Croatia [antikvár]

Croatia:A relief depicting King Zvonimir, 11th Century, the Split Baptistry: The King, who is sitting on his throne accompanied by a dignitary and, a subject, is rendered in a typically flat and linear pre-Romanesque style.As you put on your tie before a business meeting or a theatre performance, as you write with your ball point pen, do you ever think of Croatia?Our guess is that you don't. Why should you? But let us press the point. Your tie is, after all, a direct descendant of the very same cravat that Croatian soldiers, as the French encyclopedia tells us, used to tie around their necks in the 17th century. And the ball-pen you write with, was invented by S. Penkala, a Croatian engineer who constructed the first ball point pen and the first fountain pen in 1906.Indeed, have you ever been to Croatia?If your answer is yes, then surely you remember the unforgettable summers or autumns, the untouched natural beauty, or the towns, or the vacations when you could have a beach to yourself, and then, if the fancy struck you, you could suddenly find yourself in the bustle of the city centre, or on the hotel terrace, enjoying the rhythm of your favorite tunes.For you, these pages are a reminder of the past, but also an invitation to experience this multicoloured land in a new way and to add different hues, tastes and smells to your memories of an unforgettable escape from everyday life.If your answer is no, think again. Croatia is a recently added name on the list of European states, yet it is a well-known destination. If you have ever been to Dubrovnik, Split, Opatija, Porec, Trogir, Hvar, the Plitvice lakes or Zagreb, you have known these Croatian wonders by another (Yugoslav) name. And you know a lot about the country, no matter what you have called it, but by no means do you know all that there is to know.Croatia awaits you with an invitation to spend your precious leisure time in a new, dynamic and entirely different way.Surely, nowadays, when so many countries vie for tourists, such an invitation must be well-founded. And indeed, ours is. Only those who have never visited this Central European country may sometimes feel that we are exaggerating. They must be told that images of Croatia painted in words or photographs alike are not the product of imagination or embellishment, despite the unearthly beauty they often reveal.After all, hasn't the beauty of Croatia been captured in countless books, paintings and photographs? 'The gods wanted to crown their creation and on the last day they turned tears, stars and the sea breeze into the isles of Kornati." Thus spoke George Bernard Shaw, referring to the largest archipelago in the Mediterranean with its 140 islands, islets and reefs. Few people realise that Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" takes place here, or that Carlo Goldoni, Jack London, Eugene Ionesco, to name but a few, were enchanted by the beauty of the Croatian landscape.Immortalised in words or in paintings, the Croatian towns are discreet witnesses to so many lives. Trsteno, a small place near Dubrovnik, never found its place in the works of Lord Byron. Nevertheless, it apparently had a special place in the heart of one of the fathers of European romanticism. The reason, so the legend has it, is a beautiful blonde from the North. The famous master of plots and intrigues Agatha Christie also had a good reason to find a special place in her heart for Dubrovnik and Split: she spent her second honeymoon there.