My beautiful Croatia! (Part 3)

Day 1,483, 17:15 • 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.

In future articles, I`ll do my best to show you Croatia great honest and 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 4 will be published in a day or two

Enjoy!











The last restoration was completed in 1705. Since 1925 it houses the art collections of the Varaždin City Museum.





Aerial view of Old town Varaždin Castle

The Old Town Varaždin Castle

Varaždin is a city in north Croatia, 81 km (50 mi) north of Zagreb. The total population is 47,055, with 38,746 of the city settlement itself (2011). The centre of Varaždin county is located near the Drava river. It's mainly known for its baroque buildings, textile, food and IT industry.

The name of Varaždin was mentioned for the first time in a document of King Bela III in 1181.

The Varaždin tribal governors lived in an old fortress (castrum comitis), a Romanesque structure partly built of stone that already have existed at the beginning of the twelfth. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a town developed beside the old fortress. In old documents the town is called Garestin.

In the middle of the sixteenth century Varaždin Castle went through a radical transformation that turned it from a late Gothic fortress into a Renaissance moated castle. The previously unfortified suburbs got stone Renaissance fortifications of rectangular ground plan with walls and trenches.

In the period from 1756 to 1776 Varaždin was the capital of Croatia, until the catastrophic fire when the Ban, administration and aristocracy moved back to Zagreb.

! Video: Varazdin`s Old Town Castle
! More info on: Varaždin on Wikipedia
! More info on: Varaždin county Tourist board
! Tourist info: Croatian National Tourist Board











The breed takes its name from one of the earliest stud farms established, located near the Kras village of Lipica (Italian: Lipizza), in modern-day Slovenia.



The Đakovo Lipizzans have spread the word about Đakovo and its area at many appearances in the world. One of many important people who recognized the value of Lipizzans is Queen Elizabeth II., she visited the Stud Farm and Đakovo in 1972.

The State Stud Farm of Lipizzans in Đakovo was founded in 1506, which makes it one of the oldest horse farms in Europe. It also represents the long tradition of horse breeding in this area.

Nowadays the State Stud Farm of Lipizzans in Đakovo uses two locations for breeding and selection – The Stud farm in the centre of Đakovo and Ivandvor - a property near Đakovo. Besides breeding and selection of horses the State Stud Farm also does the training and dressage, the quality of which is confirmed by many high ranked places won in horse competitions.

! Video: Lipizzan horses
! More info on: The State Stud Farm of Lipizzans in Đakovo
! Tourist info: Lipizzaner Stallion Stables
! Tourist info: Đakovo









Proteus anguinus lives in the waters of the Soča river basin near Trieste in Italy, through to southern Slovenia, southwestern Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.



Proteus anguinus

The olm, or proteus (Proteus anguinus), is a blind amphibian endemic to the subterranean waters of caves of the Dinaric karst in the southern Europe.

It is also occasionally called the "human fish" by locals because of its skin color, similar to that of white people (translated literally from Slovene: človeška ribica and Croatian: čovječja ribica).

! More info on: Distribution of Proteus (Amphibia: Urodela: Proteidae) and its possible explanation
! More info on: The Olm on Wikipedia









Croatian baroque poet Ivan Gundulić; the oldest known portrait with a cravat, 1622



Red necktie around Pula Arena, on the Croatian Necktie Day, 18. 10. 2003.

A necktie (or tie) is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat.

The Croatian origin of the cravat

During the Thirty Years War in the 17th century (1618-164😎 Croatian soldiers were known everywhere as exceptional warriors, and they joined the French royal army. Alongside their military skills they were noted for one detail. They wore a kerchief tied around their necks.

That kerchief, tied in a knot, quickly spread as a fashion accessory and took on an ethnic name, so the name of the nation – Cravate (Croates, Hrvati) – became the name of that item – the cravat.

! Video: Hey Dad, Here's Your Tie From...
! More info on: Croata Academia Cravatica










Podravka Vegeta 250g


Zlata Bartl (1920 - 200😎, inventor of Vegeta

Vegeta is a condiment which is a mixture of spices and various vegetables invented in 1959 by a Bosnian Croat scientist Zlata Bartl (also called "teta Vegeta" or "aunty Vegeta"), and has become a product sold worldwide.

Vegeta is produced by Podravka, a company from Koprivnica, Croatia, as well as a subsidiary of Podravka in Poland.

! Video: Vegeta commercial
! More info on: Vegeta Homepage
! More info on: Vegeta History
! More info on: Chicken Brests in Orange sauce Recipe









Ivana Brlić Mažuranić (1874 – 193😎 was a Croatian writer. Within her native land, as well as internationally, she has been praised as the best Croatian writer for children.

Life

She was born on April 18, 1874 in Ogulin into a well-known Croatian family of Mažuranić.

Upon marriage to Vatroslav Brlić, she moved to Brod na Savi (today Slavonski Brod) where she entered another known family and lived there for most of her life. She devoted all her work to her family and education. As the mother of six, she had the ability to identify with the psyche of the child, to understand the purity and naïveté of their world.

Occupation

Novelist, short story writer, fairy tales writer

Work

The Marvellous Adventures of Hlapić the Apprentice, 1913.

Croatian Tales of Long Ago, 1916., Zagreb

Regoč (Croatian link)

Šuma Striborova (Croatian link)

! Video: Lapitch, The Little Shoemaker - Cartoon
! More info on: Ivana Brlić Mažuranić on Wikipedia
! Tourist info: Ogulin











The beach Zlatni rat (Golden Horn) “grows” with the depositing and sedimentation of small gravelly pebbles around the underwater reef.



The shape of the beach shifts with the changes in tide, currents and wind, veering out into the sea 634 m long



The beach is bordered by a pine tree grove in which one can find remnants of a Roman villa rustica.

Zlatni Rat (Golden Cape) is a narrow white pebble beach on a promontory near
Bol, located 2 km west of Bol harbour, on the southern coast of the island of Brač (the island has a population of 13,000)

A reliable afternoon westerly wind known as a Maestral, together with clear and somewhat cool water make the beach a destination for windsurfers.

Zlatni Rat is a beach which also holds the title of "Blue Flag".

! Video: Zlatni Rat, Bol, Brač in HD
! More info on: Zlatni Rat on Wikipedia
! More info on: Offical Bol Website
! Tourist info: Brač island











Dragutin Šurbek, on the left

Dragutin Šurbek (born August 8, 1946 in Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a legendary former table tennis player from Croatia.

He is one of the most successful Croatian table tennis players ever.

One of the most extraordinary European players ever, he won hundreds of tournaments during the peak of his table tennis career (1964–1986).

He received the Golden Badge award for the best athlete of Yugoslavia in 1983.

"World Championships"

Gold medals: 1979, 1983 (Men's Doubles)
Silver medal: 1975 (Men's Doubles)
Bronze medal: 1971, 1973 and 1981 (Men`s Singles)

Total: 12 medals

"European Championships"

Gold Medal: 1968 (Men`s Singles); 1970, 1982, 1984 (Doubles); 1976 (Team)

Total: 19 medals

! Video: Men`s Doubles Gold medal point on World Table Tennis Championship in Tokio 1983.
! More info on: Dragutin Šurbek on Wikipedia











Surrounded by the towers and walls, which are, next to the geographical location, emphasizing the role of the town of Korčula, a city seen from afar - as a fortress.



The town of Korcula was built on a peninsula protruding into Peljesac Channel.



The old city is surrounded by walls, and the streets are arranged in a fish bone pattern allowing free circulation of air but protecting against strong winds.

Korčula is a historic fortified town on the protected east coast of the island of Korčula in the Adriatic.

Island Korčula is in the Adriatic Sea, in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia.

The island has an area of 279 sq km (108 sq mi) and lies just off the Dalmatian coast.

Building outside the walls was forbidden until the 18th century.

! Video: Korčula Promo 2010 HD
! Video: Greetings from...Korčula
! More info on: Korčula (town)
! Tourist info: Korčula on Croatian National Tourist Board









Kulen with all of it ingredients, except meat



"Belje" Baranja Kulen

Kulen is a type of flavored sausage made of minced pork that is traditionally produced in Croatia (Slavonia) and Serbia (Vojvodina).

Its designation of origin has been protected in Croatia.

In parts of Slavonia (Kulen is Slavonia trademark) kulen is called kulin due to Ikavian speech.

Ingredients and preparation

The meat is low-fat, rather brittle and dense, and the flavor is spicy.

The red paprika gives it aroma and color, and garlic adds spice.

The meat is stuffed and pressed into bags made of pork intestine, generally the colon (because it is wider), and formed into links that are usually around ten centimetres in diameter, and up to three times as long, weighing around a kilogram.

The pieces of kulen are smoked for several months, using certain types of wood.

After the smoking they are air-dried for another several months.

This process can last up to a year.

Although similar to other air-dried procedures, the meat is fermented in addition to the air-drying.

High-grade kulen is sometimes even covered with a thin layer of mould, giving it a distinct aroma.

! Video: Belje Kulen TV spot
! More info on: Kulen on Wikipedia
! More info on: Baranya kulen – a top-quality delicacy of high nutritional value
! More info on: Kulen recipe

PART 1 * PART 2