UNESCO World Heritage for Croatia

UNESCO World Heritage Sites represent some of the best natural, cultural and historic attractions in world travel. Below are details of the 8 cultural, natural and mixed sites inscribed for Croatia to date (a red World Heritage symbol denotes a site currently regarded as endangered). For more details of these properties, click on the links to the UNESCO website and the photographic galleries of these sites from OurPlace (where available). Also, check out UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage for Croatia below.


1979 - Plitvice Lakes National Park Natural site
1979 - Old City of Dubrovnik Cultural site
1979 - Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian Cultural site
1997 - Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in the Historic Centre of Porec Cultural site
1997 - Historic City of Trogir Cultural site
2000 - The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik Cultural site
2008 - Stari Grad Plain Cultural site
2016 - Stecci Medieval Tombstones Graveyards Cultural site


Old City of Dubrovnik


Intangible Cultural Heritage

Recently UNESCO has begun to document the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage which includes "traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts". The current listings for Croatia are shown below - click on the links for more details.


Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

2009 - Spring procession of Ljelje/Kraljice (queens) from Gorjani
2009 - Two-part singing and playing in the Istrian scale
2009 - Festivity of Saint Blaise, the patron of Dubrovnik
2009 - Procession Za Krizen (‘following the cross’) on the island of Hvar
2009 - Traditional manufacturing of children’s wooden toys in Hrvatsko Zagorje
2009 - Annual carnival bell ringers’ pageant from the Kastav area
2009 - Lacemaking in Croatia
2010 - Sinjska Alka, a knights’ tournament in Sinj
2010 - Gingerbread craft from Northern Croatia
2011 - Nijemo Kolo, silent circle dance of the Dalmatian hinterland
2011 - Becarac singing and playing from Eastern Croatia
2012 - Klapa multipart singing of Dalmatia, southern Croatia

List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding

2010 - Ojkanje singing