September 1, 2020 – Wedding numbers in Dubrovnik-Neretva County have been limited to 50 maximum after a Coronavirus outbreak was traced back to someone's big day. But, who can possibly stop the juggernaut of joy that are Croatian summer weddings?

Epidemiological guidelines can only be followed so far. You can put some extra space between the tables, insist people wear a mask, and aim for the highest standards of hygiene. For all the measures insisted upon by the Croatian state and the sincere efforts of some business owners and their staff, a necessary part of the burden falls on personal responsibility.

People tut and shake their heads in disbelief at the photos and videos of irresponsible Italian youths in the nightclubs of Pag. Others assign blame for Croatia's international safety downgrading on specific regions of Dalmatia and the kind of tourists who visit there. But, there is one homegrown phenomenon which Coronavirus cannot hold back - nor epidemiological measures - and to which no outside blame can be assigned - Croatian summer weddings.


© Pexels

From spring until autumn, the sound of car horns fills Croatian streets each and every weekend. Youths dangle precariously from car windows, the national flag flutters in the air and the strong scent of rakija arrives especially early, even before midday. An occasion of unrestricted joy, of tradition and, usually, extravagant expense, Croatian summer weddings are long in the planning and the fuel for a thousand remembrances. They are automatically dissected after their occurrence, each minute detail compared against the other weddings you have attended.

“They had sarma. In the summertime! And with nothing, only bread. No potato. No rice. Also, there was no fish,” one Dalmatian wedding guest recalled in 2019, after accompanying her husband to a Croatian summer wedding in an agricultural part of the continental region.

“But, surely there was rice in the sarma?”

“Well, yes. But also, the flowers we wore were not as nice as those at my sister's wedding. Her's cost 200 kuna per person!”


Sarma, served in summertime. With no potato! Some details of Croatian summer weddings will never be forgotten © Gurman chef

Everything has to be done correctly. Everyone has to be invited. The seating of guests is given more consideration than the planning of a national counter-attack.

A young couple from Osijek, now residents of Sweden, didn't so much want a traditional affair for their wedding of this year. Both are of an alternative nature. They would have sat miserably through hours of tamburica music. Instead, they wanted similar friends to DJ some music they enjoyed at a more informal gathering, without the compulsion of inviting all the cousins who they only ever see at extended family weddings. A fair request, right? After all, it was their big day, right? Wrong.

Everyone agreed. Except for the bridegroom's sister. She hit the roof “You cannot possibly have a wedding without the tamburica band and all the cousins! We went to ALL their weddings, and gave them gifts! They owe us!”

After ceaseless petitioning to their parents, her demands were eventually met. The parents gave in and refused to pay for the wedding unless it was done correctly. The couple married alone in Sweden, before one witness, who they didn't even know. In Croatia, your big day does not belong just to you. It belongs to everyone in your family.

Nothing can stop this juggernaut of joy. Not poverty nor personal wishes. And certainly not Coronavirus or epidemiological guidelines.

Civil Protection Headquarters in Dubrovnik-Neretva County recently banned 'large' weddings. The maximum number of guests for each wedding is now set at 50. This is in response to an outbreak of Coronavirus in Metković, which stemmed from a wedding held there on 15 August. 38 active cases of Coronavirus were subsequently recorded. And few who've attended a Croatian wedding would be surprised.

Who will try to tell the boys not to drink too much at a wedding, then not to hug or dance with their cousins? Who will tell the godfather of the bride that he must remain distant from his guests, and alone wipe the tears of happiness from his face? This is a day he waited for all of his life.

No wonder, as Slobodna Dalmacija reports in their coverage of the situation in Neretva, that in response to the new limits, Croatian summer weddings are simply now moving across the border into nearby Herzegovina. There, wedding numbers remain unrestricted. No masks will be required to ruin the close group family photos. There probably won't even be anyone stopped on the way back through the border for carrying leftovers. Nor potentially carrying coronavirus.

There is no easy fix to this situation, no simple solution to appease both authorities and celebrating families. We can only hope that the case in Metković is an isolated one and the porous nature of the border with Herzegovina remains the advantage it always has been for Croatians living in the region. For whosoever tries to impede the festivities of Croatian summer weddings is surely fighting a losing cause.

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September 1, 2020 - The Croatian Football Federation has released the new Croatia uniforms to be worn at the upcoming Nations League matches and the Euros next summer.

"Croatian football is a term for pride, passion, skill and those irresistible checkers, all of which can be seen in the new, dynamic Nike collection that the Croatia national team will wear in the upcoming cycle, which includes the European Championship next summer," announced HNS on Tuesday.

In the new collection, the traditional home jersey features the large and striking world-famous Croatian checkers. The traditional red and white jersey again has checkers on the sleeve of the jersey. The logos of HNS and technical partner Nike adorn the front of the jersey, with the number located in the center, while a blue line runs down along the torso side.

The words "Croatia" and "Vatreni" are printed inside the jersey as a symbol of pride, and white shorts and red socks complete look. The same words can be found on the new pre-match warm-up shirt with a modern design with two shades of blue and an unusual square pattern.

"Croatia is always a great inspiration to Nike because of the strength of its identity," said Scott Munson, vice president of Nike's football department. "The new home jersey is faithful to Croatian football heritage, while the reserve jersey is another great interpretation of Croatian design for players and fans."

HNS

The 2018 World Cup finalists get a fresh look on the reserve jersey, which has abstract black and gray checkers extending throughout the jersey and also appear on the socks. The Federation's coat of arms, the red line, and other red details give this jersey a special look.

"I like the new jerseys, I think they will suit us very well," said captain Luka Modric. "The first jersey is a classic design with a modern touch - and those striking checkers I remember from the time I watched the national team as a boy. The reserve jersey is new, different, and exciting, something we haven't had before."

The new jerseys are available on nike.com from September 1, and the entire collection is available from September 4 in all Nike stores and its partners.

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September 1, 2020 - As Croatia's Prime Minister announces plans for a Croatian digital nomad visa, Estonian digital prescriptions are now accepted in Croatia. 

Is Croatian Bureaucracy 2.0 starting to put up roots?

Last week, we did a story on the efficiency of the Croatian border police EnterCroatia form, which has been an unqualified success in reducing border waiting times. Almost 2 million vehicles, carrying 4.6 million passengers had their border formalities reduced to just 30 seconds each in special fast-tracked lanes in some cases, eliminating an impressive 21.7 years of unnecessary waiting time in the process. 

The big current buzz, of course, revolves around Prime Minister Plenkovic's announcement that his government will introduce a digital nomad visa for Croatia, making it only the fifth country in the world to do so, thereby opening Croatia to remote workers from all over the world. 

But it seems that the path to digitalisation is happening elsewhere too. 

Estonia is the undisputed champion of digitalisation, a shining example to emulate, and I am encouraged that Croatia is looking to the Estonians for the nomad visa framework. Hopefully, they will be back to explore other ways in which Estonia is operating its efficient digital bureaucracy. 

This story caught my eye this morning, simply because I would not have expected Croatia to be only the second country to adopt such a measure. According to the Estonian ERR news service, Croatia has become only the second country in the world to accept Estonian digital prescriptions, with Finland being the first. 

"This is happening because Croatia has today put its national digital solutions in place, to ensure that the service also works across borders," Tõnis Jaagus, head of TEHIK's health service, said.

"Currently, citizens of Finland, Portugal and Croatia can buy their prescription drugs from Estonia; and Estonians will next gain the opportunity to buy digital prescription drugs in Portugal," Jaagus said.

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September 1, 2020 - If you are from Zadar, chances are you've heard a thing or two about the Zadar sphinx. But if you aren't from the area? It's possible you don't have a clue. 

Slobodna Dalmacija writes that although the people of Zadar claim to have the largest sphinx in Europe, hardly anyone outside their city knows about it.

The situation should soon change for the better, according to the Department for EU Funds of the City of Zadar, which raised 220,000 euro to restore the sphinx and promote this location in the city area of ​​Brodarica. The funds were provided through the EU project Recolor. Several cities from Croatia and Italy are participating, and it intends to stimulate tourists' interest in locations outside the city center.

The negligence of those in charge of the sphinx has been written about for years in the local media.

The space and the sphinx were, to some extent, cared for only by the actions of volunteers. Though neglected, the sphinx is fascinating. It is located behind a dilapidated fence in a once beautiful park. The classicist villa, Attilia (where the Health Center is today), belonged to the Smirich family (Žmirić). Along the lungomare, after a series of historicist, classicist, and secessionist villas, which have been renovated in Brodarica in recent years in the name of tourism, a large sphinx appears that looks dignified, despite its declined state.

The sphinx's story begins after the villa Attilia was built in 1901, though little is known about who made such a large concrete sphinx, its significance, or when it was made. There is no preserved park design or original drawings of the sphinx. Today, it is a common story that it was built by Giovanni Smirich in 1918, as a sign of love for his late wife, Countess Attilia Spineda de Cataneis. He was a very important Zadar conservator responsible for the restoration of St. Donata, Sv. Stosije, Sv. Krsevana, Stomorice, Sv. Lovre, and was also the director of the first archeological museum in Sv. Donat, but he was not as important as the painter.

Gold was once thought to be buried beneath the sphinx; they tore off her hind paw, part of the thigh, and stripped the concrete from the north side of the trunk to dig it out. They even believed that there was a secret room under it.

Based on the sphinx's face, it was rumored that Smirich's wife was so ugly that he wouldn't let her out. Today, this was rejected because the countess was not ugly, nor did she look like a sphinx, as can be seen from the family photos by the descendant of the Smirich lineage, Mario Padelin. On the other hand, some believe that Smirich raised the sphinx out of interest in the occult he nurtured with his wife.

The city's tourist community seems to like the love version the most, judging by the promotional video.

Slobodna Dalmacija asked Dr. Antonija Mlikota from the Zadar Department of Art History, about the sphinx of Giovanni Smirich. She believes that Smirich, as the first Zadar conservator, should be indebted to the city by naming a street or park next to the sphinx after him.

"Smirich was a key person for the development of the protection of monuments and museology in Zadar. The more I research him, the more I am thrilled because I see how much he worked and had a wide range of activities and great knowledge of monuments and the past of Zadar. He was born in Zadar in 1842 and was buried there, in the city cemetery, in 1929. Although of Croatian roots, he was a great Italian, and he was proud of that.

He studied in Siena, Florence, and Venice, where he also met his wife, Countess Attilia of Treviso. They had four daughters and one son."

She said it was “amazing that Smirich and his gardener made the sphinx in such well-hit proportions.”

"I think he took advantage of the possibilities of concrete and wanted to show what can be done with it. He and his gardener built it; it was his only help in building the sphinx. We know this because the great-grandson of Smirich's gardener Sime Baric, Antonio Bari (Antonijo Baric), wrote a book about Smirich, the villa, the park, and his great-grandfather's life in Zadar. It is fascinating to me how, without computers, precise meters, and redrawing, they managed to make a sphinx modeled on what they saw in museums or Split. It is very proportional, like a sculpture.

In addition, we found that one of his sons-in-law, Vladimir Bersa, made two replicas of the Split sphinx in wood, which Smirich kept at home, and which was shown to us by his great-grandson Mario Padelin. Perhaps the Split sphinx was a direct example of the Zadar sphinx, because the sphinx on the Peristyle is atypical in that it has human limbs between which it holds a vessel, while Smirich held a sword over a shell-shaped well," Mlikota thinks.

The Egyptian sphinx on the Peristyle, 3500 years old, belongs to the type of sphinx representing a pharaoh who offers sacrifice in a vessel. It is believed that she was placed on the Peristyle to be the guardian of Diocletian's Mausoleum. Although the inspiration may have been taken from Peristyle's sphinx, we must note here that the sphinx's meaning in Zadar's Brodarica is different. There are no insignia of pharaohs on the head of the Zadar sphinx, no upright cobra or beard.

It is not known from the photographs whether there was a relief of Horus on his chest, representing the Egyptian god of the sky and war, or an eagle, as some claim, which would be a symbol of the Roman Empire (after World War II the relief was destroyed).

Beyond Egyptian mythology, in outstretched fists, the sphinx held a short sword of the ancient Romans gladius (later destroyed). It stood above a shell into which water flowed from a spring and flowed into fish ponds.

The sphinx can thus be understood not only as a guardian of the afterlife, but also as an earthly one (spring, fish), that is, as a protector of the household. But, for sure, with its large dimensions, which were not found in Dalmatian parks, the sphinx was conceived as an attraction that will capture passers-by's attention.

The Roman sword gripping the sphinx shows Smirich's preference for the Italian option. The Italians at the time were interested in Diocletian awakening territorial claims to Dalmatia because they claimed that the Italians were the heirs of the ancient Romans.

Giovanni's father, Antonio Smirich, was a member of the Autonomous Party in the first convocation of the Dalmatian Parliament. In 1860, he requested that land registers in Dalmatia be kept in Italian, which provoked a reaction from Mihovil Pavlinovic. Giovanni's brother Eligio Smirich was appointed governor of the Kingdom of Italy for Zadar in December 1918. With his appointment, repression of Croats and Serbs began in the city even before the Treaty of Rapallo. Giovanni's son Antonio was a volunteer in D'Annunzi's brigade when he set out to conquer Rijeka, and in 1926 he was appointed a member of the Italian delegation that shared the Zadar archives with representatives of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

Sphinxes used to appear as a park sculpture (two examples from Osijek from 1896 are good examples), but with women's hairstyles, lush breasts and much smaller dimensions. However, that the sphinx could be used ideologically was shown in 1911 by Ivan Mestrovic at an international exhibition in Rome, where he won the first prize and was proclaimed the new Michelangelo. On that occasion, he exhibited the "Vidovdan cycle", which promoted the unification of the southern Slavs, and the sphinx, forgotten in our country because it is in Serbia and was one of the main attractions.

However, there is no reliable evidence that the Zadar Sphinx was erected in 1918, or who the author is. Marija Staglicic, who thoroughly elaborated the architecture from classicism to the secession in Zadar, believes that the park and the house as projects were created simultaneously.

"There have been houses in the Brodarica area since the 1880s, but between 1900 and 1907, many Art Nouveau and historicist villas were built abruptly. Smirich's house from 1901 was built quite early in relation to the others that grew sharply in that rather short period and is the first of a series of villas that were by the sea. I guess the park was created along with it. The goal was for these to be country houses that would have Mediterranean gardens. I didn't find any information about it, no draft, I just have a draft of the villa itself.

I assume that it was created by Smirich himself, who was a man of the 19th century, although he partly lived in the 20th. The house is neoclassical, and the park is neo-romantic. Both are neo-styles and therefore fit into that time," says Staglicic, who believes that Smirich designed parts of the park architecture, including the sphinx.

The Sphinx was probably conceived before Smirich’s wife died in September 2017, perhaps even before the war. Namely, he likely designed the park architecture together with the park, as it was usually done.

This is indicated by the arrangement of other elements in the park. An artificial cave, a fountain, a stone bench, and a semicircular bench, are placed on the left side or towards the middle. Had it not been for the sphinx, the southeastern quadrant of the park would have remained empty. It is hard to imagine that Smirich, who paid close attention to symmetry, as can be seen from his project for the fence between the bell tower and the Cathedral of St. Stosije, or the paintings "Annunciation" and "Spartan Court", allowed such a discrepancy in space.

There is no content behind the great sphinx, because it "theatricalizes the space and life around it", as Abdulah Seferovic concludes in the monograph on Brodarica. All this suggests that the sphinx was planned before the death of Countess Attilia.

If the sphinx was built only in 1918, as some claim today, although there is no official trace of it, it may be because there was a problem finding a contractor. Smirich, a painter, most likely did the design, but he had no sculptural experience, especially not working in such dimensions. The sphinx is almost three meters high and about five meters long. Moreover, in 1918 Giovanni Smirich was 76 years old.

It is unlikely that Mestrovic at that age also had the strength for a work of such dimensions.

Our famous sculptor, academic and professor at the Split Academy of Arts, Kazimir Hraste, believes that someone could not have created the sphinx without sculpture experience.

"The work is on a solid aesthetic level, which is noticeable from the harmonious proportions, and implies that the author was artistically educated. There was certainly a sketch-model in three-dimensional form for making such a large (in terms of dimensions) work, because that is the basic and easiest way to realize a large sculpture. Namely, the technique of transferring from a small three-dimensional form to a large one is well known.

It is an interesting fact that concrete was used for the realization, today a common sculptural material, but at that time a relatively new and primarily construction material. By choosing this material, the author reveals his character, which was obviously prone to new and experimentation," says Hraste.

"The realization itself required from the author the synergy of builders, masons, stonemasons ... old craftsmen in the service of the new 'building'. Everything is guided by the hand of the author who saw the goal. Today, with the help of modern technologies, we can reconstruct and discover the way we work. However, many details will remain a secret to us. I believe that the author himself made the final layer of concrete. It is a skill of directly applying concrete to the substrate, similar to working in the stucco technique. Considering the size of the work, many surprising factors were encountered on the way to realization, which was obviously solved with a large amount of creativity, because there was no model for such a monument," says Hraste.

Who then could have been the sculptor? The only sculptor educated in Zadar at the time was Bruno Bersa, his brother Vladimir Bersa married Smirich's daughter, and both were brothers of the famous composer Blagoje Bersa. Bruno Bersa portrayed the dignitaries of that time, so he created Smirich's bust. Bruno Bersa was educated in Vienna and Paris and could have taken on such a feat.

Another possibility is that the sphinx was made by masters and artists outside Zadar, from Austro-Hungary or Italy. Hraste says the Italians retrieved the concrete early.

Wartime and post-war times are times of poverty in which sculptors find it difficult to obtain commissions. Perhaps artists from larger centers came to the smaller centers and worked on garden sculptures for eccentric rich people, because they ran out of orders from the state and cities. And perhaps, they did not want these works to be known.

The City of Zadar said that the conservation study should be completed by the end of September, after which the state, which owns the land, will send the entire project. After approval, it is intended to renovate the sphinx and the concrete fence, which is in a rather poor condition, and to install benches and lighting.

The sphinx will certainly be cleaner, more beautiful, better lit and attract tourists more. Admittedly, even a damaged sphinx with a patina is not incompatible with the idea of ​​a romantic park. How the restored sphinx will be accepted, remains to be seen.

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September 1, 2020 - There are several Croatian bubbles of positivity which are starting to connect, and the entrepreneurial eco-system is getting stronger. 

Last year I wrote an article called The 3 Stages of Learning for Foreigners in Croatia: Love, Hate & Nirvana. It took me about 15 years to get to the final stage, but it was well worth the journey. 

To save the rest of you lots of time, the essential things you need to figure out is to accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can, and have the wisdom to know the difference. Then make your peace with the Mighty State of Uhljebistan in the same way that a Norwegian alcoholic pays his alcohol tax to be able to drink and enjoy the wonderful life in Norway. Simply pay the uhljeb tax here, the price of living in Croatia, arguably the lifestyle capital of Europe. 

And surround yourself with positive people. In a society which is default negative, it is easy to assume that there are no positive stories in Croatia, as they are rarely told. But the number of positive people doing incredible things here is astounding. 

Reaction to the article - and similar ones I wrote - was significant, but not a reaction which I had anticipated. It emerged that there were many positive people here in Croatia who were living in their own bubbles all over Croatia. They loved Croatia and the lifestyle but despised the system, so they kept a low profile, quietly went around their business, and enjoyed their own little Croatian bubble, which consisted of their friends, family, nature and their home. 

As I wrote more articles of the same ilk, more of these bubbles started to connect to TCN, and I was amazed at the success stories that exist here right under our noses that few know about and even less celebrate. Simply by telling and celebrating these stories will have an impact on the default negative mindset. What is particularly exciting is that these bubbles are starting to connect now, to become aware of each other. Initiatives such as Glas Poduzetnika (The Voice of Entrepreneurs) is one such example, but there are many others. And the more they connect, the more positive stories come to light, the more the feeling that perhaps things could change in Croatia.

The whole issue of digital nomad tourism and the new digital nomad visa is a case in point. It was an industry that was new to me 18 months ago, and when TCN first started writing about it last year, the response domestically was lukewarm. 

That lukewarm reaction has heated up considerably in the last couple of weeks. Back in January, I had a meeting with a Croatian partner about a digital nomad project, to be met by a blank face. That same partner called last week to urgently schedule a meeting to put into action the science fiction I had proposed just 8 months ago. These days, the inbox is filling with enquiries on how to join the digital nomad opportunity. SO MANY people with really interesting perspectives and their own Croatian bubbles of positivity have also got in touch, and it really feels that this is building up a head of steam for real change. 

The big breakthrough, of course, was the spectacular progress of the planned introduction of the digital nomad visa, thanks to Dutch entrepreneur Jan de Jong, who seems to have a knack of making Croatian bureaucracy look easy. Just 45 days after an open letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, and following meetings with the PM and Interior Ministry, a digital nomad visa was brought to Parliament with the full support of the cabinet as an amendment to the Foreigners Act. 

Jan's success is stunning in the Croatian context, but the fun is just starting for him, I suspect. We caught up for a beer after his meeting with PM Plenkovic last week, and he told me of all the people contacting him wanting to contribute, to share ideas, to get some free promotion. Among them, more Croatian bubbles of positivity which now see an opportunity for change and want to connect. 

Jan's latest LinkedIn post shows another high-profile ally on board with the digital nomad initiative, Kostas Nebis, President and CEO of Hrvatski Telekom, as Jan explains:

A few hours after my meeting with our Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, I had the pleasure of meeting Kostas Nebis - President & CEO of Hrvatski Telekom together with his team.

By Croatia becoming among the first countries in the world to welcome digital nomads, amazing new business opportunities will open up for Croatia's entrepreneurs.

Thank you Kostas Nebis for your kind invitation and constructive meeting where you have shown that Hrvatski Telekom is ready to do its part and contribute to our joint mission of turning Croatia into the European hot spot for hosting digital nomads.

Svijet boljih mogućnosti 

#LivingTheCroatianDream #entrepreneurship #Croatia #digitalnomads 

There is a growing swell of support from the entrepreneurs of Croatia - both local and foreign - for positive change. The eco-system out of the spotlight is getting stronger by the day, and slowly - at least I think so - a few more people are starting to believe that change is coming at last to Croatia. Of course there is a long way to go to overturn that default negative mindset, but these are truly exciting times. 

Have you connected your bubble of positivity yet? 

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September 1, 2020 - Croatian representatives Borna Coric and Petra Martic have moved into the second round of the US Open!

Croatian tennis player Borna Coric advanced to the 2nd round of this year's US Open, overcoming Spaniard Pablo Andujar 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 at the start of the tournament. 

Coric, the 27th seed, took two hours and 23 minutes to win against the world's 53rd best tennis player.

The young Croatian tennis player had problems only in the first set, while he won convincingly in the second and third sets.

Andujar entered the match better. He won the first game, and then had the chance to break in the next two games on Borna's serve. However, he did not take advantage of any of the three opportunities. Coric received his first opportunity in the fifth game and immediately took the serve away from his opponent. But already in the next game, the 34-year-old Spaniard equalized at 3-3. The Spaniard also had the 5-4 lead, but Coric managed to equalize at 5-5, only to take the 6-5 lead in the next game, then calmly served for 7-5 and a 1-0 lead in sets.

Coric played the rest of the match almost without a mistake. In the second set, at 1-1, he took the serve from Andujar for the first time, and at 5-3, for the second time.

Borna opened the third set by winning three games in a row, and there was no turning back. The Spaniard reduced his lead to 3-1, only for Borna to win three more games in a row for the final 6-1.

Coric has never played against the 34-year-old Andujar, and in the 2nd round, he will play Argentine Juan Ignacio Londero, who beat Russian Evgeni Donskoy 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 at the start of the tournament. They have played once, this year in Rio de Janeiro, and Coric celebrated 7-6, 7-5.

Female Croatian representative Petra Martic needed two and a half hours and three sets to win against Czech player Tereza Martincova (136th on the WTA list) at the opening of this year's US Open - 5: 7, 6: 2, 6: 4.

The beginning of the match was not the best for Petra - the Czech took the first set after the break in the 12th game, though the situation improved for Petra after winning the second set. Still, Martincova took the lead in the deciding set with 3-1, and it seemed that the 8th seed was close to saying goodbye to the tournament this year. However, Martic came back and scored five aces during the match with a modest first-serve percentage of 49 percent and used only five of the 21 breakpoints. In the 2nd round, Martic plays against Ukrainian Katerina Bondarenko, 349th on the WTA list.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, which particularly affected New York, the Grand Slam is being held in special conditions.

The tennis players are housed inside a "bubble," most in two hotels, and those who can afford it have rented houses where they will be monitored 24 hours a day. No one is allowed to leave the bubble, so that the coronavirus does not enter inside. 

Source: HRT

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September 1, 2020 - The latest news for flights to Croatia with updates for Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik as Croatia Airlines cancels numerous flights in September. 

Croatian Aviation reports that Croatia Airlines has announced its flight schedule for September this year. The company will continue to fly to the same number of destinations as in August, but there are cancellations of certain departures on almost all routes.

Airline companies are currently revising their flight schedule 2 to 3 weeks in advance, so we have taken the period from September 1 to 21 into review. 

Lines from Zagreb

Zagreb - Amsterdam: flight canceled on September 16,

Zagreb - Dubrovnik - Athens: flights canceled on September 6, 8, 13 and 17,

Zagreb - Brussels: flights canceled on September 3, 10, 15 and 17,

Zagreb - Copenhagen: flights canceled on September 12, 16 and 18,

Zagreb - Dublin: flights canceled on September 10 and 17,

Zagreb - London Heathrow: flights canceled on September 2, 4, 9 and 11,

Zagreb - Munich: canceled flights on September 2, 8, 9, 10, 13 - 18,

Zagreb - Paris: canceled flights on September 2, 8, 9 and 10,

Zagreb Split / Dubrovnik - Rome: canceled flights 1-3, 7-0 and 14. September,

Zagreb - Sarajevo: canceled flights on September 6, 7, 9, 11, 16 and 20,

Zagreb - Skopje: flights canceled on September 11, 14 and 18,

Zagreb - Vienna: flights canceled on September 2, 12, 16 and 19.

Lines from Split

Split - Frankfurt: flight canceled on September 18,

Split - Vienna: flights canceled on September 2, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14 and 18

Split - Zurich: flights canceled on September 7 and 16,

Lines from Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik - Athens: flights canceled on September 6, 8, 13 and 17,

Dubrovnik - Frankfurt: flight canceled on September 18,

Dubrovnik - Paris: flights canceled on September 10, 13 and 17,

Dubrovnik - Zurich: flights canceled on September 2, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 16.

Croatia Airlines canceled a total of over 80 departures (160 operations in both directions) from September 1 to 21 on international routes from Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik. Flights on routes after September 21 have not yet been considered, so further cancellations are also possible.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 31st of August, 2020, what was announced just a few months ago is now coming true. The first hearing on tourist-launched lawsuits against the state of Austria for the coronavirus infection will be held at the Federal Court in Vienna, Austria, on September the 23rd, 2020. A group of Croatian skiers are involved in the matter.

The case regards infection with the new coronavirus at the famous Ischgl ski resort in Tyrol, from where the infection began to spread in late February and during the first weeks of March. The Vienna Consumer Protection Association (VSV) also sided with those who became infected there after receiving about 6,000 complaints.

In the end, a thousand of them from 45 countries declared that they were ready to file a lawsuit according to well known Austrian journalist Peter Kolba, told Slobodna Dalmacija. Nine of them are Croatian skiers.

"At the end of September, we'll have six to eight test cases. These involve victims from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In two cases, a compensation claim of 100 thousand euros was issued, because in one situation there was a fatal outcome, and in the other the party was connected to a respirator for a long time when in intensive care in hospital, and had to be rehabilitated later on.

We plan to seek justice for other people, including Croats, through a collective lawsuit. As things stand now, however, it will take from half a year to a year for that to enter the court proceedings,'' Kolba explained.

"They should have warned us or closed a week before''

He also said the administration should have warned everyone a week in advance or closed the ski resorts rather than waiting until March the 13th to begin doing so.

"We're suing Austria as a state, because it is the federal minister who is responsible for the health of all people in its territory. This, of course, doesn't diminish the responsibility of the regional authorities in Tyrol, nor that of the municipality in which Ischgl is administratively located, but there were no instructions and strict measures from Vienna. The administration should have warned people a week before or actually closed the ski resorts a week before, rather than wait until March the 13th. That's when the chaos started,'' Kolba said.

He added that not only tourists were damaged by that situation...

"In addition to tourists, we have damaged people who served in hotels there and also fell ill. We plan to represent them as well,'' Kolba said.

Ischgl also announced the start of next season for November the 26th, 2020 last week. How this group of nine Croatian skiers and others fare against the Austrian state is yet to be seen.

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