Brief information about the Zadar
It's situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar serves as Zadar County's seat and of the broader Dalmatian region.
The area of Zadar traces its earliest signs of life while settlements date as early as the Neolithic.
Before the Illyrians, an early Victorian people of an Indo-European culture inhabited the area. Zadar traces its source to its BC founding as a settlement of the Illyrian tribe of Liburnians.
It became a Roman colony. During Roman rule Zadar obtained the characteristics of a traditional Ancient Roman town with a regular street network, a public square (forum), and an elevated citizenship with a temple. Following the collapse of the devastation of Salona by the Avars and Croats at 614 and the Western Roman Empire in 476, Zadar became the capital of Dalmatia's Byzantine subject.
At the start of the century, Zadar came under Frankish rule, but it was returned by the Pax Nicephori to the Byzantines. The Croatian rulers gained control over the city. To Doge Pietro Orseolo II Zadar swore allegiance in 998 and became a vassal of the Republic of Venice.
In 1186 it placed itself under the protection of Béla III, King of Hungary and Croatia. The Venetians reconquered and sacked Zadar. If it was given to king Louis I of Hungary hungary recovered control over the city in 1358.
In 1409 king Ladislaus I offered the Venetians Zadar. When the Zadar hinterland was defeated by the Turks at the start of the 16th century, the city became an important stronghold, ensuring Venetian trade in the centre of the Venetian territories in Dalmatia the Adriatic and a cultural centre.
This fostered an environment where arts and literature could flourish, and between the 15th and 17th centuries Zadar came under the sway of the Renaissance, giving rise to many important Italian Renaissance characters such as Giorgio Ventura and Giovanni Francesco Fortunio, that wrote the initial Italian Bible book, and many famous Croatian authors, for example Petar Zoranić, Brne Krnarutić, Juraj Baraković and Šime Budinić, that wrote at the Croatian language.
During French rule that the first paper in the English language, '' Regio Dalmata - Kraglski Dalmatin, was printed in Zadar (1806-1810).
Zadar served for revival in a context of rising polarization and politicization of cultural identities between Croats and Dalmatian Italians. Together with the 1920 Treaty of Rapallo Zadar was granted to the Kingdom of Italy.
During World War II, it witnessed the evacuation of ethnic Italians and was bombed by the Allies. Partisans seized the city on 1 November 1944; in 1947 it became part of SR Croatia, a constituent of the SFR Yugoslavia, whose armed forces defended it in the Serb forces who aimed to capture it.
Zadar is a historic center of Dalmatia, the principal centre of Zadar County Now. Zadar is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar. Because of its rich legacy, Zadar is today among the most common Croatian tourist destinations, called "entertainment centre of the Adriatic" by The Times and "Croatia's brand new capital of cool" by The Guardian.
In 2016 the Belgian portal Europe's Best Destinations.com called Zadar that the "Best European Destination" after a three-week period of online voting involving over 288,000 votes. UNESCO's World Heritage Site set included the fortified town of Zadar as part of Venetian Works of Defence between 17th and 15th centuries: Stato da Terra - Stato da Mar at 2017.