My beautiful Croatia! (Part 6)

Day 1,516, 12:18 • Published in Croatia Croatia • by dRobi1990


Hi there, dear readers.

My goal is to make 50 articles about our small country and show the world all the beauty Croatia has.

So far, I`ve noted that foreigners have great interest in Croatia.

I`ll do my best to show you Croatia most honestly and with great honour.

! Notice: These article is only made to promote Croatia and Croatian nature, culture, cities, heritage, history, art, cuisine, sports and people (either born in Croatia or others) and is not made to usurp, tease or start any sort of controversy, so please have this on your mind when you post comment.

Part 7 will be published on January 17th/18th 2012.

Enjoy!













The park is mainly closed to public, with the exception of the Premužić mountain trail, which grants access to most interesting parts of park.



The area of Northern Velebit was turned into a national park due to its richness of karst phenomena and outstanding biodiversity (flora and fauna!) on a relatively small area.



The peak Veliki Zavižan (1676 m) is located within the park. It is the site of the meteorological station with the highest altitude in Croatia.



From numerous peaks of Velebit visitors can enjoy a magnificent view of the Adriatic Sea and islands of Pag, Rab, Goli otok, Prvić and Krk.



Sjeverni Velebit National Park (English: Northern Velebit National Park) is a national park in Lika-Senj County, that covers 109 km² of the northern section of the Velebit mountain, the largest mountain in Croatia.

Because of the abundant variety of this part of the Velebit range and its authenticity, the area was upgraded from its classification as a nature reserve to a national park in 1999.

Parts of the park, called the “Visibaba” (Galanthus) and “Zavižan - Balinovac - Velika kosa” botanical reserves are famous for its outstanding collection of species of mountain flora.

Park is well known for its geomorphological phenomena – pit cave.

! Video: Northern Velebit National Park
! Video: A story of Velebit - Must see
! More info on: National Park Northern Velebit
! More info on: Offical NP Northern Velebit website
! Tourist info: Northern Velebit NP on Croatian National Tourist Board website











The city was fortified by two rows of walls with three town gates. The remaining town walls date from past periods.



The main Church of St. Euphemia keeps relics of the Saint Euphemia and presents one of the most beautiful Baroque achievements in Istria.



Rovinj developed in the tradition of a small fishing town under the watchful eye of its patron saint Euphemia.

Rovinj (Italian: Rovigno) is a city in Croatia situated on the north Adriatic Sea with a population of 13,562.

It is located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula and is a popular tourist resort and an active fishing port.

Rovinj is considered to be one of the most beautiful towns on the Croatian coast because of its unique appearance and its wonderful natural surroundings.

Rovinj`s vicinity includes 67 kilometre long coast, 2,289 hectares of protected greenery, 14 islands, islets and rocks.

History

Rovinj was a settlement of Illyrian tribes before being captured by the Romans. From 1283. to 1797. it was one of the most important towns of Istria under the Republic of Venice.

Near the pier one can find the old town gate Balbi's Arch, dating from 1680, and a late-Renaissance clock tower.

Did you know?

Istriot, a Romance language once widely spoken in this part of Istria, is still spoken by part of the Rovinj residents (also called Rovignese by those who speak it here).

! Video: Official video of the Tourist Board of Rovinj
! More info on: Rovinj on Wikipedia
! Tourist info: Rovinj on Croatian National Tourist Board











The wall, today 5.5 kilometre long wall links Ston to Mali Ston, and is in the shape of an irregular pentangle.



Throughout the era of the Republic of Ragusa, the walls were maintained and renovated because they meant to protect the precious salt pans that contributed to Dubrovnik's wealth, which still operate today.



The Walls of Ston are known as the "European wall of China".

The Walls of Ston are a series of defensive stone walls, originally more than 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) long, that surrounded and protected the city of Ston in Dalmatia, part of the Republic of Ragusa, in what is now southern Croatia.

Despite being well protected by massive city walls, the Republic of Ragusa used Pelješac peninsula to build another line of defence.

It was completed in the 15th century, along with its 40 towers (20 of which have been preserved) and 5 fortresses.

! Video: Ston town promo video
! More info on: Walls of Ston on Wikipedia
! Tourist info: Tourist Board of Ston











The ensemble's 34 brilliant dancers, who are also excellent singers, can easily transform this folk dance ensemble into an impressive folk choir, while its 15 superb musicians play fifty different traditional and classical instruments.



Ensemble LADO is often called a "Dancing Museum" because of priceless and beautiful authentic national costumes (more than 1,200 costumes) some of which are 100 years old.



LADO represents the rich and diverse regional musical and choreographic traditions of Croatia.

LADO, the National Folk Dance Ensemble of Croatia, was founded in 1949 in Zagreb as a professional national ensemble, with the aim of researching, artistically interpreting and presenting on stage the most beautiful examples of the rich traditions of Croatian music and dance.

LADO`s repertoire consists of more than a hundred different choreographies and several hundred vocal, instrumental and vocal-instrumental numbers.

LADO has had numerous famous Croatian ethnographers and choreographers, music arrangers, and folklorists work with them. It has been called Croatia's most successful "cultural export product".

Did you know?

LADO, an archaic Slavic word, is a synonym for good, kind and nice, and is frequently used as a refrain in ancient ritual songs of north-western Croatia.

! Video: Croatian dances from Slavonia region
! More info on: LADO on Wikipedia
! More info on: LADO official website











Đakovo Cathedral (with Bishop`s court on left side) is 83 meter high, so it dominates this otherwise low-rise town situated in Slavonian plains.



This neo-romanesque building was built between 1862 and 1882 by Viennese architect Frederik von Schmidt. For its building 7 millions bricks were used.



The cathedral is distinguished by red bricks and is equally beautiful on the outside as it is on the inside, where it is decorated by lavish stained glass and an altar.



Inside the Cathedral is painted with frescoes showing the scenes from the Old Testament in the main nave and those from the New Testament in the cross nave.

The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul (Croatian: Katedrala Svetog Petra i Pavla), the co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Đakovo-Osijek, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Đakovo, Croatia.

The largest sacral building (83m) in Slavonia was described by Pope John XXIII as the most beautiful church between Venice and Istanbul.

Its construction was ordered by Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer so as to give significance to Đakovo as the ecclesiastical centre of Slavonia.

! More info on: Đakovo Cathedral on Wikipedia
! More info on: Đakovo on Croatian National Tourist Board
! Tourist info: Tourist Board of Osijek - Baranja County









Italian sports daily “La Gazetta dello sport” call Petrović “the Mozart of basketball”.

Dražen Petrović (Šibenik, 1964 – Denkendorf, 1993) was a Yugoslav and Croatian professional basketball player.

A shooting guard, he initially achieved success playing professional basketball in Europe in the 1980s before joining the American NBA in 1989.

A star on multiple stages, Petrović earned two silver medals and one bronze in Olympic basketball, a gold and a bronze in the FIBA World Championship, a gold and a bronze in the FIBA European Championship, earned six European Player of the Year awards.

Petrović is considered the crucial part of the vanguard to the present-day mass influx of European players into the NBA.

Petrović's #3 was retired by the New Jersey Nets in 1993 and in 2002, he was posthumously enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Career History

1979–1983 KK Šibenka (Yugoslavia)
1984–1988 KK Cibona (Yugoslavia)
1988–1989 Real Madrid (Spain)
1989–1991 Portland Trail Blazers (USA)
1991–1993 New Jersey Nets (USA)

! Video: Dražen Petrović compilation - Must see!
! More info on: Dražen Petrović on Wikipedia
! Tourist info: Online memorial to Croatia's greatest basketball star.









Stipe Božić descended 1395 meters deep in Lukas cave on Mount Velebit in Croatia. With it negative altitude and height of Mount Everest, he held world record.



Stipe Božić on Mount Everest, May 15, 1979.

Stipe Božić (born 2 January 1951) is a Croatian mountaineer, documentary filmmaker, photographer and writer.

He is the most successful Croatian Himalayan climber. Božić completed the Seven Summits and is the second European, after Reinhold Messner, to climb the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest, twice (1979. and 1989.)

He has directed more than 60 documentary films, mostly related to mountains and climbing.

Did you know?

Božić is the only man on the planet to have filmed four times on the three highest peaks in the world.

! Video: Stipe Božić adventurer life
! More info on: Stipe Božić on Wikipedia
! More info on: Stipe Božić Homepage









Entrance in Lukina jama is a crag dimensions 22,5 x 5 m.



It is 1421 m deep (results of expedition "Lukina jama 2010.") and today is among 20 deepest caves in the World.

Lukina jama, the deepest cave in Croatia which has been discovered in 1994 by Slovak speleologists.

It is situated in the northern part of Velebit massif in the Strict Nature Reserve Hajdučki and Rožanski kukovi in National Park Sjeverni Velebit.

What makes it very particular is that it is completely vertical, steepest in the world. At the bottom of the pothole is a water course or siphon with branches that are still unexplored.

Did you know?

A kind of leech was discovered in the pothole, which has been ascertained to represent a new species, genus and family; it has been named Croatobranchus mestrovi.

Lukina jama has been named after Ozren Lukić, a caver killed as a Croatian soldier on Mt. Velebit.

! More info on: Lukina jama - Croatian speleological server









It is a small local center that comprises forty buildings and twenty-four permanent inhabitants.



Buildings in the city are constructed out of the same material as the surrounding cliffs and there are two well-preserved extant city gates on the North and South of the city as well a wall in the East.



Anthony the Great Chapel



Lubenice beach, 400 meters below town.

Lubenice is an ancient fort city on the island of Cres, Croatia.

City was founded approximately 4000 years ago on top of a 380 m high ridge that overlooks the Adriatic Sea.

Lubenice city was nominated for a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005.

! Video: Lubenice
! More info on: Lubenice on Wikipedia
! More info on: Island Cres Tourist Board











Two words: kremšnita and Samobor come as synonyms to each other. Why? Simply because the only and true kremšnita is the one you taste in Samobor.

Samoborska kremšnita is a traditional dessert (custard slice) which has become Samobor brand.

"Kremšnita" is basically fluffy vanilla custard pie between flaky pastry crusts with powdered sugar.

One of the most famous cream cakes in Croatia. The main ingredients are eggs, flour, puff pastry and sugar.

Ingredients and procedure

1. Mixture (10 yolks, 30 dag flour (normal, type 400), 30 dag sugar, 3 packs of vanilla sugar, 2dl milk)

2. Mixture (12 dl milk, 12 dl water, 3 packs of vanilla sugar)

3. Mixture (10 egg whites, 20 dag powdered sugar, one pack of puff pastry)

1. Mixture - mix well with an electric mixer.

2. Mixture - put to heat, when it boils, remove from heat and pour 1. mixture into it, then put it back on medium heat and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly until it thickens like a pudding. It must not burn. Finally,

3. Mixture - whip the egg whites until you get a firm white foam, add powdered sugar and whip some more, than mix it slowly and lightly into the hot mixture (1. and 2.)

Puff pastry should be thinned and spread with the kitchen roller to get two crusts. Bake them on the upturned baking pan, big enough to put the crust in it (some 35 x 50 cm). Put one crust into the pan, pour the hot mixture on it and put the other crust on the top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

! Video: Samobor promo HD
! More info on: Samobor on Wikipedia
! Tourist info: Samobor on Croatian National Tourist Board

PART 1 * PART 2 * PART 3 * PART 4 * PART 5