History of Otok Cres

Cres has been inhabited since the Paleolithic time period and was later ruled by the Greeks and the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Empire the island was taken over and became a part of the Byzantine Empire, and remained this way for centuries. In the 7th century the Slavs invaded Cres and the islands around it. They returned the islands in the early 9th century (believed to be somewhere around 812).

Then, around 866 the inhabitants saw the first conflicts with the Republic of Venice. The Venetians eventually took control of Cres and the neighboring islands in the 10th and 11th centuries.