Croatia braces for first heatwave.

The State Meteorological Institute has issued a heatwave warning. 

The first day covered by the warning is Thursday. 

 Moderate danger is expected across the country, except for the wider Gospić region. However, conditions will worsen on Friday, with a severe heatwave warning for most of Croatia. Only the wider Gospić, Knin, and Rijeka regions will have a moderate warning.

 Severe Weather has forecasted high temperatures and the heat dome effect.

 Temperatures are expected to rise to the mid-to-high 30s in many countries and could potentially exceed 40°C for the first time this summer. 

 The most significant temperature anomalies are predicted for central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula, according to Severe Weather. 

 This week, temperatures in central Europe, the Balkans, and eastern Europe are forecasted to range from the mid-30s to over 40°C.

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Croatia brace yourself storm is coming

Boris Bućan has died aged 77.

Boris Bućan, one of Croatia's greatest 20th century artists, best known for his 70s-80s billboard posters for the Croatian National Theater, has died aged 77. His most iconic work, held by MoMA, is the poster for a 1982 production of Stravinsky's Firebird (Petrushka). 🕯️ pic.twitter.com/ZrcTLGr7oh

— Roko Rumora (@rumorahasit) May 25, 2023

Croatia braces for more rain and flooding.

Hrvatska Kostajnica , photo by Igor Sobian

Karlovac, photo by Marko Begovic

Peljesac Bridge to be formally opened this evening

The opening ceremony starts at 8.15pm and will be briefly addressed by Dubrovnik-Neretva County Prefect Nikola Dobroslavic, Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butkovic, European Commission Vice-President Dubravka Suica, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (by video message), Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic and President Zoran Milanovic. The ceremony will end with a fireworks display around 10pm when two Croatian-made cars, a Nevera from Rimac Automobili and one built by Croatian racing driver Niko Pulic, will drive across the bridge. Regular traffic will start at midnight. The bridge is 2,404 metres long, 21 metres wide and 55 metres high. The entire project, including access roads and purchase of land from private owners, cost €525 million, of which the EU provided €357 million. The bridge was designed by Marjan Pipenbaher and built by China Road and Bridge Corporation. This project ends the territorial discontinuity created by a 1699 peace treaty under which the Dubrovnik Republic, or the Republic of Ragusa, ceded the stretch of the coast around Neum to the Ottoman Empire. 

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Croatia’s future coin might be a case of copyright infringement.

The designer of the controversial €1 coin which was one of the winning proposals for the future Croatian-minted euro coins, Stjepan Pranjkovic, decided to withdraw his proposal after days of media furor as the coin in question, depicting a marten - a type of weasel-like animal that Croatia's current currency is named after - bears an uncanny resemblance to an image taken by a Nottingham-based wildlife photographer Ian H. Leach.

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In memoriam Aki Rahimovski (1955. – 2022.)

 

  The whole of former Yugoslavia has been in mourning since Saturday.

 The front singer of the Croatian cult band Parni valjak, Aki Rahimovski, has died unexpectedly at the age of 67.

Protesters greet PM Plenkovic in Petrinja for the anniversary of the 2020 quake

As he was arriving for a memorial service for the victims of the 2020 earthquake in Petrinja on Wednesday, PM Andrej Plenkovic encountered a large group of local residents who expressed their dissatisfaction with the slow reconstruction of the city and the Banija region. 

 The protest was organized by the Petrinja Spring civil society group, and the PM and his associates were met with shouts and catcalls, with protesters displaying banners calling for a faster reconstruction process. “Where is our future?”, “We are still here, waiting”, “You can do better”, “Reconstruction has not begun”, “I love Petrinja”, and “We are not satisfied” were messages on some of the banners. 

 In their statements to the press, citizens expressed resentment at the slow pace of the reconstruction process in the city, heavily damaged by a magnitude 6.2 earthquake a year ago today.

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Croatian police were responsible for the death of Madina Hussiny.

After four years of legal struggle, the European court of human rights (ECHR) has ruled that Croatian police were responsible for the death of a six-year-old Afghan girl when they forced her family to return to Serbia via train tracks without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum.

 The little girl, named Madina Hussiny, was struck and killed by a train after being pushed back with her family by the Croatian authorities in 2017. Judges of the Strasbourg-based ECHR said on Thursday that the Republic of Croatia violated the girl’s right to life, treated children inhumanely by keeping them in detention, illegally deprived the whole family of their liberty, collectively expelled part of the family from Croatia, and ultimately prevented them from accessing their lawyer.

 “This is a big win for justice, after four years of gut-wrenching legal struggle,” said the volunteer-run media and advocacy group Are You Syrious (AYS), which, alongside the Centre for Peace Studies, a NGO promoting non-violence, has supported the Afghan family. 

 “We expect Prime Minister [Andrej] Plenković to urgently dismiss those responsible for the death of a child at our borders due to the actions of institutions that we, the citizens of Croatia, finance,” the Centre for Peace Studies and AYS said at a press conference in front of the Croatian government. 

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Today marks the anniversary of the tragedy on the island of Kornat, in which 12 firefighters lost their lives.

On 30 August 2007, a fire broke out on the island of Kornat, part of the Kornati National Park, and a team of 23 firemen was sent in on an Mi-8 helicopter. 13 firefighters got stranded between two hills with no water and got encircled by a wall of fire.
Six were killed on the scene and six later from burns in hospital. Those who lost their lives in the tragic event 14 years ago were:
Dino Klarić
Gabrijel Skočić
Hrvoje Strikoman
Ivica Crvelin
Ivan Marinović
Marko Stančić
Ante Crvelin
Tomislav Crvelin
Josip Lučić
Karlo Ševerdija
Marinko Knežević
Ante Juričev Mikulin

Frane Lučić was the sole survivor, albeit with multiple injuries. This was the biggest loss of lives in the history of Croatian firefighting.
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Croatia celebrates Victory & Homeland Thanksgiving Day for 26th time

Matija Djanjesic/Cropix

 

All-Croatian Olympic Doubles Final

Croatia increased its collection of medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo today by winning both the gold and silver in the final of the tennis doubles tournament, in which Mate Pavić and Nikola Mektić, and Marin Čilić and Ivan Dodig met on Friday. 

 Only for the third time in Olympic history, but for the first time in more than 100 years, doubles teams from the same country played in the men’s doubles final. So far, tennis players from the same country have played in the men's doubles final only twice - Great Britain in 1908 in London and team USA in 1904 in St. Louis.

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Pelješac Bridge Finally Completed!

Tonci Plazibat/Cropix

  What always seemed to be an unattainable dream (even in recent years) is now a reality: the Pelješac bridge has been completed tonight and Croatia is one again.

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Mate Rimac's company Rimac Automobili has become the majority owner of Bugatti

Mate Rimac's company Rimac Automobili has become the majority owner of Bugatti, and Rimac Automobili becomes Rimac Group divided into two companies - Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Technology. Rimac Automobili says it is at a "turning point in the company's history," and the move, which became public today, is described as "merging with the icon of car brands, Bugatti Automobiles, into a new automotive and technology company." In just 10 years, Rimac Automobili has progressed from a startup and one man in a garage to create a new company Bugatti Rimac d.o.o., in collaboration with two of the most famous and powerful car brands in the world - Porsche and Volkswagen Group, the statement said. This Croatian brand has proven that it can keep up and open new vistas, imposing performance and technology standards on others. Combining Rimac's technical knowledge and efficient business with 110 years of design tradition and a strong Bugatti brand is leading to the emergence of the most important company in the hypercar market, Rimac Automobili announced.

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Croatia's village of holes

Villagers in north-east Croatia feared their homes might be swallowed when almost 100 enormous sinkholes appeared in a month. Now scientists are trying to understand if the land that is left is safe.

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When it's hardest, Croats show their best side.

Zagreb,Darko Tomas/Cropix

 

Split,Jakov Prkic/Cropix

 

Zadar, Luka Gerlanc/Cropix

Two more strong earthquakes struck Croatia on Wednesday morning, the first measuring 4.7 and the second 4.8 on the Richter scale, with the epicentre in the Petrinja area.

 

Village outside Glina Worst Hit by Petrinja Earthquake

Majske Poljane, a village outside Glina, about 70 kilometres south of Zagreb, was worst hit by the 6.2-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday, the deputy mayor of Glina, Branka Baksic Mitic, said.

 "There are hardly 10 percent of houses here that have been left intact. People are still being pulled out from under the rubble. Glinsko Novo Selo was also hit severely, but there are no casualties there.

 The largest number of casualties are here," Baksic Mitic told the Index.hr news website. 

 She said that tents were being set up on a football field in Glina for people who have been left homeless by the earthquake. She appealed for shipping containers to use them for accommodation. "It's winter and these people have nowhere to stay," she said. Baksic Mitic confirmed that four people had been found dead buried underneath the rubble. Glina Primary School said it had opened the doors of its gym to people without shelter.

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Petrinja quake: Six killed, at least six seriously injured

The Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that six people have been killed in a 6.2 earthquake whose epicentre was near Petrinja and that at least six have sustained serious injuries while the search under the rubble is still under way. The head of Croatia's Seismological Survey, Ines Ivancic, said on Tuesday that many weaker aftershocks ensured after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck Petrinja at 12.19 a.m. today.

 

Croatian Christmas table

For Croatians, the big day in the Christmas period is “Badnji Dan” (Christmas Eve Day) and “Badnja Večer” (Christmas Eve night). The term badnjak means “to be awake”, hence referring to staying awake all through the night until Christmas Day. The tradition of bringing a log into the house and placing it on the fire on badnjak, and keeping it burning throughout Christmas Day, has been going on in regions in Croatia for centuries. Another old tradition is the sowing of pšenica (wheat seeds) in a bowl of water (usually on St. Lucy’s day), which will grow until Christmas and is then used to decorate the table on Christmas. Since Christmas Eve is a fasting day, traditionally on Christmas Eve Croatians eat a small meal in the evening. On Christmas Day, Croatians traditionally prepare a roast – either turkey, lamb, pig or duck. Winter dishes like sarma and stews are also eaten over the festive period. And an abundance of traditional Christmas desserts. 

 Here are 15 things you will likely see on the table over the festive period in Croatian households.

 

Soparnik - 100% Authentic Croatian Food

Maja Danica Pecanic 

Soparnik hides in a historic region known as Poljica, a part of the Dalmatian hinterland behind the coastal town Omiš, on the side of the Cetina river closest to Split. Here, the women of villages like Gata so closely preserve the tradition of making it, that the pastry is protected at an EU-level as Poljički soparnik (soparnik from Poljica). One of those women is Mira Kuvačić. Though its ingredients are few and humble - dough, blitva and onion, with garlic and olive oil to finish - the making of an authentic soparnik is far from simple. Now 70 years of age, Mira, and women like her, pass down the know-how to their younger neighbours and relatives, ensuring the dish stays alive and its quality remains intact.

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