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ABOUT CROATIA
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General
Croatia is a Central European and Mediterranean
country, extends from the furthest eastern edges
of the Alps in the north-west to the Pannonian
lowlands and the banks of the Danube in the east;
its central region is covered by the Dinara
mountain range, and its southern parts extend to
the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
System of government: multi-party parliamentary
republic.
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 These borders total 2,028 km altogether. Croatia
has a strange shape (similar to a croissant) -
similar to no other country in the world - which
comes as a result of five centuries of expansion
by the Ottoman (Turkish) empire towards Central
Europe (although Croatia was never conquered by
the Turks).
Croatia covers a land area of 56,691 square
kilometres and has a population of about 4.4
million people (2001 census).
Over 90% of the population is Croat (the majority
of whom are Roman Catholics).
The main population centres are Zagreb, the
capital (with a population of just under 800,000),
Osijek in the northwest, and the ports of Rijeka,
and Split in the south. The official language is
Croatian, which is written in the Latin script.
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Croatia has an amazing 5,835km of coastline,
4,057km of which belongs to islands, cliffs and
reefs. There are 1,185 islands in the Adriatic,
but only about 50 are populated. The largest
island are Krk and Cres (near Rijeka) which has a
land area of 462 square km.
The climate is Mediterranean along the Adriatic
coast, meaning warm dry summers and mild winters,
with 2,600 hours of sunlight on average yearly -
it is one of the sunniest coastlines in Europe! In
the interior of the country, the climate is
continental with hot summers and cold, snowy
winters.
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