Croatia’s northern Adriatic gets first ever ferry connection back on this day

Krk ferry

ZAGREB, 12 April (Hina) – The 64th anniversary of the first ferry service on the Croatian Adriatic coast, connecting Crikvenica with Krk, was marked with a 70-meter-long mural depicting the ferry “Bodulka” in Šilo on the island of Krk.

The mural was unveiled on Tuesday, and the anniversary of the first Croatian ferry connection between the mainland and the island of Krk is marked today, when in 1959 the ferry service was launched to connect the coastal town of Crikvenica and Šilo on the island of Krk for the first time.

The ferry “Bodulka” was the property of Kvarnerska Plovidba from Rijeka, and on its first voyage it set off from Šilo to Crikvenica with guests, a bus, three cars and several motorcycles.

“Bodulka” had a capacity of 12 vehicles and 140 passengers and a speed of five knots. The first ferry on the Adriatic was built in Šibenik in 1952 as a navy landing vessel.

The ferry sailed four times a day in the summer and twice in the winter. Many residents of Šilo and the surrounding towns on Krk used it to travel to Crikvenica for work or to get groceries, and farmers from the island transported their products and sold them to tourists. 

During peak season, the ferry used to sail 13 times a day, and the two-mile-long voyage took about twenty minutes.

The mural commemorating the first ferry connection was created as part of the Cultural Dobrinj project and in cooperation with the Tourist Board of the Dobrinj municipality, and it was designed and painted by an artist from Rijeka, Vladimir Tomić. 

You can see the mural below.