60 Fun Facts About Croatia

What is the capital and largest city of Croatia?

It has the dual status of a county and a city, and its central square is named after Ban Josip Jelačić.

Croatia's coastline lies on which sea?

The coast makes up the country's entire southwest border and draws most of its tourists in July and August.

Croatia declared independence from which country in 1991?

The declaration came on 25 June 1991 and was followed by a war of independence that lasted until 1995.

Which menswear item derives from a garment worn by 17th-century Croatian mercenaries in France?

The French word for Croats, Croates, gave the world the word cravat; International Necktie Day is 18 October.

The cravat spread from Croatian mercenaries serving in France during which war?

The word cravat comes from the gap between the Croatian Hrvati and the French Croates.

Which spotted dog breed traces its origins to a historical region of Croatia?

The puppies are born pure white; their spots usually appear within ten days.

Croatia adopted which currency on joining the Eurozone in 2023?

It joined the Schengen Area the same year, ten years after becoming the EU's 28th member.

The kuna, Croatia's currency from 1994 to 2023, was named after which animal?

Marten pelts were used as currency and tax in medieval Slavonia; the lipa subunit means linden tree.

Croatia joined the European Union as its 28th member in which year?

Accession negotiations had run from 2004; NATO membership had come earlier, in April 2009.

Roughly how many islands and islets does Croatia have?

Only 48 are permanently inhabited; the largest, Cres and Krk, are each about 405 square kilometres.

Which two islands, each around 405 square kilometres, are Croatia's largest?

A floating LNG terminal off one of them began operating in 2021, and the same island yielded the Baška tablet.

Croatia's highest point, the 1,831-metre Dinara, lies near the border with which country?

The peak gives its name to the whole Dinaric Alps range.

Croatia's territory around Dubrovnik is cut off from the rest of Croatia by whose coast?

The 2.4-kilometre Pelješac Bridge, opened in 2022, links the exclave to the mainland without crossing the border at Neum.

Which Roman emperor built a retirement palace that now forms half of the old town of Split?

He was born nearby at Salona and moved in on 1 May 305 AD; the complex was listed by UNESCO in 1979.

The Roman amphitheatre in Pula is the only one in the world to retain what?

Built under Augustus and expanded under Vespasian, it later served as a fortress, quarry and pasture, and appeared on the 10-kuna note.

By what historical name was Dubrovnik known as capital of an independent maritime republic?

The republic banned trafficking in Slavic slaves in 1416 and lasted until Napoleon's forces abolished it in 1808.

The walls of Dubrovnik and Fort Lovrijenac stood in for which fictional city in Game of Thrones?

Filming moved there from Malta for the second season, and Dubrovnik hotel bookings jumped 120% between 2014 and 2016.

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia's oldest national park, is famous for how many lakes visible from the surface?

Founded in 1949 in the karst country near the Bosnian border, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Croatian flag's shield shows what pattern?

The pan-Slavic tricolour has flown since 1868; the chequy shield replaced the communist red star in 1990.

Because of the pattern on their shirts, the Croatian football team is nicknamed the Vatreni and also what?

The chequers clash with so many red-and-white opponents that Croatia often wears its dark away kit at home.

Croatia reached the FIFA World Cup final for the first time in which year?

They lost to France but Luka Modrić won the Golden Ball; the team took bronze in 1998 and 2022.

Which Croatian striker won the Golden Shoe at the 1998 World Cup with six goals?

Croatia had only joined FIFA in 1994, ranked 125th, and finished third at its debut World Cup.

Who in 2018 became the first player other than Messi or Ronaldo to win the Ballon d'Or since 2007?

The Real Madrid midfielder dedicated it to Xavi, Iniesta, Sneijder and others he felt had deserved it.

Goran Ivanišević is the only player to win Wimbledon as what?

He was ranked 125th in 2001 after losing three earlier finals, and held the Wimbledon aces record until Federer passed it in 2019.

Croatian basketball star Dražen Petrović had his number 3 shirt retired by which NBA team?

His career three-point percentage still ranks among the best in NBA history; he entered the Hall of Fame posthumously in 2002.

Skier Janica Kostelić is the only woman to have won how many Olympic alpine gold medals?

Three came at Salt Lake City in 2002, Croatia's first ever Winter Olympic medals, and one at Turin in 2006.

Inventor Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, a village in which region of present-day Croatia?

The village was then part of the Austrian Empire's Military Frontier; his family were ethnic Serbs.

Croatian engineer Slavoljub Penkala registered a 1906 patent for what?

He followed it a year later with the first solid-ink fountain pen; the Pen in Penkala is a coincidence he happily exploited.

Hvar-born Ivan Vučetić, who emigrated to Argentina, pioneered which police technique?

The Argentine police adopted his classification system in the 1890s and it spread worldwide.

Faust Vrančić's 1616 book Machinae Novae included Homo Volans, an early design for what?

Legend says he tested it by jumping from St Mark's Campanile in Venice, though no evidence of a jump exists.

Who is regarded as the first king of Croatia, named as such in a letter from Pope John X in 925?

He defeated Hungarian and Bulgarian invasions; the duchy had been recognised as independent under Branimir in 878.

In 1102 Croatia entered a personal union with which kingdom that lasted for centuries?

It kept its own parliament, the Sabor, and a viceroy called a Ban appointed by the king.

After Mohács in 1527, the Croatian Parliament chose a ruler from which dynasty to resist the Ottomans?

The Sabor met at Cetin and elected Ferdinand I on condition he defend Croatia and respect its political rights.

The Baška tablet, the oldest surviving prose in Croatian, is written in which alphabet?

Found on the island of Krk and dated to about 1100, it records a land grant by King Zvonimir.

The World War II puppet state installed by the Axis in Croatia was run by which fascist movement?

Ante Pavelić led the Independent State of Croatia; the anti-fascist Partisans formed Europe's first resistance unit near Sisak in June 1941.

Which town on the Danube held out for 87 days against the Yugoslav army in 1991 before falling?

About 1,800 lightly armed defenders faced roughly 36,000 troops with heavy armour and artillery.

The 1995 offensive that effectively ended the Croatian War of Independence was code-named what?

Some 150,000 to 200,000 Serbs fled before the advancing Croatian forces in the war's final days.

Who won Croatia's first multi-party elections in 1990 and served as its first president?

The capital's airport now bears his name.

Into how many counties, plus the capital city, has Croatia been divided since 1992?

The counties subdivide into 127 cities and 429 municipalities.

Roughly what is the population of Croatia?

It peaked at 4.7 million in 1991 and has fallen since; 91.6% of residents are ethnic Croats.

According to the 2021 census, roughly what share of Croatians are Catholic?

Eastern Orthodox Christians make up about 3.4%, roughly matching the Serb minority.

Which island promotes itself as 'the sunniest spot in Europe' and is known for its lavender fields?

It claims over 2,715 hours of sunshine a year and one of the first public theatres in Europe.

The Sea Organ in Zadar makes music by means of what?

Architect Nikola Bašić opened it in 2005 and also designed the nearby Monument to the Sun.

Zlatni Rat, the beach whose shifting shape is a symbol of Croatian tourism, is on which island?

The 'Golden Horn' near Bol changes length and shape with the tide, wind and current.

Croatia's prized Paški sir, from the island of Pag, is made from which animal's milk?

The bora wind scatters salt dust across the island, so the animals graze on tough aromatic herbs that flavour the milk.

Zagorski štrukli, a speciality of the country's northwest, is a pastry filled with what?

It can be sweet or savoury and either boiled or baked.

The Dubrovnik republic built the 'Great Wall' at Ston in the 14th-15th centuries chiefly to protect what?

The republic acquired the Pelješac peninsula in 1334 and planned two new towns to guard the boundary and work the salt works.

The Dubrovnik republic banned trafficking in slaves from Slavic Balkan lands in which year?

The ban followed reports that Ragusan merchants had sold peasants from the island of Narenta.

Which 19th-century viceroy's statue in the capital's main square was removed in 1947 and reinstalled in 1990?

The Ban helped defeat the Hungarians in 1849, and the square was named after him back in 1848.

Per Constantine VII, the Croats settled in Dalmatia in the 7th century after defeating whom?

The invasions destroyed almost every Roman town; survivors founded Dubrovnik among other refuges.

Julius Nepos, the last de jure Western Roman emperor, ruled from which Croatian building after 475?

The palace on the Dalmatian coast had been built as an imperial retirement home 170 years earlier.

Croatia's forests cover roughly what share of its land area?

The country also has the EU's highest water resources per person, about 30,000 cubic metres each.

How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites does Croatia have?

They include Plitvice, Diocletian's Palace, the old city of Dubrovnik and the Stari Grad Plain on Hvar.

The road crossing that links the Dubrovnik exclave to mainland Croatia is named after which peninsula?

Before it, road traffic to Dubrovnik had to cross a short strip of Bosnia and Herzegovina's coastline.

In which year did Croatia join NATO?

It had joined the Partnership for Peace and the WTO in 2000 and sat on the UN Security Council in 2008-09.

The 1593 Battle of Sisak is remembered as the first decisive defeat of which power in Croatia?

Borders stabilised afterwards, and Slavonia was regained during the Great Turkish War of 1683-98.

In which year was the University of Zagreb, Southeast Europe's oldest continuously operating one, founded?

A university had operated in Zadar from 1396 to 1807; the renewed University of Zadar opened in 2002.

The Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868 united Croatia with which other kingdom?

Dalmatia stayed under de facto Austrian control and Rijeka kept its separate status.

The Burgenland Croats of Austria descend from Croats who fled which threat in the 16th century?

They came especially from western Slavonia, Lika, Krbava and western Bosnia; the Habsburgs then encouraged new settlers to replace them.

In 2022 Croatia began the process of joining which international organisation?

Membership proceedings were due to finish by 2026, three years after it joined the Eurozone and Schengen Area.