[Little About Zadar]
Zadar (other names) is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar County and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Zadar is a historical center of Dalmatia as well as the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar.
Geography
Zadar faces the islands of Ugljan and Pašman, from which it is separated by the narrow Zadar Strait. The promontory on which the old city stands used to be separated from the mainland by a deep moat which has since become landfilled. The harbor, to the north-east of the town, is safe and spacious.
The Roman forum remains in Zadar
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St. Donatus church, 9th century
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Siege of the city in 1202.
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Chest of Saint Simeon photographed around 1900
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15th to 18th centuries
The Adriatic in 1560, with Dalmatia and Zadar
After the death of Louis I, Zadar came under the rule of Sigmund of Luxembourg and later Ladislaus of Naples, who, witnessing his loss of influence in Dalmatia, sold Zadar and his dynasty's rights to Dalmatia to Venice for 100,000 ducats on July 31, 1409. Venice therefore obtained control over Zadar without a fight, but was confronted by the resistance and tensions of important Zadar families. These attempts were met with persecution and confiscation. Zadar remained the administrative seat of Dalmatia, but this time under the rule of Venice, which expanded over the whole Dalmatia, barring the Republic of Ragusa/Dubrovnik. The Venetians restrained the political and economical autonomy of Zadar, which, nevertheless, remained a prosperous city. During that time Giorgio da Sebenico, a renaissance sculptor and architect, famous for his work on the Cathedral of Šibenik, was probably born in Zadar. Other important people followed, such as Luciano and Francesco Laurana, known world-wide for their sculptures and buildings.
Zadar's "Kopnena vrata" (Landward Gate) with the Lion of Saint Mark, a symbol of the Republic of Venice, above them.
The 16th and 17th centuries were noted in Zadar for Ottoman attacks. Ottomans captured the continental part of Zadar at the beginning of the 16th century and the city itself was all the time in the range of Turkish artillery. Due to that threat, the construction of a new system of castles and walls began. These defense systems changed the way the city looked. To make place for the pentagon castles many houses and churches were taken down, along with an entire suburb: Varoš of St. Martin. After the 40-year-long construction Zadar became the biggest fortified city in Dalmatia, empowered by a system of castles, bastions and canals filled with seawater. The city was supplied by the water from public city cisterns. During the complete makeover of Zadar, many new civic buildings were built, such as the City Lodge and City Guard on the Gospodski Square, several army barracks, but also some large new palaces.
In contrast to the insecurity and Ottoman sieges and destruction, an important culture evolved midst the city walls. During the 16th and the 17th centuries the activity of the Croatian writers and poets became prolific (Jerolim Vidolić, Petar Zoranić, Brne Karnarutić, Juraj Baraković, Šime Budinić). Also noteworthy is the painter Andrea Meldolla [28] (c. 1510/1515–1563), nicknamed Andrea Schiavone, known in today's Croatia with the name of Andrija Medulić.
The Adriatic in 1560, with Dalmatia and Zadar
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World War II
Germany, with limited Italian assistance, invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. Zadar held a force of 9,000 that after limited fighting reached Šibenik and Split on April 15, a mere 2 days before surrender, with civilians having previously been evacuated to Ancona and Pula. Occupying Mostar and Dubrovnik, on April 17 they met invading troops that had started out from Italian-occupied Albania. On April 17 the Yugoslav government surrendered, faced with the Wehrmacht's overwhelming superiority.
Within a few weeks, Benito Mussolini required the newly formed Nazi puppet-state, the so-called Independent State of Croatia (NDH) to hand over almost all of Dalmatia (including Split) to fascist Italy under the Rome Treaties.
The city became the centre of a new Italian territorial entity, called Governorship of Dalmatia, including the provinces of Zara (now Zadar), Cattaro (now Kotor), and Spalato (Split).
Under fascist reign the Slavic population was subjected to a policy of forced assimilation. This created immense resentment among the Yugoslav people; however Yugoslav Partisan movement (which was already successfully spreading in the rest of Yugoslavia) managed to take root here since more than 70% of population of Zara was Italian.
After Mussolini was removed from power on 25 July 1943 and arrested, the government of Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice with the Allies on 3 September 1943, which was made public only on 8 September 1943, and the Italian army collapsed. However, just four days later on 12 September 1943, "Il Duce", was rescued by a German military raid from his secret prison on the Gran Sasso mountain, and formed the Nazi-puppet Italian Social Republic in the north of the Country. The NDH proclaimed the Treaty of Rome to be void and occupied Dalmatia with German support. The Germans entered Zadar first, and on September 10 the German 114th Jäger Division took over. This avoided a temporary liberation by Partisans, as was the case in Split and Šibenik where several Italian fascist government officials were killed by an angry crowd.
The city was prevented from joining the NDH on the grounds that Zadar itself was not subject to the conditions of the Treaty of Rome. Despite this, the NDH's leader Ante Pavelić designated Zadar as the capital of the Sidraga-Ravni Kotari County, although its administrator was prevented from entering the city. Zadar remained under the local administration of the Italian Social Republic. Zadar was bombed by the Allies, with serious civilian casualties. Many died in the carpet bombings, and many landmarks and centuries old works of art were destroyed. A significant number of civilians fled the city.
In late October 1944 the German army and most of the Italian civilian administration abandoned the city.[40] On October 31, 1944, the Partisans seized the city, until then a part of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. At the start of World War II, Zadar had a population of 24,000 and, by the end of 1944, this had decreased to 6,000.[40] Formally, the city remained under Italian sovereignty until September 15, 1947 (Paris Peace Treaties). The Italian exodus from the city continued and in a few years was almost total. The last stroke to the Italian presence was made by the local administration in October 1953, when the last Italian schools were closed and the students forced to move, in one day, into Croatian schools, putting an end to the Romance identity of the city. Today the Italian community counts only a few hundreds people, gathered into a local community (Comunità degli Italiani di Zara).
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Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995)
In the early 1990s the Yugoslav wars broke out. Zadar became a part of the new Republic of Croatia. Its economy suffered greatly at this time not only because of the war but also due to the shadowy and controversial privatization process, which caused most of its prosperous companies to go under.
In 1990, Serbian separatists from the Krajina region of Croatia just inland from Dalmatia sealed roads and effectively blocked Dalmatia from the rest of Croatia. A number of non-Serbs were expelled from the area and several Croatian policemen were killed resulting in the 1991 anti-Serb riot in Zadar.[43] Serbs at that time accounted for about 15% of the population.[44]
During the Croatian War of Independence, Krajina rebels and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) (at the time under Slobodan Milošević's control) converged on the city and subjected it to artillery bombardment during Operation Coast-91 in which they tried to take control of northern Dalmatia. Along with other Croatian towns in the area, Zadar was shelled sporadically for several years, resulting in damage to buildings and homes as well as UNESCO protected sites. A number of nearby towns and villages were also attacked, the most brutal being the Škabrnja massacre in which 86 people were killed.
Connections with Zagreb were severed for over a year. The only link between the north and south of the country was via the island of Pag. The siege of the city lasted from 1991 until January 1993 when Zadar and the surrounding area came under the control of Croatian forces and the bridge link with the rest of Croatia was reestablished in Operation Maslenica. Attacks on the city continued until the end of the war in 1995.
Some of the countryside along the No. 8 highway running north east is still sectioned off due to land mines.
Sports
The local handball club is RK Zadar, the football club NK Zadar, and the basketball club KK Zadar. The bowling club Kuglački klub Zadar is also very successful. Zadar is also the hometown of Croatian handball player Ivan Ninčević and football player Luka Modrić.
Krešimir Ćosić Hall
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The town hall (centre) in Narodni trg (People's Square)
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St. Mary's Church, located in the old city opposite St. Donatus' Church.
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29' Begonja
