Top Croatia Resources

Whether its a holiday, or on business Croatia is increasing in popularity amongst us Brits - and rightly so!

The Croatian people will tell you that there is so much more to see and do in Croatia, than just what you see in the brochures.

Thats why its important to get your travel plans sorted out properly, and in our opinion, flight, holiday and hotel specialists Opodo offer the best service online - but you can find that out for yourself here...

Regardless of different interpretations, the Croat tribes eventually settled in the area between the Drava river and the Adriatic sea, the western Roman provinces Pannonia and Dalmatia; western Balkans in modern usage. The Croat tribes had been organized into two dukedoms; the Pannonian duchy in the north and the Dalmatian duchy in the south.

The record of archdeacon Thomas, as well as the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja from the 12th century, state that the Croats did not arrive the same way that the Byzantine texts say. Instead, these works claim that the Croats were a group of Slavs that remained after the Goths (under a leader referred to as "Totila") had occupied and pillaged the Roman province of Dalmatia. The Chronicle of Dioclea, on the other hand, speaks of a Gothic invasion (under a leader referred to as "Svevlad", followed by his descendants "Selimir" and "Ostroilo") after which the Slavs merely took over.

The area known as Croatia today has been inhabited throughout the prehistoric period, since the Stone Age. In the middle Paleolithic, Neanderthals lived in Krapina. In the early Neolithic period, the Starcevo, Vinca, Sopot and Hvar cultures were scattered around the region. The Iron Age left traces of the Hallstatt culture (proto-Illyrians) and the La Tčne culture (proto-Celts).

Some big trading companies have already taken advantage of the liberalization of the Croatian market. Croatia is expecting a boom in investments, especially greenfield investments.

The Lombards and the Huns made an incursion from the north. After 476 the area was subject to Odoacer and then to Ostrogoth rulers beginning with Theodoric the Great. Justinian claimed the old province of Dalmatia to the Eastern Roman Empire in 535. Forebears of Croatia's current Slav population settled there in the 7th century following the Avars, partly under instructions from Byzantine emperor Heraclius.

Croatia is divided into 20 counties (Croatian: županija) and the city district of the capital, Zagreb

The President of the Republic (Predsjednik) is head of state and elected for a five-year term. In addition to being the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president has the procedural duty of appointing the Prime minister with the consent of the Parliament, and has some influence on foreign policy.