First babies of 2026 born across Croatia

by croatiaweek
January 1, 2026
in News

(Photo: KBC Rijeka)

Croatia welcomed the New Year with happy news as the first babies of 2026 were born just minutes after midnight in hospitals across the country.

The first baby born in Rijeka arrived only one minute after the clock struck midnight.

Little Nikol was born in the delivery ward of the new hospital complex at KBC Rijeka on Sušak, marking the city’s first birth of the year.

Nikol weighed 2,870 grams and measured 49 centimetres at birth.

The delivery was led by Dr Alemka Brnčić-Fischer, Head of the Department of Gynaecology, with a specialist medical team that included Dr Ines Kristofić, Dr Marta Crnčić-Marinelli, Dr Sandro Gržančić, and anaesthesiologist Tanja Glažar.

The management of KBC Rijeka, led by hospital director Dr Alen Ružić, congratulated the proud parents and marked the occasion with a bouquet of flowers.

Congratulations also came from Rijeka Mayor Iva Rinčić, who sent gifts on behalf of the City of Rijeka to the first baby born in 2026.

(Photo: Grad Rijeka)

These included a silver coin of St Vitus and a bouquet of flowers, along with wishes for “a happy, healthy and playful childhood and a long, fulfilling life journey”.

At exactly the same moment, one minute after midnight, another baby was born in Varaždin. Little Vid Šagi was delivered at Varaždin General Hospital, becoming the town’s first newborn of 2026.

The family of popular Croatian singer Marko Škugor might have just pipped everyone to the post.

The Šibenik-born tenor revealed on social media that he and his wife Ivana became parents to a baby girl exactly at midnight in Šibenik, welcoming 2026 in the most special way possible.