Fodor's Expert Review Goli Otok
If you like Communist history, consider a day trip to this uninhabited island that was a Yugoslav prison just off the coast of Rab. Goli Otok means "naked island," a name aptly given for the lack of vegetation and inhabitable conditions on the island. After Tito broke ranks with Stalin in 1948, the island became known as the place where Yugoslav political prisoners were confined. Men were incarcerated here while women were taken to nearby Sveti Grgur island. The treatment of these prisoners is wholly unknown, as very few prisoners lived to tell of their experiences, but a stone quarry indicates that prisoners were forced to do hard labor quarrying stone. Conditions on Goli Otok were harsh, with blistering temperatures in the summer and brutal bura winds ripping across the barren island in the winter. Any mention of Goli Otok was strictly forbidden in Yugoslavia until after Tito's death. The prison was completely abandoned in 1989, but prison barracks remain there. You can make... READ MORE
If you like Communist history, consider a day trip to this uninhabited island that was a Yugoslav prison just off the coast of Rab. Goli Otok means "naked island," a name aptly given for the lack of vegetation and inhabitable conditions on the island. After Tito broke ranks with Stalin in 1948, the island became known as the place where Yugoslav political prisoners were confined. Men were incarcerated here while women were taken to nearby Sveti Grgur island. The treatment of these prisoners is wholly unknown, as very few prisoners lived to tell of their experiences, but a stone quarry indicates that prisoners were forced to do hard labor quarrying stone. Conditions on Goli Otok were harsh, with blistering temperatures in the summer and brutal bura winds ripping across the barren island in the winter. Any mention of Goli Otok was strictly forbidden in Yugoslavia until after Tito's death. The prison was completely abandoned in 1989, but prison barracks remain there. You can make a short trip to this legendary gulag by taxi-boat with one of the many charter companies in Baška or Punat on Krk.
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