Hrvatska [antikvár]

OUR LOVELY CROATIA A message to the reader When you take this book into your hands and begin to go throught it, I am sure that you cannot help feeling, just as I have done, a strong sense of patriotism, of warmth and of pride of our lovely homeland. All nations love their homeland, whatever that homeland is like. But there can be few nations that have been able to crate a state and a cultural life in a part of the world so blessed by natural beauty and climate, so open to movement and variety, as Croatia. Through their history the Croats have been aware of the unique place they occupy. Spiritually and creatively they have known how to use the great cul- tures that existed within their immediate vicinity and permeated their own, yet nevertheless make their own original contribution to European culture and scholarship. The achievements shown in this book are a witness of this. Croatia is a unique example of a small nation which for centuries bled in defence of European cul- ture and of Christianity but which, in spite of all her historical misfortune, managed to preserve her cul- tural identity. Our role in, and contribution to, European culture is recorded in the stone and the written monuments of our medieval history which can stand side by side with those of even the oldest European nations. Small European nations - like the Croats - are predestined to the hard fate of having to defend national existence, cultural identity and their identity as a state. The Croatian nation has stubbornly sur- vived in an area exposed to the conquests of Byzantium and the Franks, the Venetians and the Turks, to German, Italian, Hungarian and most recently Serbian imperialism. It was out of the reality of this his- torical and geopolitical matrix that the Croat nation developed a political philosophy not of conquest and supression, but of survival through adherence to the wider ideals of coexistence, peace, openness, hos- pitality, Christian universalism, ecumenism, socialist internationalism, regional and European integra- tion. These principles have sometimes been more of a disadvantage than an advantage. It is affiliation to western civilization no less than the development of a national culture, pride and love of freedom that have enabled the Croats to survive in past and more recent historical periods. It is these things that have made it possible for them to maintain their own national existence and their own tradition as an independent state. In spite of adverse geopolitical realities which threatened complete erasement more than they did any rich interfusion of three different civilizations. Now, for the first time in recent history, there is an unrepeatable chance for the Croatian state and Croatian culture to achieve a place of equality in the new democratic organization of Europe. True to our own history we are among the first champions of the peaceful integration of the sovereign nations of Europe. True to our own history we are among the first champions of the peaceful integration of the sovreign nations of Europe. In a Europe that is spacially and civilizationally integrated while leaving room for national individuality, Croatia will for the first time have full opportunity to realize her Central European and Mediterranean position. What is more, Croatia, in a European community created as a result of the freely chosen unfication of small and large nations, can come to play an increasingly impor- tant part internationally. Croatia has achieved a place for herself in the new, democratic world by the convincing and peace- ful way in which she is conducting the transformation of one-party, communist, totalitarianism into par- liamentary democracy. Post-communist society - which means also Croatian society - is a dramatic tran- sition moment of European history. The creation of a free and sovereign Croatian state, following the triumphant victory of democracy in the first free elections, is a challenge for us all. I am convinced that the regenerative strength of national self-confidence together with the unquenchable creative spirit of the Croatian nation and a feeling of patriotic responsibility are guarantees for progress, peace and prosperity in this »Our lovely Croatia«.