If you choose to take a walk down the old stony track from Košljun towards the town of Pag, after about 10–15 minutes you will see salt containers belonging to the Pag saltern. For many centuries salt production has been one of the most important branches of the island’s economy. It was mentioned for the first time in a document dating from the year 999. However, the island is known not only for salt, but also for cheese, and the former has much to do with the latter. The Bora, a strong northern wind, especially in winter brings sea salt which falls on wild herbs that are the main feed for sheep. Nowadays, there are many kinds of mixed milk cheese, but the real Pag cheese is sheep milk cheese. There are four times more sheep than people on the island (35,000 sheep v 8,000 inhabitants). Apart from food, Pag is famous for lacemaking. The Benedictine nuns from the Monastery of St Margarita were credited with the popularisation in the past of this handicraft among girls and women living on the island.

The most important archaeological discovery on the island took place in the town of Novalja. It is a 1042 metres-long water supply system from the Roman times carved in rock. The entrance to this water supply system is exhibited in the town museum. The aqueduct, called in the folk language Talijanova buža (Italians’ cave), was rediscovered in the 19th century after a child fell into it. Novalja is also an entertainment town. Buzzing streets and clubs on the nearby Zrće Beach attract mainly young people from many different countries.

Last but not least, the author of the first Croatian grammar, Bartul or Bartol Kašić (he himself signed his name according to the spelling rules of the time: Bartolomeo Kassicch or in Latin: Bartholomaeus Cassius), a Jesuit, came from the island of Pag. Commissioned by the Pope, Kašić published his “Illyrian” grammar in 1604 in Rome. The book was written for Catholic missionaries, which is why the author’s main focus was not on the Chakavian dialect used in the island of Pag and in Dalmatia, but on the Shtokavian dialect, widespread in the Southeast Europe, with which he acquainted himself in Bosnia. The Shtokavian dialect is the basis of today’s Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin languages. In the town of Pag, in the centre of the Old Town stands the house of this most famous inhabitant of the island.