Dalmatian: Punta de Ura) is an island on the Croatian coast of Adriatic sea located north of the city of Zadar. It is connected to the mainland via a road bridge. The only village on the island is the eponymous village of Vir, with a population of 1,608 (2001).

Overpopulation [link]

Vir is notorious/famous for its overpopulation during the summer holiday season. The cause of this is the fact that there are hundreds of smaller and larger privately owned resort-houses on it. These houses arose in the 1980s after the then Yugoslav government at one point considered building a nuclear power plant on Vir because it was so barren. Because of that, the real-estate prices dropped so low that, atypically, many people could buy a parcel of land there.

Many did; the nuclear plant was never built; this resulted in excessive building of resort-houses. It is estimated that hundreds of buildings on Vir will eventually need to be torn down, because they were built without permits since they were contrary to the urban development plans. In 2006, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction targeted over 400 such objects for demolition. The demolition caused a minor diplomatic scandal between governments of Croatia and Hungary because many of the demolished/targeted for demolition objects were owned by Hungarian citizens.

However, during the rest of the year Vir is quite a cozy and quiet island. Infrastructure is very good, to satisfy demand during the summer rush. Outside the over inhabited areas, it has places of solitude, the Mediterranean landscape and shore.

Etymology [link]

The word vir is Croatian for "whirlpool". However, the name of the island probably originates from the word 'ueru' (probably from an old Dalmatian dialect) which means "pasture".

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Island of Vir

• Official web site

v t e Subdivisions of Zadar County Cities and towns Benkovac Biograd na Moru Nin Obrovac Pag Zadar (seat) Municipalities Bibinje Galovac Gračac Jasenice Kali Kolan Kukljica Lišane Ostrovičke Novigrad Pakoštane Pašman Polača Poličnik Posedarje Povljana Preko Privlaka Ražanac Sali Stankovci Starigrad Sukošan Sveti Filip i Jakov Škabrnja Tkon Vir Vrsi Zemunik Donji

Coordinates: 44°18.20568′N 15°05.13222′E / 44.303428°N 15.085537°E / 44.303428; 15.085537