Biograd na Moru
Encyclopedia
Dalmatia
Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
and is significant for being the former capital of the medieval Croatian Kingdom
Kingdom of Croatia (medieval)
The Kingdom of Croatia , also known as the Kingdom of the Croats , was a medieval kingdom covering most of what is today Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Balkans.Established in 925, it ruled as a sovereign state for almost two centuries...
. Its population is 6,059 (2005). Biograd is administratively part of the Zadar County
Zadar County
Zadar County is a county in Croatia, it encompasses northern Dalmatia and southeastern Lika. Its center is the city of Zadar.- Population :According to the 2001 census, Zadar County has population of 162,045...
. It is located on the Adriatic Sea
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
coast, overlooking the island of Pašman, on the road from Zadar
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
and Sukošan
Sukošan
Sukošan is a village in Dalmatia, Croatia, with 4,402 inhabitants, the majority which are Croats. It is located along the Adriatic tourism road between Zadar and Biograd na Moru....
towards Vodice
Vodice, Croatia
Vodice is a town in the Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. It borders the Adriatic Sea and has a population of 8,902 .-History:Vodice was first mentioned in 1402 although it was founded already in the Roman times as Arausa. Its name derives from the word meaning water sources which supplied the whole...
and Šibenik
Šibenik
Šibenik is a historic town in Croatia, with population of 51,553 . It is located in central Dalmatia where the river Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea...
.
The city of Biograd is a noted tourist resort with a long tradition. Its first tourists started arriving in the 1920s from Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and its first hotel was built in 1935.
Geography
Biograd na Moru is located 28 km south from county center Zadar. It is located on small peninsulaPeninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
surrounded by two little bays - Soline
Soline
Soline is a small Croatian village on the island Dugi otok. It is located in a large bay Solišćica. It was named after the old salt pans that are in the bay. It is divided into two bodies, and to the Bura and Japar....
on south and Bošana on north, and in front islands Planac and Sveta Katarina. Average temperature in January is 7 °C and 24 °C in July. Biograd is the only settlement in the municipality.
History
The town's native Slavic name fully translates as "the white town on the sea". The name Biograd is a compound literally meaning "white city", and etymologically corresponding to several other toponyms spread throughout the Slavdom: BeogradBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Belgorod
Belgorod
-Twin towns/sister cities:Belgorod is twinned with: Wakefield, England, United Kingdom Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Opole, Poland Vyshhorod, Ukraine Kharkiv, Ukraine-External links:...
, Białogard etc. The name was first mentioned in the 10th century as a town founded by the Croats
Kingdom of Croatia (medieval)
The Kingdom of Croatia , also known as the Kingdom of the Croats , was a medieval kingdom covering most of what is today Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Balkans.Established in 925, it ruled as a sovereign state for almost two centuries...
. It was one of the most important cities, being the capital of most Croatian regnants such as Stephen Držislav and Peter Krešimir IV and as well as an important religious place. It was the city where Coloman of Hungary was crowned in 1102, marking Croatia's joining the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. In 1202, when the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
occupied the city of Jadra (Zadar)
Zadar
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
, many of its citizens took refuge in Biograd, then noted as Jadra Nova ("New Zadar"). Two years later, the most of them left back to Zadar, after which the city was also referred to as Zara vecchia ("Old Zadar").
During the 13th and 14th century the city was run by the dukes of Cetina
Cetina
Cetina is a river in southern Croatia. It has a length of and its basin covers an area of . Cetina descends from an altitude of 385 m at its source to the sea level when it flows into the Adriatic Sea. It is the most water-rich river in Dalmatia....
, the Knights Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
of Vrana and the dukes of Bribir the Šubić
Šubic
The Šubić were one of the twelve tribes which constituted Croatian statehood in the Middle Ages; they held the county of Bribir in inland Dalmatia.-Origins:...
es. It was acquired by the Venetian Republic in 1409 and would remain its property until its downfall in 1797.
During the Venetian-Turkish
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
wars, the city was gravely damaged, and on two occasions, in 1521 and in 1646, it was destroyed and burned. In the 16th and 17th century, the Croatian militia formed in Biograd and had much involvement in the wars against the Turks.
In recent history, the Serbian forces inflicted considerable damage by long-range bombardment in the period 1991-1993 during the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
.
Population
The town itself has a population of 5,259, though there are 6,259 people in the municipality (2001 census). The absolute majority are CroatsCroats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
(95%).