In accordance with legal tradition, the Croatian Parliament is traditionally titled the Sabor. The oldest preserved records of Sabor sessions date back to 1273, although the beginnings of the Sabor are much earlier. Alongside the Icelandic Althing, formed in 930, and the Parliament of Sicily, established in 1130, the Sabor is therefore one of the oldest Diets in Europe.

Kornati National Park (1980), south of Šibenik and Zadar, encompasses an archipelago of about one hundred islands and islets. Enchanted by the beauty of its landscape, the Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw wrote: 'On the last day of the Creation, God desired to crown His work and thus created Kornati Islands out of tears, stars and breath'.

With 13 entries on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Croatia is, with Spain, the European country with the highest number of entries.

The crowning of the Croatian king Tomislav, Oton Iveković (detail, 1904-1905). Tomislav was crowned as the first Croatian king in 925.

Changing of the guard of honour of the Cravat Regiment parading in Zagreb in the uniform of Croatian cavalrymen of the 17th century who were the initiators of the fashion of wearing the tie, reminding visitors that Croatia is the homeland of the tie.

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 ...

Climate

Thanks to its position in the moderate climate belt along the 45th parallel, Croatia enjoys a predominantly moderate climate, with four clearly marked seasons. Local climate differences are determined primarily by the diversity of the relief ...

Demographic picture

With a population density of 76 per km², Croatia is one of the more sparsely populated European countries, along with Norway, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ireland and Bulgaria. In the last 150 years, several factors have influenced population ...

Language

The Croatian language belongs to the South Slavic group of languages. It is the official language of the Republic of Croatia, and is also spoken by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia (Vojvodina), Montenegro (Bay of Kotor), Austria ...

Relief

Although the land area of Croatia is not large (56,594 km², 19th in size among the countries of the European Union), it has an extremely varied relief, as it adjoins several large European relief forms. There are three main types of relief in Croatia...

Branches of the economy

Croatia does not have large quantities of mineral resources. Coal and other mines (bauxite) were closed in the 1970s and 1980s. There are significant sources of non-metal minerals, which are used as raw materials ...

Inventions and inventors

Croatia is considered the home of many inventions which have transformed human existence, several of which are used in everyday life ...

Croatia in brief

Croatia has been present on the contemporary international political stage since its independence from the Yugoslav Federation, i.e. for a little over two decades, but in terms of history and culture, is one of the oldest European countries ...