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Thread: Croatian regions explained

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    Default Croatian regions explained

    From official Croatia's EU page: https://www.croatia.eu/index.php?vie...e&lang=2&id=12

    Historical regions


    The region of modern Croatia covers a large number of historical and geographical regions of different origins and size. These reflect the political fragmentation of the Croatian lands in the past, and partly also the position of Croatia at the meeting-point of several large, geographical, European components. The best known historical regions are Dalmatia, Slavonia and Istria.

    The original Roman province of Dalmatia extended along the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, but also included a significant part of the hinterland, which today belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Byzantine Dalmatia, on the other hand, included only a few coastal towns and neighbouring islands. The region which is considered to be Dalmatia today coincides with the former Venetian territory on the eastern Adriatic in the late 17th and early 18 century. This territory, enlarged by the addition of the Dubrovnik Republic in the 19th century, formed a separate province within the Habsburg Monarchy.

    The peninsula in the north of the eastern Adriatic has been called Istria since Roman times. In the 19th century, it formed a separate unit within the Habsburg Monarchy. Although its population was predominantly Croatian, it was only formally annexed to Croatia after the Second World War.

    The name Slavonia used to refer to a larger area than today – it covered the entire region north of the Velika and Mala Kapela mountain range. From the 18th century onwards, the name came to be used for the eastern, lowland area of modern-day Croatia, and formed part of the title of the Croatian political core area within the Habsburg Monarchy – the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia.

    Other historical and geographical names relate to smaller regions, whose borders are sometimes not clearly defined. The northeast region of Baranja was once part of a Hungarian county of the same name, but has been part of Croatia since 1945. The most eastern part of Slavonia is known as Srijem, and is the relic of a once much larger region, most of which belongs to Serbia today. Lika, Banovina, Kordun and Žumberak are smaller regions, which were wholly or partially under the separately administrated Military Frontier set up by the Habsburg Monarchy on what is Croatian soil today. The Military Frontier was re-integrated with the main Croatian territories in 1881.

    Some of these names and other names of regions appear in the names of modern counties, the basic units of the administrative division of the country, but they have exclusively geographical significance and do not denote any particular political status.

    Contemporary regions

    Contemporary regional divisions basically follow the relief division of the country.

    The northern, predominantly lowland part of the country is divided into Eastern and Central Croatia. Eastern Croatia includes the traditional regions of Slavonia, Baranja and the western part of Srijem, i.e. the actual lowland area of the Pannonian Plain, bordered by the largest rivers, the Sava, Drava and Danube. This area boasts the optimal conditions for agricultural production. The main regional capital is Osijek, a port on the Drava. Other large towns include Vinkovci, a transport hub, Vukovar, the largest river port and the only Danube port in the country, Slavonski Brod, Požega and Đakovo.

    Central Croatia includes the border areas of the Pannonian Plain and the peri-Pannonian regions of Hrvatsko Zagorje, Međimurje, Pokuplje and Banovina. It is the centre of gravity in terms of population and the economy, with the country’s capital, Zagreb. Other large towns and regional centres are Varaždin, Čakovec and Krapina in the north part of the region, Karlovac and Sisak in the south and Bjelovar and Koprivnica in the east.

    Highland Croatia is the smallest, least populated region, and includes the country’s mountainous area. It is composed of smaller units, particularly the forested Gorski Kotar, the Ogulin–Plaški depression and Lika. Due to the relief and climate, there is little arable land, and only cultures which can withstand severe winter conditions are grown there.

    Forestry based on local resources is the dominant branch of the economy. The towns are smaller than in other parts of the country, and the regional centres are Delnice, Ogulin and Gospić.

    The coastal part of the country is usually divided into north and south. The Hrvatsko primorje (Croatian littoral) area includes Istria, the most developed tourist region, and the long, narrow Kvarner region below Velebit, together with the nearby islands. The largest city and regional centre is Rijeka, the largest Croatian port. Other towns and cities include Pula and Poreč in Istria, and Senj in the coastal belt below Velebit, while Rovinj and Opatija as well as the islands of Krk, Rab and Mali Lošinj are the local tourist centres.

    The southern litoral mostly forms the historical region of Dalmatia. In terms of climate, landscape and culture, it is a specifically Mediterranean region, within which three parallel belts can be distinguished: the islands, the coast and the hinterland. The regional centre is Split, the second largest city in Croatia and the largest on the coast. Other important regional and economic centres include the coastal cities of Zadar, Šibenik and Dubrovnik, and the inland towns of Knin and Sinj.

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    Historical regions map



    Contemporary regions map

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    Would you say there are significant cultural peculiarities between regions that can be highlighted?

    Quote Originally Posted by Creoda View Post
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tannhauser View Post
    Would you say there are significant cultural peculiarities between regions that can be highlighted?
    Yes, ofc! From same webpage

    Traditional Croatian culture is characterised by exceptional diversity. Ecological conditions and the influences of the cultures with which the Croats have come into contact through history (Mediterranean, Central European, Ancient Balkan, Oriental, etc.), have resulted in the development of three regional modalities of Croatian traditional culture, that is, three specific regional cultures: Pannonian, Dinaric and Adriatic.

    The Pannonian cultural zone has been characterised by the growing of grain, flax and hemp, and breeding larger domestic animals (horses, cattle). The people lived in thatched single-storey houses made of wood or mud and wattle (in the west), or of compacted clay or unfired bricks (in the east), with straw roofs. Along the Rivers Kupa and Sava, two-storey houses were prevalent, the successors to pile-dwellings. Furniture was tall. Home crafts which were particularly developed included weaving on a horizontal loom and pottery using a foot-turned wheel. One particularly interesting form of artistic expression was the decoration of gourds. Clothes were made from densely smocked cloth with richly woven or embroidered decoration, and topped off with broadcloth or leather jerkins, wide broadcloth capes or sheepskin coats and broad soft-soled shoes (kapičari), or boots. Women wore necklaces made of coral or glass beads and, in Slavonia, of gold coins. Annual processions of young people through the village on feast days, collecting gifts, were common (jurjaši on St George’s Day, kraljice or ljelje at Pentecost, ladarice on Midsummer’s Day, betlehemari on Christmas Eve, etc.), as were lavish wedding customs. Music and dance traditions also varied greatly. In Međimurje, there was a specific form of unison singing based on medieval scales (known as the Old Church style), and the instruments played were the bordun zither, cimbalom and violin, to which couples would dance (the influence of the Alpine zone). The most famous dance in northwest and central Croatia was the drmeš, danced in pairs or small circles to the music of a string ensemble known as guci. Reel dancing was characteristic in Slavonia and Baranja, accompanied by gajde (bagpipes), which by the 20th century had been virtually replaced by the tambura (a stringed instrument).

    In the Dinaric cultural zone (highland Croatia and the Dalmatian hinterland), sheep and goat breeding was dominant. Shepherds spent the summers in the mountains with large flocks of sheep, and in winter, moved them to the coastal areas, using mobile pens and huts (transhumant pastoralism). In Alpine regions, families would move their flocks in spring from the villages in the valleys to high dwellings, where they worked in the meadows and hayfields, then in the summer months to the mountain pastures. In the autumn, they would gather the meadow produce and return to the villages before winter set in. In highland Croatia, houses were mostly made of wood, often with a stone ground floor section, and the tall, steep roofs were covered in wooden slats. Furniture was low. Home crafts included spinning and weaving woollen fabrics for soft furnishings and clothes, producing rolled broadcloth in mills powered by water, and pottery using a hand-turned wheel. Shepherds were particularly skilled in woodcarving. Women’s costumes consisted of cloth blouses, simply cut, with characteristic geometric embroidery on the breast and edges of the sleeves, woollen pinafores and long, broadcloth jackets known as zobun. Men wore narrow broadcloth trousers and jackets in three layers over a shirt, a wide leather belt and several layers of woollen socks decorated with scraps of broadcloth. Girls and men wore low, red, broadcloth caps, while married women covered their heads with white kerchiefs. Light, woven soft-soled shoes were worn on the feet. Clothes for special occasions were supplemented by large amounts of silver jewellery, and men often carried engraved weapons. Social life included specific forms of non-blood kinship (fraternities, godparents, etc.). The musical tradition was characterised by a specific type of singing, ojkanje, which emerged as a refrain in various types of short song (rozgalice, vojkavice, treskavice) and is related to rera and ganga which emerged later. Longer narrative songs describing heroic deeds were performed by guslari, who accompanied their own singing on gusle, single-stringed instruments played with a bow. The typical dance was the nijemo kolo (Silent Circle Dance – also called the Vrlika, Lika or Sinj Circle Dance), which was performed in large steps and leaps with no musical accompaniment.

    In the Adriatic cultural zone, the population was engaged in fishing and cultivating olives, vines, figs and almonds and rearing sheep and goats. They grew vegetables and, to a lesser extent, grains on small terraced meadows. They also used wild plants such as broom (for yarn) and carob. Shipping and trade were also important. Their houses were made of stone, usually tall, narrow buildings roofed with cylindrical tiles or split limestone slates. They had open hearths equipped with range-hoods and typically Mediterranean utensils (gridirons, chains, bellows). Their costumes developed from their urban milieus. Men’s costumes were characterised by typical Mediterranean components such as wide trousers, gathered at the waist, short stockings and cylindrical woollen caps. Women’s costumes comprised cloth blouses over which bell-shaped broadcloth skirts with shoulder straps were worn, encircled by woollen or silk belts. They preferred jewellery made of precious metals, complemented with coral or pearls, often in the form of filigree work. At Christmas and New Year’s Day, it was customary to process through the streets, greeting the neighbours with songs and collecting gifts (koledanje), and Carnival customs were widespread. Klapa singing is considered to be a particular characteristic of Dalmatian folk music – multi-part singing in small groups, klape, with no musical accompaniment. Rural dances (the linđo and poskočica) were accompanied by lijerica, three-stringed bowed instruments, while in the towns dances such as the šotić and kvadrilja were accompanied by guitars or mandolins. The traditional music of Istria and Hrvatsko Primorje were characterised by chromatic scales (the best known is the Istrian Scale), upon which songs and music played on sopele, or roženice (woodwind instruments with piercing tones) were based. Often two such instruments were played, one large and one small, producing two-toned close intervals or unison sounds, and ending in octaves. The same two-toned effect was mirrored in singing performed by several singers. The balun and tanac were danced to the accompaniment of the sopela.

    In the early 20th century, 80% of the population of Croatia was rural, and to a great extent continued to live along traditional patterns. Although traditional culture began to disappear in the late 19th century, affected by modernisation and urbanisation, this process accelerated in the mid-20th century. Many elements of traditional culture continue today in changed forms and new contexts, and have gained new significance, while some have come to denote national, regional or local identity. These include, for example, the Carnival procession of the bellmen (zvončari) in the Kastav area, performances of a military dance with swords (moreška) in the town of Korčula, the custom called kumpanija in the villages of Korčula, the annual Pentecost procession of the kraljice, or ljelje, in Slavonia and Srijem, the knights’ tournament known as the Sinjska Alka, and many others. Traditional music, songs and dances are most often performed at folklore festivals or during various ceremonial events, when the performers usually dress in folk costumes. The best known such events are the Zagreb International Folklore Festival, the Vinkovci Autumn Festival, the Đakovački Vezovi and the Dalmatian Klapa Festival in Omiš. Along with many amateur folklore societies, the professional Lado Ensemble (founded in 1949) is particularly dedicated to nurturing the Croatian folk tradition and performs folk dances and songs.

    https://www.croatia.eu/index.php?vie...e&lang=2&id=48

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    To illustrate the difference in eg. folklore

    Slavonia


    Dalmatian Hinterland


    other regions have their own folklore etc

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    Enchanting folklore, and to compliment a bit :

    Quote Originally Posted by Stearsolina View Post
    I love Slavonia and Slavonians are my favorite type of Croats. I think region with best people in entire CRO. Love your music, temper, customs and pride.
    All Slavonians I met have been wonderful people with dignity.


    My blood is Dalmatian, but I prefer Slavonians.

    Quote Originally Posted by Creoda View Post
    Socks and sandals are respectable though.
    Quote Originally Posted by Richmondbread View Post
    I don't mind being the dumbest, as long as I am the prettiest.
    Quote Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen View Post
    Lo mas interesante e ironico (al menos para un foro como este) es la falta de negros.

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