Culture

The culture of Croatia has roots in a long history: the Croatian people been inhabiting the area for fourteen centuries, but there are important remnants of the earlier periods still preserved in the country.

Ancient heritage

Croatia is extremely rich with valuable cultural and historical heritage, pointing to the millennium old presence of Croatia in the area.From the Cooper Age, there are finds from Vučedol culture.

The best-preserved networks of Roman streets (decumanus/cardo) are those in Poreč and Zadar. The best preserved Roman monuments are in Pula including an Amphitheatre (an Arena) from the 2nd century.

In around year 300 AD, the Diocletian′s Palace is built, and it is the largest and most important monument of late antique architecture in the World.
One of few preserved basilicas in western Europe (beside ones in Ravenna) from the time of early Byzantium is Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč from 6th century.

Croatian art

In the 7th century the Croats, along with other Slava and Avars, came from Northern Europe to the region where they live today. The Croats were open to roman art and culture, and most of all to Christianity.

The place

The UNESCO has marked six places in Croatia as World Heritage:

Episcopal complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in the historic center of Porec
Historic city of Trogir
palace of Diocletian, built by Roman Emperor Diocletian
Old city of Dubrovnik
Plivice Lakes

Regarding conservation and natural beauty, Croatia has eight national parks, mostly situated along the Adriatic coast.

Famous Croats

Some of the people Croats take special pride in include:

explorer Marco Polo
prince Domagoj of Croatia
first independent ruler, prince Branimir of Croatia
founder of the first Croatian kingdom King Tomislav
king Petar Krešimir IV of Croatia, "the Great"
king Dmitar Zvonimir of Croatia
"father of the nation" Ante Starčević
statesman and soldier Nikola Šubić Zrinski
poet Marko Marulić
playwright and prose writerMarin Držić
inventor of parachutes Faust Vrančić
physicist and diplomat Ruđer Bošković
poet Ivan Gundulić
army general ban Josip Jelačić
sculptor Ivan Meštrović
physicist and engineer Nikola Tesla (ethnic Serb)
chemist Lavoslav Ružička
inventor of ink pens, bluing detergent (Windex), the rail-car brake, the hot water bottle, and the anode battery, Eduard Slavoljub Penkala
Parliamentarian Stjepan Radić
writers: Ivo Andrić, Miroslav Krleža, Vladimir Nazor
historian and first president of the Republic of Croatia Franjo Tuđman

Croatian cuisine

Croatian cuisine is heterogeneous, and is therefore known as "the cuisine of regions". Its modern roots date back to Proto-Slavic and ancient periods and the differences in the selection of foodstuffs and forms of cooking are most notable between those on the mainland and those in coastal regions.

Mainland cuisine is more characterized by the earlier Proto-Slavic and the more recent contacts with the more famous gastronomic orders of today - Hungarian, Viennese and Turkish - while the coastal region bears the influences of the Greek, Roman and Illyrian, as well as of the later Mediterranean cuisine - Italian and French.

A large body of books bears witness to the high level of gastronomic culture in Croatia, which in European terms dealt with food in the distant past, such as the Gazophylacium by Belostenec, a Latin-Kajkavian dictionary dating from 1740 that preceded a similar French dictionary.

There is also Beletristic literature by Marulic, Hektorovic, Drzic and other writers, down to the work written by Ivan Bierling in 1813 containing recipes for the preparation of 554 various dishes (translated from the German original), and which is considered to be the first Croatian cookery book.