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Front: Rudjer Boskovic (1711-1787), mathematician, astronomer and philosopher

Boskovic was born in Dubrovnik. He studied at the famous Jesuit Collegium Romanum in Rome. After completing his theological training he became a priest. Boskovic visited all the important European countries and became a French citizen. He wrote and published scientific and philosophical works in Latin, Italian and French.

Back: Zagreb cathedral

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Front: Frank Krsto Frankopan (1625-1671) and Petar Zrinski (1621-1671), Croatian patriots

Frankopan and Zrinski came from Croatian noble families. They were related by marriage. Zrinski married Frankopan's sister Katarina.

Croatia, located on the border of the gradually expending Ottoman Empire, was at that time ruled by Austria. Although the Austrian army was victorious against the Turks in 1664, Emperor Leopold failed to capitalize on the success. Instead he signed the Peace of Vasvár, which prevented Hungary and Croatia from regaining territory lost to the Ottoman Empire. This caused unrest among the Hungarian and Croatian nobility. Frankopan, Zrinski and other noblemen plotted against the emperor. They were caught and beheaded on April 30, 1671 in Wiener Neustadt.

Back: Fortress in Varazdin

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Front: Ivan Gundulic (1589-1638), Croatian Baroque poet

Gundulic was born in Dubrovnik, Republic of Venice (now Croatia). He served in various government positions as a captain of the night, supervisor of the armament magazine, member of the Senate, and judge.

In his youth Gundulic wrote 10 plays, which were performed with musical accompaniment. His later works tended to be in the more solemn Baroque Catholic and spiritual style. His most famous work is the epic Osman, based on the defeat of Ottoman Sultan Osman II by the Poles at Chocim (now Ukraine) in Bessarabia in 1621.

Back: Aerial view of old Dubrovnik

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Front: Josip Jelacic (1801-1859), ban of Croatia 1848-1859

Jelacic was born in Hungary of a Croatian father and a Serbian mother. He was educated in the Vienna Theresianum. He entered the Austrian army in 1819 as a novice with the rank of a lieutenant. In 1841 he was promoted to a colonel and made the commander of the Glina captaincy in the Croatian-Slavonian Military Frontier. He was appointed a ban in 1848.

As the ban that united the majority of Croatian territories after many centuries, Jelacic became a symbol of the defense of the Croatian statehood and national interests. He is remembered in history as the ban who abolished serfdom in Croatia in 1848, and he was a supporter of the Illyrian Reformation and the founder of the Croatian Cultural Society.

Back: Castle of Count Eltz in Vukovar

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Front: Juraj Dobrila (1812-1882), bishop of the Porec-Pula region 1857-1875, and bishop of the Trieste-Koper region 1875-1882

Dobrila was born in Istria (now Croatia). He became a priest in 1837. He was a vocal supporter of the Slavic peoples of Istria who were at the time a minority outnumbered by the Italians. During the Revolutions of 1848, Dobrila became a member of the Slavjansko drustvo ("Slavic society") in Trieste. He supported the introduction of the Slavic languages into schools and public life, funded children who wanted to attend schools in the Croatian part of the monarchy and encouraged the peasants in Istria, mostly composed of Slavic people, to read books in their native language and avoid being abused by their mostly Italian lords.

Back: Pula arena

Croatia, bounded by Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and the Adriatic Sea, was part of Yugoslavia. It declared independence in 1991. Shortly afterward, local Serbian forces proclaimed the area around Knin independent Serbian Krajina. Croatian forces overran the Serbian controlled area in 1995.

In the 1993 currency reform, Dinar was replaced by Kuna which is currently pegged to Euro.

For a more detailed country profile, see CIA World Factbook on Croatia.