Dalmacija

It is the area of the eastern Adriatic Coast, today a narrow strip belonging to Croatia. By the very end of the 20th century the area was populated with Serbs – the Frontiersmen.

GEOGRAPHY

The Serbs in Dalmatia populated the following regions: Ravni Kotari, Bukovica, Kninska krajina, Drniška krajina, Vrlička krajina, Cetinska krajina, Zagora, Imotska krajina and the Neretva area.

HISTORY

Dalmatia was the name of an old Roman province, covering a great section of the Balkan Peninsula. The Venitian Republic, with its seat in the Iralian city of Venice, started showing interest for Dalamtia since the 11th century. The Venitians were a dominant power in the region until the late 18th century. In the 16th century, the Ottoman invasions of the region shrank the Venitian Dalmatia onlt to the the coastal cities.

The Serbs populated Dalmatia ever since they came to the Balkans – the testimony of which could be seen in the 14th century Serbian monasteries: Krka, Krupa and Dragović. In the 16thcentury the Turks conducted a systematic settling of the Serbs along the border area in the region. Some Serbs fled over the border, serving as the frontier army of the Habsburg Empire.

In the late 18th century, Dalmatia and Boka Kotorska fall under Austria and for a short while under the French administration. Most of the Serbs lived in the northern part of Dalmatia and some lived around Imotski and in the Neretva river valley.

In 1995 the Croatian army drove out the Serbs from these regions.

OUTSTANDING FIGURES

Bishop Stefan Knežević, Bishop Nikodim Milaš, …