One of the reasons people enjoy travelling and visiting different countries is precieacly the diffrences they encounter.
Even though we always like and need to compare the things and places we have seen with our previous experiences it enrichers us in every way to see new cultural expressions.
We all have the need for change, we enjoy a different climate, nature and souroundings. Coming to an unknown town or village we are looking for traces of past times, we discover diferent architectual styles from all periods.
Croatia’s arhitectural history is rich and varied due not only to all the infuences it subdued through its long history but also its original and authentic introductions of its own master builders. Travelling through Croatia you will notice the differances between the coastal belt and the continental region.
The coastal part with the many island geographically seperated by a chain of mountains making comunication easier by sea routes thus allowing better ties between coastal towns on both sides of the Adriatic than the coastal towns and the continental towns of mainland Croatia.
If we take into consideration also the fact that continental Croatia was through a long time in the past exposed to all sorts of destruction, starting from the 5/6 centuries during the movement of tribes from the east (Visigoths, Avars, Slavs etc) then the devastating Mongol invasions of the 11/12 cent. , above that the long period of the Ottoman raids and partly rule.
These, lets say geopolitical factors, combined with the climatic and configurational conditions , the availabilaty of quality building materials result in the situation of the coastal and continental divide.
In urban centres of Istria and Dalmatia continuity of life from Antiquity was not broken with many paleochristain sacral buidling been erected throughout the early midevil periode. The prosperity of these coastal towns was mostly due to maritime commerce.
Architectual styles were influenced through commercial ties but also by the fact that many well-off families sent their sons to study in nearby european cultural centres of the time like Padou, Florence, Rome or Paris. We should not neglect the importance of pilgrimages of the 15/16th undertaken to Saint Jacques de Compostelle and other places in the christian world.
Towns and monuments are the treasures of our heritage and national identity. Adriatic coastal towns were mostly urbanised during the middle ages, often on the foundations of Roman towns with an urban coninuity till the present, like todays Porec and Pula in Istria , Zadar, Trogir , Solin and Split in Dalmatia and Dunrovnik, Kotor and Budva in the southern adriatic coast.
