ABSTRACT

As a cultural crossroads, the country of Croatia is marked by four distinct geographic and cultural entities: the Alps, the Adriatic, the Pannonian lowlands and the Balkans. Having existed as a cultural crossroads for centuries Croatia has been uniting and assimilating apparently widely diverse cultural phenomena and, at the same time, radiating creative individuality. The cultural and historical diversity and wealth of the cultural heritage in Croatia is of exceptional importance in spite of the devastation suffered in the recent war, especially because of the continuity of the numerous cultures in this region and their links with other Central European and Mediterranean cultural circles.