Which European country has a short Adriatic Sea coast at Neum?

Bosnia and Herzegovina has its short Adriatic Sea coast at Neum.

Neum is a coastal town and municipality in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, and its shoreline gives Bosnia and Herzegovina its only access to the Adriatic Sea. The coastline is about 20 kilometers long, making it one of Europe’s most unusual coastal frontiers. Neum’s strip interrupts Croatia’s Dalmatian coast and separates the southern Dubrovnik area from the rest of Croatia by land.

The arrangement has deep historical roots. The coastal corridor passed to the Ottoman Empire in the late 17th century, helping separate the Republic of Ragusa from Venetian-controlled Dalmatia. Later borders preserved the corridor, and it became part of Bosnia and Herzegovina within Yugoslavia and then the independent state after 1991.

A common mistake is to assume that Bosnia and Herzegovina is entirely landlocked because Croatia surrounds most of its western edge. It is not: Neum provides a genuine, though very short, Adriatic coastline. The Pelješac Bridge, opened in 2022, now lets Croatian traffic bypass the Neum crossing.