Language: Croatian
Currency: Kuna (HRK)
Currency: 385
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a
parliamentary democratic republic, a member of the European Union,
located between Central Europe, southern Europe and the
Mediterranean Sea, borders on the northeast with Hungary, on the
east with Serbia, on the southeast with Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Montenegro, to the northwest with Slovenia and to the southwest with
the Adriatic Sea, where it shares a maritime border with Italy.
Its capital and most populous city is Zagreb. It has 56 594 km²
of territorial extension - this figure includes the more than a
thousand islands that are located off the coast of the Adriatic Sea
- and has a varied climate, mostly continental and Mediterranean. As
for the political administration, the country is divided into twenty
counties and the city of Zagreb. Its population amounts to more than
4.29 million inhabitants, most of them are Croats of Catholic
religion.
At the beginning of the 7th century the Croats
arrived in the area and two centuries later they were organized into
two duchies. In 925 Tomislav became the first king, elevating the
status of the state to a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia maintained
its sovereignty for almost two centuries, and reached its peak
during the reign of Peter Krešimir IV and Demetrio Zvonimir. Croatia
formed a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, threatened by
Ottoman expansion, the Croatian parliament elected Ferdinand I of
Habsburg as successor of the Croatian throne. In 1918, after the
First World War, it was part of the ephemeral Kingdom of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes, which had been separated from Austria-Hungary,
and which later became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During the Second
World War a puppet state of Nazi Germany was founded. After the war,
Croatia was a founding member and federal element of the Second
Yugoslavia, a socialist state. In June 1991, Croatia declared its
independence, which was recognized on October 8 of that year. The
Croatian War of Independence took place in the four years following
the declaration.
In 2012 Croatia maintained a very high Human
Development Index. The International Monetary Fund classified it as
an emerging and developing economy, while the World Bank identified
it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the UN, the
Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization and is a
founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. In addition, in
July 2013 Croatia acceded to the European Union. As an active member
of the United Nations peacekeeping force, he has contributed troops
to the NATO security mission in Afghanistan and from 2008 to 2009 he
held a seat on the UN Security Council.
The Croatian economy
is dominated by the services sector, followed by industry and
agriculture. Tourism is a major source of income during the summer,
as the country is among the twenty most visited tourist destinations
in the world. The state controls a part of the economy, with
important government spending and its main trading partner is the
European Union. Since 2000 the country has invested in
infrastructure, especially roads and means of transport, as well as
Pan-European corridors. The Croatian State provides a universal
health system and free primary and secondary education, at the same
time that supports the culture through various public institutions
and investments in the media and literature.
Dalmatia (Croatia) |
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Makarska Lastovo Hvar Brač Vis Murter Pašman |
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North- West Croatia (Istria and Kvarner Area) (Croatia) |
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Rijeka Opatija Crikvenica Baška Senj Delnice Fužine |
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Central Croatia (Croatia) |
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Karlovac Krapina Krapinske Toplice Sisak Varaždin Vrbovec |
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The Republic of Croatia is a state in the Western Balkans. It is one of the former republics of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that fell apart after the Balkan War that was fought in the 90's. It shares borders with Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia- Herzegovina. The western part of the country is washed by Adriatic Sea. Eastern part of the country is taken by plains crossed by valleys of the rivers Sava and Drava. The Western part of the country that stretches along the sea is very rugged and mountainous with many picturesque island and numerous bays.
Much of Croatia lies on a shores of the Adriatic Sea, which is part of the Mediterranean Sea. The climate is mild with hot summers and fairly warm but rainy winters. July and August are usually largest invasion of foreign tourists. However these are also the hottest months of the year. Forest fires break out in many parts of the country. So the best time to visit the country is in the months of May- June or September. Crowds of tourists usually dwindle, but there is still plenty of sun and moderately hot days to enjoy your stay. Temperature in winter rarely go below freezing point, but it rains a lot. Only eastern parts of the country receiving significant amount of snow fall.
US citizens, British, Canadian as well as European Union don't need visa to travel to Croatia if you plan to stay less than 90 days there. However they do require returning plane ticket.
Religion plays an important part in lives of people. Religious affiliations are usually divide down ethnic borders. So 87.8% of the country are Roman Catholic Croats, 4.4% are Eastern Orthodox Serbs. There is also some minor presence of Muslims, Protestants and Jews.
Smoking and drinking on the streets is a normal thing in Croatia. Although certain restriction are applied around certain public, government and other localities.
Croatia is a multi- party parliamentary republic with a presidential form of government. Its legislature is a two chambered parliament.
Police 92
Ambulance 94
Fire 93
In the pre-Roman period, several important
pre-Indo-European archaeological cultures existed along the Adriatic
coast, the most ancient of which was the “impressiono”. In the
Bronze Age, descendants of the Impresso culture existed on the
Adriatic coast, among which the Butmir culture stood out for its
ceramics, and later the Castellier culture, of which several hundred
fortified settlements remained. To the beginning of n. e. the whole
territory of modern Croatia (the so-called Liburnia) was conquered
by the Romans (for more information on Roman Illyria, see Illyria
and the Illyrian uprising).
The Slavic tribes of the Croats,
who gave rise to the Croatian nation, migrated to the eastern coast
of the Adriatic Sea in the 7th century. Soon, the Kingdom of Croatia
became one of the strongest in the region. In 1102, the ruling
dynasty of Trpimirovich died away, and the Croatian crown was united
in a dynastic union with the Hungarian. In the middle of the 15th
century, Hungarian rule in the north of the country was replaced by
Turkish, while Dalmatia became part of the Venetian Republic. At the
same time, the Dubrovnik Republic largely maintained independence.
Since 1868, the Croatian state entities within Austria-Hungary have
been the crown land of Dalmatia and the lands of Croatia and
Slavonia as part of Hungary.
In 1526, the successful dynastic
marriage of Ferdinand I of Habsburg brought the Hungarian and
Croatian crowns to the house of the Habsburgs, who ruled Croatia
until the beginning of the 20th century. After the fall of the
Republic of Venice (Campo-Formia Peace 1797), Istria, Dalmatia and
Dubrovnik (Illyrian provinces of Napoleonic France) were added to
the lands of the Habsburg monarchy.
After World War I, in
1918, Croatia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and
Slovenes, although the coastal areas of Austrian Primorye (Istria,
Rijeka, and Zadar) went to Italy under the name of Venice-Julia. In
1929, the state was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. On August 26,
1939, on the basis of the Tsvetkovich – Macchek agreement, Croatia
received autonomy status within the kingdom as a separate banovina.
In 1941, the Ustashi, under the leadership of Ante Pavelic,
created the pro-Nazi Independent State of Croatia, which carried out
the genocide of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. Also on its territory,
Serbian Chetniks committed massacres of Bosnians and Croats. Under
the onslaught of the communist guerrilla units of Josip Broz Tito,
the Pavelic regime in Croatia and Nedic in Serbia fell and the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the SFRY was formed,
which included six republics: HP Serbia, HP Croatia, HP Slovenia, HP
Macedonia, HP Montenegro and HP Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In
1991, against the backdrop of a sharp intra-republican conflict
between Serbs and Croats, Croatia declared independence. Iceland was
the first to recognize the new country on December 19, 1991. After
the declaration of independence, interethnic clashes in the republic
escalated into a war in Croatia (1991-1995), which lasted until the
end of 1995 (Operation Storm). The declaration of independence by
Croatia and Slovenia marked the beginning of the collapse of the
SFRY. Finally, the integrity of Croatia was restored in 1998. The
first president of the new independent Croatia was Franjo Tudjman.
On January 22, 2012, a referendum was held in Croatia, at which
the majority of voters - 66.25% - voted in favor of the country's
accession to the European Union.