InCroatia.org

Croatia has 56,542 square kilometers (plus its sea area - 31,900 sq.km.) 1,777 km of coastline (and more than 4,000 km of islands coastline), 4,437,000 inhabitants (just as a quarter of New York), and almost as many abroad, counting through last three generations.

Among altogether 47 European countries Croatia is 26th with respect to its population, and also 26th with respect to its area. It had the greatest emigration rate in the world, after Ireland. It is organized as parliamentary, multiparty Republic. The name of Croatia, which we call HRVATSKA, is abbreviated as HR.

The language we speak is Croatian, and the official script we use today is Latin. Besides the Latin Script, another two national Scripts were used extensively during many centuries: Croatian Glagolitic and Croatian Cyrillic.

The name of the Croatian monetary unit is "Kuna" (KN), which has 100 "lipas". The meaning of Kuna is - a marten - its skin had been used as a unit in trade. The earliest mention we know of is from the year 1018, on the island of Cres. The first known use of kuna on a Croatian coin goes as far back as 1256, when a local currency displaying kuna was issued in Slavonia.
 
The present capital of Croatia is the city of Zagreb (population about 1,000,000), very old and pleasant city, mentioned for the first time in 1094. In former Yugoslavia Zagreb was a leading industrial, cultural and scientific center.

The Croatian National Emblems are: the tricolour flag (red, white, blue, arranged in this order perpendicularly to the staff), and the coat of arms (13 red squares and 12 silver squares arranged intermittently in a 5 times 5 pattern). This coat of arms was affirmed by 15th century documents. It is a very old symbol of Croatia resembling a red-white chess table. Now it also has a crown composed of five regional symbols.

Croatia has:

• more than a thousand islands on the Adriatic sea, precisely - 1185 (66 inhabited)as such - probably the most interesting coast in Europe (the name of the Adriatic see, as well as its Croatian version Jadran
  

• a mountain of unique and incomparable natural beauty - Velebit - one of the trademarks of Croatia, with unforgettable views to the islands and the mainland. It was recognized as a part of the international network of Biosphere Reserves (2,500 botanical species, 70-80 endemic)

• the most beautiful national park in Europe - the Plitvice Lakes

• the richest bird reservation in Europe - Kopacki Rit, near the city of Osijek,

• among the world's most beautiful and best preserved medieval cities Dubrovnik

• the smallest and loveliest town in the world - having city walls, two streets, two churches and 23 inhabitants - Hum, in the Istrian peninsula,

• Vukovar, baroque city on the beautiful blue Danube

National parks in Croatia:

• the Plitvice lakes

• the Kornati islands

• the Brijuni islands

• the island of Mljett

• the Krka river and its waterfalls,

• the Velebit mountain, it has two and a half times more plant species than the entire Great Britain.

• the Risnjak mountain.

We would like to add several natural reserves:

• the Biokovo mountain in Dalmatia,

• Modro jezero near the town of Imotski,

• Bijele and Samarske stijene,

• Lonjsko polje near Zagreb,

• Kopacki rit (Kopacevo Marshes) near Osijek.

You have for sure enjoyed breathtaking sceneries of natural beauties in films about Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, shot according to novels of Karl May. Maybe you did not know that these films were made in the Paklenica canyon, Plitvice lakes, and on Krka river.