UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage

Diocletians palace in Split

The Roman Emperor Diocletian spent his declining years in an enormous palace that he had built near his birthplace, Aspalthos, in Dalmatia.

With the passing centuries the original architecture of the palace has been altered, but the people of the city, later called Spalato, and then Split, were able to use the structure of the palace, damaging it as little as possible, under Byzantine, Venetian and Austro-Hungarian rule. Thus, a harmonious city came into being within the Roman walls. The peristyle of the palace, Diocletians mausoleum, Jupiters temple, the colonnades along the streets, Early Croatian churches, Romanesque houses, the gates of Andrija Buvina and architectural works by Juraj Dalmatinac have remained in a good state.

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Basilica of Euphrasius in Porec

The most precious cultural monument in the city of Porec, comprising a 6th-century complex of sacral buildings erected during the time of Bishop Euphrasius, lies in the northeast part of the urban-historical core of the city.

The Basilica, built on the foundations of a much earlier church, is dominated by a triple-naved apse, a narthex, the atrium, an octagonal baptistery, and the bishops palace.

The edifice was added to in the 13th and 15th centuries, and a bell-tower was erected in the 16th century. The apse is ornately decorated with figural mosaics, which, together with the mosaics in San Vitale in Ravenna, comprise one of the most remarkable examples of mosaic art in Europe.

From the floor mosaics and from preserved inscriptions we are able to follow all the phases of building, adaptations and renovations, that is to say, the dynamics of the life of the Christian community in Porec.

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Plitvice lakes

The River Korana creates a chain of about twenty limpid, emerald-green lakes and pools, arranged stepwise and punctuated by dolomite barriers formed by travertine sedimentation.

The water flows down from one lake to the next over waterfalls, creating a majestic architectural phenomenon of nature in motion.

The lakes are surrounded by luxuriant forests of beech, fir and spruce in which there are bears, wolves and rare birds, such as grouse and long-eared owl.

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  UNESCO

The Republic of Dubrovnik was the centre of a separate political and territorial entity, and was proud of its culture, its achievements in commerce and especially of its freedom, preserved down so many tempestuous centuries.

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Cathedral in Sibenik

The cathedral located in Sibenik, the Cathedral of Saint Jakov, is a three-aisled basilica with three apses and a cupola (interior height 32 m). Construction of the cathedral was begun in the Venetian Gothic style, but was completed in the Toscana Renaissance style.

More than 15 decades ensued from the time the decision was made to commence construction, from 1402 up to its final consecration in 1555. Construction began in 1431 on the site of an earlier, smaller cathedral that had been destroyed, and material from that smaller edifice was used in the construction of the cathedral. Stone for its building was brought from the islands of Korcula, Susak, Brac, Rab and Krk.

During the first phase, construction works were executed by the Italian masters Francesco di Giacomo, Lorenzzo Pincino, and Pier Paolo Bussato, together with domestic master stonemasons Andrija Budcic and Grubisa Slafcic (side walls and both portals) In 1444 construction works were led by Juraj (Matejev) Dalmatinac. Under his guidance the church was built to the height of side aisles, as well as a shrine, apses containing a frieze of 74 heads (thought to be portraits of eminent residents of Sibenik) and a sacristy with an open area at ground level. Nikola Firentinac was the next person to continue the work (completion of side aisles, cupolas, and roof project - a stone-tiled vault). After the death of Nikola Firentinac in 1505, construction of the cathedral was finally completed by Bartolomeo and Gicomo da Mestre.

This unique sacral monument is an extremely interesting example, in that it is the only building in Europe constructed before the 19th century which contains no masonry elements, with its walls, vaults and cupolas having been constructed through the unique method of assembling previously precisely chiselled stone sections (a method introduced by Juraj Dalmatinac), and usually used in carpentry. Because of the unity of building in stone and the method of assembly, the magnificent and unique nature of the interior and exterior resulted in a building whose exterior volume corresponds exactly to the form of the interior. A direct consequence of that is the fact that the gable of the main facade (triple leaf-shaped) is the oldest in Europe and the only one that appears as a projection of a three-aisled church area, in congruence with the shape and size of the vaults. All other triple leaf-gables are stuck to church facades, having differently shaped vaults, or ceilings and roofs as scenery facades.

Within the cathedral, in the aisles, are several altars, while above the aisles there are two rows of galleries. The cross on the altar of Sv. Kriz is a masterpiece by Juraj Petrovic, dating from 1455. On the altar of Sv. Tri kralja there are two marble reliefs depicting angels, the work of Nikola Firentinac and the painter Bernardin Ricci. The statue of a prophet is a masterpiece by Pavle Gospodnetic, dating from 1594; the carved pulpit is a masterpiece by Jerolim Mondel (1624).

On the altar of Saint Fabian and Saint Sebastian there is a picture of Filip Zaninbertia. The main altar of The Mother of Tears dates from 1638. When strolling among the tombstones one may notice the epitaph of Juraj Sisgoric, a work by Andrija Alesija (1454) according to a drawing of Juraj Dalmatinac; a monument to Bishop Spignaroli (A. Nogulovic) and the sarcophagus of Ivan Stafilic. Sibenik Cathedral was awarded World Heritage Status by UNESCO in 2000.

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