Dalmatia
Dalmatia (Croatian : Dalmacija) is a region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, in modern Croatia, spreading between the island of Rab in the northwest and the Gulf of Kotor (Boka Kotorska) in the southeast. The hinterland, Inner Dalmatia (Zagora), ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north but narrows to just a few kilometers wide in the south.
Croatian Dalmatia is currently composed of four counties, the capital cities of which are Zadar, Šibenik, Split and Dubrovnik. Other larger cities in Dalmatia include Biograd, Kaštela, Sinj, Solin, Omiš, Knin, Metković, Makarska, Trogir, Ploče, Trilj and Imotski.
The larger Dalmatian islands are Dugi Otok, Ugljan, Pašman, Brač, Hvar, Korčula, Vis, Lastovo and Mljet. The larger Dalmatian mountains are Dinara, Mosor, Svilaja, Biokovo, Moseć and Kozjak. The rivers are Zrmanja, Krka, Cetina and Neretva.
Because of the way sea currents and winds flow, the sea water of the Adriatic is cleaner and warmer on the Croatian side than it is on the Italian side.[citation needed] The Dalmatian concordant coastline also includes an immense number of coves, islands and channels. This makes it an attractive place for nautical races, and nautical tourism in general. There's also a good number of marinas.
Dalmatia also includes several national parks that are tourist attractions: Paklenica karst river, Kornati archipelago, Krka river rapids and Mljet island within island.
Definitions
The historical region of Dalmatia was much larger than the present-day Dalmatia. Dalmatia signified not only a geographical unit, but it was an entity based on common culture and settlement types, a common narrow eastern Adriatic coastal belt, Mediterranean climate, sclereophyllus vegetation of the Illyrian vegetation province, Adriatic carbonate platform, and karst geomorphology.
Among other things, the ecclesiastical primatical territory today continues to be larger because of the history: it includes part of modern Montenegro (another former republic of Tito's Yugoslavia), notably around Bar (Antivari), the (honorary) Roman Catholic primas of Dalmatia, but an exempt archbishopric without suffragans while the archbishoprics of Split (also a historical primas of Dalmatia) has provincial authority over all Croatian dioceses except he exempt archbishopric of Zadar.
The southernmost transitional part of historical Dalmatia, the Gulf of Kotor is not part of present-day Croatian Dalmatia, but part of Montenegro. The regional coherent geographical unit of historical Dalmatia, the coastal region between Istria and the Gulf of Kotor, includes the Orjen mountain whose peak at 1894 m is the highest point, even if it is part of Montenegro. If we take present-day Dalmatia only as a geographical unit, the highest peak would be Dinara (1913 m) which is not a coastal mountain. On the other hand, Biokovo (Sv. Jure 1762 m) and Velebit (Vaganjski vrh 1758 m) are coastal Dinaric mountains but not as high as Orjen. In the tectonical sense, Orjen is the highest mountain of austro-hungarian province Dalmatia, while Biokovo is the highest mountain of the administrative unit of Split-Dalmatia county.
History
Classical antiquity
Dalmatia is a region with a long history. Its name is probably derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae which lived in the area of the eastern Adriatic coast in the 1st millennium BC. It was part of the Illyrian kingdom between the 4th century BC until the Illyrian Wars in the 220s BC and 168 BC when the Roman Republic established its protectorate south of river Neretva. Area north of Neretva was slowly incorporated until province Illyricum was formally established c. 32-27 BC
Dalmatia then became part of the Roman province of Illyricum. In AD 6-9 9 AD, the Dalmatians raised the last in a series of revolts together with the Pannonians, but it was finally crushed and in 10 AD Illyricum was split into two provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia. The province of Dalmatia spread inland to cover all of the Dinaric Alps and most of the eastern Adriatic coast. Dalmatia was later the birthplace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
After the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, with the beginning of the Migration Period, the region was ruled by the Goths up to 535, when Justinian I added it to the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire.
Middle Ages
Arrival of the Slavs
Soon afterwards, the Migration Period brought on a major settlement of Slavs in the first half of the 7th century. Dalmatia became distinctly divided between two different communities, the Slavs and Romanised Illyrians all over the former Roman province and the Latin population and Romanised Illyrians in few coastal cities: Trogir, Split, Zadar and insular part of Dubrovnik (now merged with continent).
The Slavs started organizing their domain into increasingly powerful states.
The Croats arrived (according to migration theories) in the 7th century. Croats formed a few duchies, and in 925 their duke Tomislav declared himself as king, uniting the southern Croat duchies of Littoral Croatia and Pagania, and northern, Pannonian Croatia into an independent kingdom which continued under Croatian dynastic rule until the turn of the 12th century, when it was united with the Hungarian Kingdom by way of personal unions (intermarriage), with members of the Hungarian dynasty as kings.
The southernmost sections of inland Dalmatia were more fragmented and inhabited by Slavs that later nationally developed as Croats and Montenegrins (in Duklja), with the Duchies of Pagania, Zahumlje (Hum), Travunia and Doclea/Zeta being occasionally prominent, especially in the later periods.
Zahumlje became a vassal of the new Croatian Kingdom in the early 10th century.
The Croatian Kingdom had its capital cities in Dalmatia: Biaći, Nin, Biograd, Šibenik (founded as a port of Croatian kingdom, while Byzantium controlled Trogir and Split) Knin, Split, Omiš* [1], Klis, Solin.
Rivalry of Croatia, Venice, Byzantium, and Hungary
The Republic of Venice made several attempts to attain control of the Dalmatian islands and city-states, while Byzantium also preserved an influence on them, although one which faded towards the end of the eleventh century, by which time the Kingdom of Hungary also expanded southwards by having Croatia enter into a personal union with the King of Hungary.
The 13th, 14th and 15th centuries were marked by a rivalry of Venice and Hungary, as the Byzantine influence had fully faded. The once rival Slavic-speaking and Romance-speaking populations of Dalmatia started contributing to a common civilization, and achieved a remarkable development of art, science and literature. The cities would accept foreign sovereignty, mainly of Venice, but strived to preserve local autonomy.
In 1346, Dalmatia was struck by the Black Death. The economic situation was also poor, and the cities became more and more dependent on Venice. During this period Dalmatia was briefly ruled by Croatian magnates Šubić, the first Bosnian king Stephen Tvrtko, and contested by the Angevins and Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor in the early 15th century, but the end result of this conflict was that the Venetians took control of most of Dalmatia by 1420.
Republic of Ragusa and Ottomans conquests
The southern city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa) had managed to achieve complete independence as the Republic of Ragusa, and preserved it despite the numerous foreign invasions. The Ottoman wars in Europe had started affecting the area in the mid-15th century, and when the Venetian and Ottoman frontiers met, border wars became incessant. The Turks took control of much of the hinterland, and helped the Republic of Dubrovnik maintain its independency, but under their suzerainty. The Ottoman invasion further contributed to the inclusion of the Croats and other Slavs in the cities.
After the expansion of the Ottoman Empire was finally contained in the Great Turkish War at the turn of the 18th century, Dalmatia experienced a period of certain economic and cultural growth in the 18th century, as the trade routes with the hinterland were reestablished in peace. Christians also migrated from the Ottoman-held territory into the Christian-ruled Venice.
Modern Times
Napoleonic France and Austria-Hungary
This period was abruptly interrupted with the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797. Napoleon's troops stormed the region and ended the independence of the Republic of Ragusa as well, but saving it from the occupation of Russian Empire and Montenegro. Napoleon's rule in Dalmatia was marked with many wars, which caused many rebellions. On the other side, French rule contributed a lot to Croat national awakening - first newspaper in Croatian language were issued then, in Zadar ("Kraglski Dalmatin"). French rule brought a lot of improvement in infrastructure; many roads were built or reconstructed. Napoleon himself blamed marechal Marmont, the governor of Dalmatia, that too much money was spent on Dalmatia.
By 1815, Dalmatia was taken by the Austrian Empire. After the Revolutions of 1848, the Croatian population of Dalmatia increasingly urged unification with Croatia which was controlled by the Hungarian (Transleithania) part of the then Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After 1918
In the First World War, the Austrian Empire disintegrated, and Dalmatia was again split between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) which controlled most of it, and the Kingdom of Italy which held small portions of northern Dalmatia around Zadar.
In 1922, the Dalmatia region was divided into two provinces, the District of the City of Split (Splitska oblast), with capital in Split, and the District of the City of Dubrovnik (Dubrovačka oblast), with capital in Dubrovnik.
In 1929, the Maritime Banovina ("Primorska Banovina"), a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed. Its capital was Split, and it included most of Dalmatia and parts of present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. Southern parts of Dalmatia were in Zeta Banovina, from the Gulf of Kotor to Pelješac peinsula including Dubrovnik.
In 1939, the Maritime Banovina was joined with Sava Banovina to form new province named the Banovina of Croatia. In 1939, ethnic Croat areas of the Zeta Banovina from the Gulf of Kotor to Pelješac including Dubrovnik were merged with a new Banovina of Croatia.
During World War II, Fascist Italy occupied the entire region together with Nazi Germany, but after the end of the war Dalmatia was restored to Second Yugoslavia.
Dalmatia was divided between three federal republics of Yugoslavia - almost all of the territory went to Croatia, leaving the Gulf of Kotor to Montenegro and a small strip of coast at Neum to Bosnia and Herzegovina. When Yugoslavia dissolved in 1991 the republic borders became country borders as they are now.
Postage stamps
Italy issued special postage stamps for the part of northern Dalmatia it had occupied during World War I, necessitated by the locals' use of Austrian currency. The stamps were produced as surcharges of Italian stamps; the first appeared 1 May 1919, and consisted of the Italian 1-lira overprinted "una / corona".
5c and 10c overprints were issued in 1921, reading "5[10] / centesimi / di corona", followed by an additional five values in 1922. Similar overprints were made for special delivery and postage due stamps.
Soon after the annexed territories switched to Italian currency and stamps. As a result, usage was uncommon and validly-used stamps are today worth about 50-100% more than unused. They are easily confused with the Italian issues used in occupied Austria; the Dalmatian overprints are distinguished by their use of a sans serif typeface.
Gallery
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Narodni Trg (Pjaca) in Split -
Split Harbour -
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Panoramic view of Zadar -
Roman Forum in Zadar -
Summer on the street in Krapanj -
Panoramic view of Hvar
.JPG)
See also
Picture Gallery
Links
- Dalmatia.INFO - Misc info about cities, news and info
- Collection of interactive, vector format Flash maps, including details of cities, counties, and streets - CroMaps
- Dalmacija.net: history, culture and tourism
- http://www.dalmacijalink.com - Features private accommodation in Dalmatia with information on the region.
Template:Roman provinces 120 AD
Croatian cuisine is, variegated as it is, usually called the cuisine of regions. Its modern roots date back to Proto-Slavic and ancient periods, and the differences in the selection of foodstuffs and cooking are most notable between those in the mainland and the coastal region. The inland cuisine is more characterized by the earlier Proto-Slavic and more recent contacts with more famous gastronomies today, the Hungarian, Viennese and Turkish cuisine, and the coastal region is distinguished by the influence of the Greek, Roman and Illyrian as well as the more recent Mediterranean cuisine the Italian and the French gastronomy.
Many Croatian traditional festivities are pronouncedly linked with food, independent of whether related to hard work (crop harvest or threshing, grape harvest and christening of wine, completion of a house), religion (mostly Catholic - Christmas, Easter, pilgrimages, local saints' days), or memorable moments in a man's life (baptism, weddings, birthdays, name-days, funeral feasts). Some of the festivities are typically of a public character, like the Dionysian St. Martin's Day, celebrated in private cottage houses, wine cellars and restaurants; others are almost exclusively family reunions (weddings, baptism, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Easter). Every holiday has its typical dish. Pork-and-potato stew is eaten on pilgrimages and fairs, codfish is prepared for Christmas Eve and Good Friday, pork is eaten on the New Year's Day, doughnuts are an inseparable part of the carnival festivities, and in the south a similar fried sweet dish called hroštule. Ham and boiled eggs with green vegetables are served for Easter, and the desert is made up of traditional cakes (e.g. pinca), kulen (hot-pepper flavored sausage) for harvest, goose for St. Martin's Day, turkey and other fowl as well as sarma (meat-stuffed cabbage leaves) are cooked for Christmas Day. On weddings, a variety of dishes with dozens of cookies (breskvice, paws, gingerbread cookies, fritule plain fritters, etc.). Favorite food among masses of people on all occasions includes spit-roasted lamb and pork, grilled fish, calamari on various ways, barbecue dishes ražnjiæi and æevapèiæi and mixed grill, prosciutto and sheep cheese or smoked ham and cottage cheese with sour cream, fish stew, venison.
Croatia is proud of it high quality and various wines (up to 700 wines with protected geographic origin) and brandies, fruit juices, beer and mineral water. In the south people drink bevanda with their food (heavy, rich flavored red wine mixed with plain water), and in the north-western regions gemšit (sour-flavored wines with mineral water).
The cuisine of Istria and Kvarner regions represents a special Croatian cuisine, a mixture of the inland and coastal cuisine. These regions are rich in excellent fish and seafood, most valuable among them being north-Adriatic scampi (prawns), calamari and shellfish from the Limski Kanal Fjord. Many traditional wine cellars offer, after having fish soup, fish stew, boiled prawns, black and white seafood risotto as well as other dishes typical of the central part of the peninsula the traditional wine soup, ragout (jota) similar to the Italian minestrone (manistra, meneštra, menestra), but also pasta and risotto dishes with famous truffles, self-grown precious mushroom species, "dug out" of the ground by specially trained dogs and pigs, which have the reputation of an aphrodisiac. Excellent Istrian wines include: Malmsy of Buje, Cabernet of Poreè, Sauvignon and Merlot, as well as Terrano of Buzet, Žlahtina of Vrbnik, and sparkling wines Bakarska Vodica etc. There are many fine restaurants in Istria, especially on the Opatija, Crikvenica, Rovinj and Poreè littorals, in the interior and on the islands.
The cuisine of Gorski Kotar and Lika reflects the conditions of living on forested highlands and pastures where summers are short and winters long, which limits the selection of foodstuffs. It is recognized by its simplicity (open-fire cooking and baking), like the regions closer to the sea (Dalmatinska Zagora and central Istria), but its everyday meals include predominantly continental products pura (hard-boiled corn mush), boiled potatoes or potatoes or potato halves baked in skin, pickled cabbage, broad-beans and beans, cow and sheep milk and delicious cheese (fermented cheese called basa, dried cheese), and of meat, fresh and smoked lamb, mutton and pork as well as venison. These regions are rich in mushrooms and self-grown herbs, but there is also the delicious strong plum brandy and brandies made of forest fruits or mixed with honey. The cuisine of Lika is found in the region of the Plitvice Lakes, and fine homemade cheese can be bought when driving on the roads through Lika.
The cuisine of Dalmatia and the islands follows the trend of the modern nutritionist recommendations. The short thermic preparation of foodstuffs (mainly cooking or grilling) and plenty of fish, olive oil, vegetable and self-grown herbs found near the sea is why this cuisine is considered very healthy. Dalmatian wines, like olive oil and salted olives, have been praised from the ancient times, which the present names of some of the indigenous wine sorts reveal (Grk - Greek from the island of Korèula, Prè from the island of Hvar). The famous wines include Dingaè and Postup from the Pelješac Peninsula, Babiæ from Primošten, Vugava from the island of Vis, Plavac from Bol, Pharos and Zlatni Plavac from the island of Hvar, Pošip and Grk from Korèula, Maratina from the island of Lastovo, Malmsy from Dubrovnik etc. but also Prosecco (sweet desert wine) and liqueurs (Maraschino, Vlahov). Although even today every place has its own way of preparing a certain dish, the cuisine of the islands represent a separate world with their distinguishing features being discovered only recently, such as the cuisine of the islands of Hvar, Korèula, Braè (vitalac, a dish made of lamb entrails wrapped in lamb intestines and spike-roasted), Vis (spike-roasted pilchards, like during the Ancient Greek period, the flat cake with pilchards from Komiža and Vis, related to today's pizza). Fresh sea fish (dog's tooth, gilt heat, sea-bass, grooper, mackerel, pilchard) either grilled or boiled or marinated, then molluscs (squid, cuttlefish, octopus), crabs (shrimps, lobster) and shellfish (mussels, oysters, date-shells), boiled, in fish stew or risotto. Of meat prosciutto is certainly unmatched pork leg smoked and dried in the boraè (from Drni), served with salted green and black olives and capers and pickled onions. Lamb is also very praised, especially boiled or baked in the open fire (franjevaèka begovica from Visoko, or lopiž from the island of Iž), then dried mutton (katradina), beef stew, Dalmatian stew (paticada) with gnocchi offered by many restaurants. Light boiled vegetable is also a favorite dish (Swiss chard with potatoes, tomato sauce), often a mixture of cultivated and self-grown vegetables, spiced with olive oil and wine vinegar, or served with meat (manestra pasta with minced meat, arambaici stuffed vine leaves). Regions with plenty of freshwater are famous for frog, eel and river crab dishes (the Neretva valley and Trilj in the Cetina basin). Typical Dalmatian deserts win with their simplicity. The most usual ingredients include Mediterranean fruit, dried figs and raisins, almonds, honey, eggs (rafioli, mandulat, smokvenjak, the gingerbread cookies from the island of Hvar, rožata or rozata).
Many simple, delicious dishes characterize the cuisine of northwestern Croatia. Bread is mostly of maize, barley or mixed, sometimes baked in the baker's oven, and cakes are often similar to bread (kukurnjaca made of corn, perica, zlevanka, buhtli, dough-nuts, walnut and poppy loaves, form cake). Lots of pasta, dairy products, mostly made of cow milk, as well as plenty of vegetable are included (beans, potatoes, cabbage) often mixed with some meat into a broth (zucchini, cucumbers, shell beans, beans, peas in the summer, and beans with pickled cabbage in winter, beans with barley porridge) and salads (fresh cucumbers with sour cream and garlic, lettuce, tomato salad, peppers and onion). This is where food provision for winter is still made in the traditional way (pickled cabbage, cucumbers boiled in vinegar, pickled peppers, red beet, as well as sweet dishes plum jam, dog-rose berry marmalade, bottled fruit, etc.). As the southern cuisine differs from island to island so does the cuisine in this part of the country differs from region to region. In the region of Meðimurje one must taste the buckwheat porridge with meat from fat or blood-sausages, as well as side dishes made of baked beans or potatoes, formed in cones, with rich spices, or smoked or dried cow cheese turoš, known in the region of Podravina as prge. Turkey with mlinci (cooked pasta dish), strudel various art as well as pumpkin cake with poppy have spread from the region of Zagorje throughout Croatia. There are hardly more delicious geese and ducks than those from the region of Turopolje, and baked carp (krapec na procep) than the one from the regions of Moslavina and Posavina. Civil Croatia became famous for its winter salami (Gavriloviæ salami). Blood-sausages, garlic-sausages and special sausages for baking with pickled cabbage boiled smoked pork leg with potato or bean salad with onion are favorite dishes almost everywhere.
Samobor, a small town near Zagreb, is an ideal place for a gastronomic excursion. Its picturesque restaurants offer the Samobor Steak, the Samobor custard slices, salami and kotlovina pork and potatoes stew, bermet (sweet spicy wine) and mutarda, which have been prepared here for almost two hundred years.
The cuisine of Varaždin, in particular of Zagreb, represents urban, metropolitan cuisine, related to the more famous Viennese cuisine. Of course, Zagreb has also its stake (bread-coated veal stuffed with cheese), but it also offers a variety of baked dishes (beef, pork and fowl) served with potatoes, vegetables and horseradish, as well as various stews (wine goulash, bacon and tripes, lungs sour art), grilled meat, pasta. Delicious sweets continue the hundred-year old traditions of the baker women from Griè and bishops' pastry-cooks, revealing the Croatian desert cuisine in its entire variety (Croatian pancakes, Zagorje strudel, strudel stuffed with cottage cheese or apple strudel, buènica, various cakes, ice-creams). The Zagreb cuisine of today is international, the best Italian cuisine is highly represented, and often the restaurants offer better quality fish than those on the coast, more delicious lamb than in the region of Lika and better kulen than in Slavonia. One should taste the following fines from this region: Portugizac from Pljeivica and Jastrebarsko, the Rhine Riesling, Chardonnay from Štrigova and Muscat Otonel, sparkling wines of Turk as well as the wines from wine-cellars in Bojakovina, Pinot Blanc from Zelina, Moslavina Škrlet from Voloder as well as many other wines, but also the traditional drink gvirc (gverc) with gingerbread cookies.
Slavonia and Baranja are the granaries of Croatia, rich and fertile, so that white bread, flat cakes and many other cakes stuffed with walnuts, poppy and plum jam have been baked here from the ancient times made of the most represented bread grain wheat. Pasta, potato, bean, dairy (cottage cheese with sour cream, dried cheese) dishes and fat meat dishes of fattened fowl and pigs are prepared here. Such type of food used to provide energy required for heavy work, but today it might be a troublesome habit. In this regions hot goulash (beef, venison), ragout (several meats with pasta), fish paprikash (with various fish: carp, pike-perch, pike, sheat-fish, etc.) are typical of the region. Smoked and dried pork ham, sausages as well as kulen are also favorite, served as delicacy with cottage cheese, peppers, tomatoes and green onions or pickled vegetables (turšija). The plum brandy from this region is very "soft", and wines, such as Kutjevacka Graevina and Kutjevo Chardonnay, Rhine Riesling of Enjingi but also the Graevina of Krauthaker and Zjelarevi, Ilok Traminer, Pinot Blanc from Pajza and Erdut, Riesling from Belje are distinguished in the world. The wines from the wine cellars of the Ðakovo diocese, famous for the production of wines used in liturgical service, are also well known.