It can be tough to explore everything a town has to offer in a single day if you visit.That wouldn't be an issue in the world's smallest town, and we're not talking about one of those models where no buildings rise higher than your shin.
To enter this tiny hamlet, which is only about 100 meters long and tucked into a region of Croatia, is to walk back in time and learn about the place's history.?
Hum is the world's tiniest town, located in the Istria region of Croatia's far northwestern coast.?
According to folklore, Hum was built a long time ago by giants who felt they'd discovered a pretty lovely portion of the globe and chose to build dwellings there, eventually erecting Hum after they ran out of huge stones and had to settle for smaller ones.
That's probably not accurate, but the tiny town was first mentioned in 1102 under the name Cholm.The settlement began as a watchtower, a location for a few people to live and keep watch to ensure that no surprise army was on its way.?
The town did construct a bell tower in 1552 and a parish church in 1802, because evidently if the year doesn't end in a '2', it's not getting built in Hum.The entire town is surrounded by walls, with little developed outside of them, therefore everything inside the walls is a well-preserved specimen of old architecture.?
The area is simply a couple of streets and a few residents.Some tourists have stated that how many people truly live there varies on the time of year you visit, whereas the 2011 census recorded a population of 30.?
A 2021 census increased that figure to 52, and for a town as small as Hum, it's unclear where they're placing them all.If you're wondering what makes this town a town since it's smaller than all but the smallest towns and hamlets, perhaps the answer is that it just is.?
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