Kolbjørn Stjern: Hum, Croatia - The Smallest City in the World

On a hill above the Mirna valley, you find a small town called Hum

This small fortified habitation has maintained all the features of medieval urban architecture and organization. It has a population of only 17 people in 2001, 23 people in 2009 and 25 people in 2013 but is officially a town.

Do you know the population today?

So what makes a City?

City gate, City walls, Urban center, parish church and Hum has it all!

Country: Croatia/Istria
Population: 23
Elevation: 349 m (1145 ft)
Time zone: CET (UTC+1)
Source: Wikipedia (2009)

Hum street view

Nice to know:

- Hum is officially listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest town in the world.

- Hum is only one hundred meters long and thirty meters wide. With its eternal citadel, narrow streets and quiet churches.

- On its western side the town is enclosed by walls and on the remaining sides houses are built into the defensive walls.

- A bell and watch tower was built in 1552 as part of the town's defenses beside the town loggia.

- Apart from being famous for being the smallest city in the world, recently it became popular for “biska”, brandy spiced with mistletoe and made according to the old recipe originating from Hum. Every year at the end of October, the Grappa festival takes place here, presenting brandy producers from all over Istria.

- It's not only the home to the medicinal mistletoe grappa, but an agent story tells that the secret recipes were brought by powerful Druids 2000 years ago.

- Despite such a small number of residents it preserved the old ritual “Election of the prefect for a year” when all the men from the parish gather at the Municipal Loggia to elect the village superior by carving their votes into a wooden stick.

"Once upon a time, when fairies, magic and dragons ruled the earth, giants gathered stones and built towns on beautiful green hills. People came to live in the towns while the giants escaped into the dense woods where they still hide today… This is one of the legends about the magical history of Istria. Her magic is present today: sleepy stone villages on emerald hills wake up covered by veils of fog and the gentle tenderness of the sun’s hot rays." - Histrica