September the 6th, 2025 – The windiest town in Croatia is adorned with a fortress bearing a name which means “don’t worry”, and it’s battered by winds for 133 days per year.
As Putni kofer/Antonio Ivcevic writes, when you descend towards Senj, the first thing you will experience is not the gorgeous view of the sea, but the often somewhat intense wind. The bura doesn’t hit Senj in gusts like it does across Dalmatia. Here, it is a part of everyday life and has shaped people’s lives in the town and its surroundings for centuries. They say that Senj endures strong winds for at least 133 days a year, but the residents are used to it and the wind is as natural to them as the sun on their skin or salt on their hair.
the windiest town in croatia doesn’t have any worries
The windiest town in Croatia is also known for the Nehaj fortress, the name of which loosely means “don’t worry”. That in itself seems to symbolically send a message to the people of Senj and give them the strength to withstand all the storms that batter the town from the Velebit mountain range. Senj is an old town where nature and history are perfectly intertwined, where the bura carries stories through the ancient stone streets, and where the houses bear witness to the perseverance and resilience of its local people.
Like a stone sentinel above Senj, standing tall on a small hill for almost five centuries now, the monumental Nehaj fortress, whose name symbolically means “don’t worry”, has been the witness of time. With its regular, almost perfect cubic shape and massive walls two to three and a half metres thick, it immediately reveals its true purpose. It was designed to withstand the formerly frequent attacks on Senj and provide security to those who took refuge under its walls. At an imposing 18 metres high and 23 metres wide, with a crown and five towers at its corners, Nehaj is a true architectural rarity on the Croatian coast. Thousands of tonnes of stone, sand and lime were poured into it, and the result is a monumental structure that still inspires admiration from all visitors who see it to this very day.
The Nehaj Fortress was built way back in 1551, at a time when the Ottoman invaders threatened the Croatian coast and when defence against these marauding forces required all sorts of new solutions. That’s why it is located on a 62-metre-tall hill, from which there was a perfect view of both the sea and the land. Life inside the fortress was strictly organised. The ground floor was occupied by soldiers and weapons warehouses, while the first floor was reserved for officers and commanders. It even had its own chapel, and from the highest floors people could watch closely who was coming from afar.
from defence against the ottomans to a stunning viewpoint
Today, when the dangers of war are thankfully no longer a reality, the Nehaj Fortress has taken on a completely different role. It has become a symbol of Senj, a lookout point from which the view reaches as far as Rab, Cres, Krk and Prvić, and all the way to Učka and Velebit. A rich museum collection is kept inside it, but perhaps its greatest power is that it still exudes absolute strength and security high above the windiest town in Croatia.
If there was ever a town where the bura is more than just burdensome wind, then it’s Senj. Here, it isn’t just a meteorological phenomenon, but an everyday companion that shapes the landscape and people’s lives. It’s precisely in Senj that the bura is the most frequent, the longest-lasting and, in terms of average speed, the strongest in the entire Adriatic. It isn’t unusual for it to blow in Senj with hurricane force, sometimes so violently that it disrupts traffic, capsizes smaller boats and instantly clears the sky. In 1954, an anemograph, a device for measuring wind, was installed in Senj, because the bura has long been observed and studied here with the same attention as rare natural phenomena are recorded elsewhere across the globe.
the bura winds in senj spark myths and legends
The strength of the Senj bura can be easily explained by the town’s geographical location. Located between the sea and the Velebit mointain range, with a low and narrow mountain sill that opens the way to the coast for cold air, Senj becomes a kind of natural tunnel for the bura. The strongest gust ever recorded reached 173 kilometres per hour, and the residents have long since learned to live to the rhythm of this harsh wind. There’s even an old saying: “The bura was born in Trieste, it swelled in Rijeka, and in Senj it hit with its full force.” The statistics themselves confirm its sheer strength: 133 days of strong wind per year, 43 days of storms and almost two months of “sea smoke”, when the bura disperses the sea into millions of droplets that create a silvery veil over the waves.
Numerous legends are told about the bura in Senj. Historically, people imagined this wind as a young, beautiful girl who had been punished for her arrogance. Her sighs were transformed into harsh, icy gusts of wind. Another story says that one should never curse the bura, because at that moment, one becomes wounded and angry, and those sparks of anger can set fire to the house of the one who cursed it. In March, they say, it must blow three times, otherwise it will blow out in the middle of summer. These old myths and beliefs testify that the people of Senj have always accepted the bura with respect.
Senj is therefore much more than just another Adriatic town. It is a place where the Nehaj fortress tells of past centuries of courage and resistance, and the bura tirelessly reminds us of the power of nature before which we must bow. While visitors enjoy the view of the islands and mountains from the top of the Nehaj fortress, or feel the bura cutting their cheeks, one thing is certain: the windiest town in all of Croatia always leaves an unforgettable impression.
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