The story
Development and construction
Tourism in Malinska had developed on a relatively modest scale before the Second World War, but the expansion of Yugoslavia's tourism industry during the 1960s produced much larger and more complex developments along the Adriatic coast. In 1967, the local hotel enterprise in Malinska became associated with Brodokomerc, a large trading organisation based in Rijeka. Construction of Haludovo began in 1969.
Magaš had previously designed the Solaris tourist complex near Šibenik, where he explored the concept of a large resort conceived as an urban and landscape ensemble. At Haludovo he developed this approach into what architectural historians have described as a hotel city, combining accommodation, recreation, services and landscaping within a single spatial composition.
The resort occupied wooded terrain north of Malinska which slopes gradually towards the Adriatic coast. Instead of concentrating accommodation in a single structure, Magaš distributed different building types through the existing vegetation and linked them by pedestrian routes, terraces and landscaped open spaces.
The principal accommodation consisted of the Hotel Palace, the lower-category Hotel Tamaris, groups of single-storey atrium villas, rows of two-storey villas and the Fishermen's Village on the coast. Together the completed first phase provided approximately 1,650 beds.
Penthouse Adriatic Club
American publisher Bob Guccione first visited Yugoslavia in 1970 while considering investment in the country's developing tourist industry. After withdrawing from an earlier project in Umag, he came into contact with representatives of Brodokomerc in Rijeka and was shown the Haludovo development on Krk. Negotiations continued for approximately eighteen months and resulted in the creation of the Penthouse Adriatic Club.
The club opened in 1972 and combined the resort's hotel facilities with a casino aimed primarily at foreign guests. Guccione recruited American staff and promoted Haludovo internationally as a luxury gambling, convention and entertainment destination. Organised groups of visitors were brought to nearby Rijeka Airport, including by charter flights, and transported to the resort.
The project attracted attention because it brought American private capital and the commercial culture associated with Penthouse into Yugoslavia's system of socialist self-management. Guccione publicly presented tourism as a means of increasing communication between East and West during the Cold War, while Yugoslav economic policy increasingly regarded international tourism as an important source of foreign currency and economic development.
The Palace's casino and associated entertainment programme had not formed part of Magaš's original architectural concept. Writing about Haludovo in 1972, Magaš noted that he had designed the central garden and communal spaces before knowing who Guccione was or that they would subsequently accommodate the Penthouse operation.
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The partnership lasted only about a year. Brodokomerc encountered severe financial difficulties in 1973 and Penthouse withdrew from the project. Haludovo nevertheless continued to operate, shifting away from exclusive gambling tourism towards domestic and international middle-class holidaymakers.
Despite the exclusive image promoted during the Penthouse period, the resort's beaches, promenades and much of its outdoor infrastructure remained accessible to residents and visitors who were not staying at Haludovo. Architectural historian Maroje Mrduljaš has identified this coexistence of commercial tourist facilities and publicly accessible coastal space as an important feature of the resort.
Later operation, war and privatisation
Following the end of the Penthouse partnership, Haludovo continued operating throughout the 1970s and 1980s as a large conventional resort.
Its circumstances changed substantially at the beginning of the 1990s. Following the outbreak of war in Croatia in 1991, Haludovo lost much of its established tourist clientele and parts of the complex were temporarily used to accommodate refugees from war-affected areas.
Haludovo was privatised in 1995 during Croatia's transition from social ownership to a market economy. The hotel enterprise became Hoteli Haludovo Malinska d.d. and subsequently underwent a series of ownership changes and sales of individual properties.
Around 2000, a company associated with Armenian-Russian businessman Ara Abramyan acquired control of the resort. In 2007, a large shareholding was transferred to the British-registered company Bismass Limited, although Abramyan remained associated with the management and redevelopment proposals for Haludovo.
Closure, deterioration and redevelopment
The Hotel Palace received its final hotel guests around New Year 2002. Around the same period, most of Hotel Tamaris and several of the atrium villas were demolished. The central Palace complex was left without regular maintenance and progressively lost its glazing, interior fittings, furniture and building services.
Deterioration continued during the following decades. Windows and roof glazing were broken, water penetration damaged parts of the building, and portions of the upper accommodation levels were affected by fire. Vegetation spread across paths and abandoned villas, while graffiti and vandalism became widespread within the Palace.
Despite the extensive damage, studies undertaken in the 2020s found that much of the principal reinforced-concrete structure remained standing and that the original spatial organisation of the Palace was still identifiable.
Numerous redevelopment proposals have been made since the early 2000s. Magaš himself prepared proposals for Haludovo during the 2000s which attempted to adapt the resort to contemporary hotel standards while retaining elements of the original spatial organisation.
A persistent point of dispute concerned the relationship between redevelopment and the coastal zone. Proposals associated with the majority owner sought greater control over the waterfront and maritime domain, while the Municipality of Malinska-Dubašnica maintained that public access to the shoreline and promenade should be preserved.
In September 2022, the Municipal Council of Malinska-Dubašnica initiated a procedure to repeal the existing detailed development plan for Haludovo. The municipality stated that future planning documents would establish new conditions for reconstruction and development within the tourist zone.
In 2024, Zagreb-based Futura Inženjering entered into an arrangement with Hoteli Haludovo Malinska to prepare and coordinate redevelopment activities. Initial work concentrated on the Fishermen's Village and neighbouring bungalows rather than the abandoned Palace.
As of 2026, the Hotel Palace remained abandoned and severely deteriorated, while some other accommodation within the wider Haludovo area had been renovated or returned to tourist use.
From Wikipedia’s article on Haludovo Palace Hotel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3