Bakar
Encyclopedia
Bakar is a town in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Primorje-Gorski Kotar County
Primorje-Gorski kotar County is a county in western Croatia that includes the Bay of Kvarner and the surrounding Northern Croatian seacoast, and the mountainous region of Gorski kotar...

 in western Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

. The population of the town is 1,566 (2001), while the population of the municipality is 7,773. 90% declare themselves Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 (2001). The old part of Bakar is situated on a hill overlooking the Bay of Bakar
Bay of Bakar
Bay of Bakar is located on the Croatian Adriatic coast, within the Gulf of Kvarner. There are two towns centered on bay of Bakar: Bakar and Kraljevica. While Bakar and Kraljevica are port towns, in outback of bay of Bakar there are the industry zones and free zones of Kukuljanovo. The bay itself...

. "Bakar" is the Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

 word for copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

.
Bakar is a port for bulk cargo and used to be known for its industrial complex that included coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...

 factory which produced considerable amount of pollution. Bakar coke factory was closed in 1995 and since then Bakar's pollution has subsided significantly.

City villages

Bakar, Hreljin
Hreljin
Hreljin is a village in western Croatia, just northeast of Bakar and northwest of Kraljevica, above Bakarski zaljev.Administratively belongs to city of Bakar, situated in Primorje-Gorski Kotar county - Primorsko-goranska županija....

, Krasica, Kukuljanovo
Kukuljanovo
Kukuljanovo is a village in Croatia....

, Plosna, Ponikve
Ponikve
Ponikve is a village in the municipality of Golubac, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the village has a population of 97 people.-References:...

, Praputnjak, Škrljevo
Škrljevo
Škrljevo is a village in Croatia....

 and Zlobin.
The population of villages, year 2004.
Bakar 1566
Hreljin 1982
Krasica 1295
Kukuljanovo 811
Plosna 43
Praputnjak 575
Škrljevo 1153
Zlobin 290
other places 58

Coat of arms

Bakar was granted its coat of arms and town privileges
Town privileges
Town privileges or city rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium.Judicially, a town was distinguished from the surrounding land by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws. Common privileges were related to trading...

 in 1799 by Empress Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

. The coat of arms was in the artistic style typical for the period, with a cartouche
Cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an ellipse with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu, replacing the earlier serekh...

 with large landscapes and ornamentation around the shield within a circular inscription.

The shield of the coat of arms features a red-and-white checkered top or "chief", with three local gray stone castles on green hills in the middle, and a black anchor on orange at the bottom.

Recognizable buildings

  • Turkish house: built by an unknown architect, possibly in the 14th century, this peculiar building resembles Ottoman architecture. Following 1965 reconstruction the house served as an artistic atelier.
  • Roman house: former monastery, built in the 18th century
  • Parish church of St. Andrew the Apostle: originally built in the 12th century and destroyed in 1323 by earthquake. In the Middle Ages its catacombs were used for wealthy people to hide from plague that passed the city. It is the third largest late Baroque church in Croatia.
  • Kaštel (Castel): A castle built in the 16th century by the order of Emperor Ferdinand I
    Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
    Ferdinand I was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558 and king of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526 until his death. Before his accession, he ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs in the name of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.The key events during his reign were the contest...

     and used as a protection against the Turks. It has three kitchens, two dungeons, little chapel of St. Michael, and many other rooms.

Trivia

In 1972 director Radley Metzger
Radley Metzger
Radley Metzger is an American filmmaker and distributor. He is also credited under the pseudonym Henry Paris, a name he adopted in the 1970s when he began to direct hardcore pornography....

 filmed his movie Score
Score (film)
Score is the name of a sexploitation film directed by Radley Metzger that was one of the first films to explore bisexual relationships. It was part of the brief porn chic fad in the early 1970s that also included The Devil in Miss Jones and Deep Throat...

in Bakar, Croatia.

External links

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