VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CROATIAN CULTURE-all presented in our numerous eTwinning School projects online

... LISTED IN RANDOMIZED ORDER...

e. g. let's start with - MUSIC

Here come our favourite songs by klapa singers from Dalmatia! Enjoy!

then, we'll carry on WITH OUR FANTASTIC

- CROATIAN INTERLACE – HRVATSKI PLETER
OUR CULTURE ROOTED TREASURE!

The Croatian interlace or Croatian wattle, known as the pleter or troplet in Croatian, is a type of interlace, most characteristic for its three-ribbon pattern. It is one of the most often used patterns of pre-romanesque Croatian art. It is found on and within churches as well asmonasteries built in early medieval Kingdom of Croatia between the 9th and beginning of the 12th century.

The ornamental strings were sometimes grouped together with animal and herbal figures.

Most representative examples of inscriptions embellished with the interlace include the Baška tablet

and the Branimir Inscription.

Other notable examples are located near Knin, in Ždrapanj and Žavić by the Bribir settlement, Rižnice near Solin and in Split and Zadar.

Croatia has a civil and military decoration called the Order of the Croatian Interlace.

Croatian interlace bordering the emblem of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia

One of notable examples of a widespread local usage of interlace is the three-ribbon interlace found in the early medieval Croatia on stone carvings from 9th to 11th century.

ANYWAY, CARRY ON WITH NUMEROUS SOUVENIRS FROM OUR CROATIA! ENJOJ!

- CROATIAN SOUVENIRS TO YOU!

- BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE CROATIAN

LANGUAGE AND SCRIPT

The language we speak is Croatian, and the official script we use today is exclusively the Latin script. Croatian is a Slavic language, belonging to the South Slavic, Western subgroup of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European family, and like other Slavic languages it developed from Old Slavic.
In the history of Croatian people three scripts were in use:

Croatian Glagolitic Script,

Croatian Cyrillic Script (bosancica),

Latin Script.

It is important to emphasize that the earliest known texts of Croatian literature written in the Latin script (14th century) have traces of Church-slavonic influences. Hence, Croatian glagolitic, Cyrillic and Latin traditions cannot be viewed as separated entities. We know that Middle Age Croatian scriptoriums were polygraphic (for example in Zadar and Krk)
In addition to its standard language, Croatia is rich in dialects originating from the Chakavian, Kaikavian and Shtokavian vernacular.
The Croatian written language heritage goes back to the end of the 11th century. The oldest Croatian texts were written in a kind of Croatian version of Church Slavonic and archaic Chakavian, exclusively in Glagolitic script. Bartol Kašić, a Jesuit from the Island of Pag, wrote the first grammar of the Croatian language, in latin, entitled Institutionum linguae Illyricae (The Basics of the Illyrian Language). This grammar, printed in 1604. in Rome, influenced nearly all Croatian grammar books written by the firsthalf of the 19th century. The beginnings of the standardisation of today’s Croatian go back to the 18th century, and at the end of the 19th century the foundations of current standard Croatian were set. Over 5.5 million people use Croatian as their mother tongue. The first person who delivered a speech in Croatian in the Croatian Parliament was Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski on 2 May 1843 in an effort to fight for national independence and for Croatian to be introduced as the official language in schools and offices.
In the Croatian languege Nouns have seven cases which change according to its gender /male, female, neutral/ and should be in accordance with adjectives – not easy to learn, too!
Useful Phrases

- SOME USEFUL EXPRESSIONS; HRVATSKI- ENGLISH

POZDRAVI- greetings

Dobro jutro!- Good morning!
Dobar dan!- Good morning!
Dobra večer!- Good evening!
Laku noć!- Good night!
Doviđenja!- Goodbye!
Bok!- Hi!

PREDSTAVLJANJE - Introducing yourself

Kako se ti zoveš?- What is your name?
Zovem se...- My name is...
Drago mi je- How do you do

KORISNE FRAZE- Useful phrases
Gdje je?- Where is?
Oprostite- Excuse me
Hvala Vam- Thank you
Nema na čemu- You are welcome
Molim- Please
Ne razumijem- I don't understand
Govorite polako- Speak slowly
Volim te!- I love you!
Sretan put!- Pleasant journey!
Dobro došli- Welcome
Koliko stoji?- How much does it cost?
Račun molim!- Cheque please

The Croatian languege is phonological/phonemic, meaning you pronounce words (almost) the way they are written, which is a good news when dealing with this, not easy to learn.

- ANTIQUE CROATIAN TOWNS

SALONA – THE LARGEST ONE (74 ha)

POLA/Pula (24 ha)

IADER/Zadar (14 ha)

PARENTIUM/Poreč (7 ha)

ISSA/Vis ( ha)

PHAROS/Stari Grad ( ha)

TARSATICA/Rijeka ( ha)

AENONA/Nin ( ha)

ARVA/Rab ( ha)

GROUND PLAND OF CROATIAN ANTIQUE TOWNS

• REGULAR GROUND PLAN

‐ ortogonalan (Issa, Pharos, Parentium, Iader)

‐ radio‐centričan (Pola)

• IRREGULAR GROUND PLAN: Asseria, Varvaria

- INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF CROATIA-NO ONE IN EUROPE
link:

ANNUAL CARNIVAL BELLRINGERS' PAGEANT FROM THE KASTAV AREA

PROCESSION "ZA KRIŽEM" - HVAR

WOODEN TOYS FROM ZAGORJE

LJELJE FROM GORJANI

LACE MAKING

TWO-PART SINGING AND PLAYING IN THE ISTRIAN SCALE

ALKA FROM SINJ

LICITAR HEARTS

BEĆARAC SINGING - EAST CROATIA /SLAVONIA/

- CROATIAN ART HISTORY

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE CROATIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

- CROATIAN WRITERS: IVANA BRLIĆ-MAŽURANIĆ - THE CROATIAN ANDERSEN - A MUST SEE!

IVANA BRLIĆ-MAŽURANIĆ

http://crocodoc.com/hJyUi5m

- SCENIC BEAUTIES: NATIONAL PARKS, CAVES, CRYSTAL CLEAR SEA... THE BLUE SKY...

- ECO ASPECT

cave in Vis

the Croatian symbol-iris

Mlljet national park

Sljeme - Zagreb

- NATIONAL PARKS AROUND CROATIA /SCENIC BEAUTIES/

link:

http://crocodoc.com/l74QHnv

CROATIAN NATIONAL PARKS! EIGHT FANTASTIC SYMBOLS OF HIS PRESENCE ON EARTH!

CROATIAN NATIONAL PARKS

Unspoiled nature of the Croatian National Parks and the diversity of flora and fauna will leave no one indifferent. Croatia has eight national parks : Brijuni, Kornati, Krka, Mljet, Paklenica,Plitvice Lakes, Risnjak and Northern Velebit, whose unspoiled nature takes almost 8 % of Croatia.

A National Park is a large tract of land with exceptional natural features, comprising one or more ecosystems that have been unaltered or only marginally altered by human activity. Only traditional forms of agriculture, tourism and recreational activities are allowed there.

If you want to explore Croatian National parks, National park Brijuni, which has its 14 islands and is often reffered as heaven on earth, National park Kornati, with about 140 small islands which are known for its wonderful shapes, varied and unusual forms and high cliffs, or National park Plitvice Lakes with 16 lakes which are connected by waterfalls as high as 78 meters are only some of the Croatian national parks that will simply amaze you with its natural beauties.

Brijuni National park

A characteristic that makes Brijuni even more valuable in relation to other areas of this climate is its vegetation. On Veliki Brijun an extraordinary unity of natural elements and anthropogenesis has been achieved. By taking up the farmlands and by clearing the forests and transforming them into landscape parks with vast meadows, a unique landscape on the Croatian Adriatic coast has been created.

Macchia 261 ha
Meadows 124 ha
Parks 118 ha
Holm oak forests 68 ha
Holm oak and laurel forests 48 ha
Conifers 18 ha

It is interesting to point out that on the islands there are some plant species that are among the endangered plant species of Istria (marine poppy, wild cucumber, some grass species etc.), but on the islands they are quite widespread and develop freely.

SUBMARINEWORLD

The indentation of the coastline, the diversity of the base, the bathymetric configuration and the specific hydrodynamic conditions are reflected in the wide variety of littoral biocoenoses - life communities - that are characteristic for the northern Adriatic region and are still unaffected by direct sources of contamination.

The local seas of Brijuni are important hatching grounds and representative oasis (marine park) for the typical marine organisms of the northern Adriatic, that is their colonies andcommunities. Of the marine organisms that are protected by the Law on Environmental Conservation in the waters of Brijuni you can find the pen-shell (Pinna nobilis) and the date-shell (Lithophaga lithophaga). Turtles and dolphins, the protected marine vertebrates, can also from time to time be seen in the waters of Brijuni. There are also some endemic species like the black tang, Jadranski bračić, and the tunicate, Jadranski ciganin.

The seabed abounds in sponges, shellfish, sea urchins, crustaceans, fish etc. Among fish the most numerous are sea basses, giltheads, grey mullets, soles, groupers, conger eels, dentexes, black umbers… In the past in the seas of Brijuni were found some species that were never seen in the Adriatic, as well as some species up to then unknown to scientists like the soft coral Alcyonium brionense (Kuekenthal 1906) or the variety of the sponge Ircinia variabilis fistulata (Syzmanski 1904).

- CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL HERITAGE

When on the Istrian island of Brijuni all the yet unexplored and mostly inaccessible monuments from all ages, from the early periods of the pre-Roman Istria until the 16th century, will be discovered and made accessible to research then this beautiful island will be a unique museum rich in architectonic inventory of high artistic and historic importance. To all the cultures, which settled through history on the northern Adriatic coast, will be possible to ascribe at least one monument of architectonic heritage or some other artefact witnessing its presence.
A. Gnirs, 1911.

The archipelago of Brijuni is an extraordinary blend of natural, historical and cultural heritage. The mild climate and the favourable geographical conditions, deep retracted bays and easily defendable elevated fortifications, have secured a continuum in the human activity on the island from a pre-historic age until the present day. On a relatively small archipelago, of an area of around 7km2, have been registered some hundred sites and buildings of archaeological and cultural-historical value and which comprise the period from the first Neolithic settlements, the dugouts in the bay of Soline, until the creation of an elite summer and health resort at the beginning of the last century and the presidential residency visited by statesmen from one third of the world’s countries in its 25 years of existence (1954-1979).

This concise curriculum vitae of the island, which carefully preserves the traces of 5000 years of human history, makes the legend of its creation even more real and when arriving to the island a part of Heaven discloses in front of our eyes in the unique harmony of the island’s flora, fauna and heritage. A unique bland of the green islands sank into the turquoise-blue sea whose bays and hills are laced with the white Istrian rocks.