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Dugi Otok is the seventh-largest island in the Adriatic Sea, part of Croatia. It is located off the Dalmatian coast, west of Zadar. It is the largest and westernmost of the Zadarian Islands and derives its name from its distinctive shape: it is 44.5 km (27.7 miles) long by 4.8 km (3.0 miles) wide, with an area of 114 square kilometers (44 sq mi). Its elevation reaches 300 m; and many of its higher portions contain stands of Maritime Pine.

The western coast is tall and rugged, and many of the towns are clustered on the eastern side, including Sali, the largest, Zaglav, Žman, Luka, Savar, Brbinj, Dragove, Božava, Soline, Verunić (Verona), and Veli Rat. A nature park, Telašćica, covers the southern part of the island and is adjacent to Kornati Islands National Park. There are six islets and rocks in the Telašćica Bay: Korotan, Galijola, Gozdenjak, Farfarikulac, Gornji Školj and Donji Školj.

The island has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as evidenced by many archeological sites that have still not been fully investigated. The earliest findings date back to Paleolithic, and numerous hillforts and gravesites are evidence of continuous settlement throughout Eneolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age.

The Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII in the 10th century mentioned it under the name of Pizuh, and later it was called Insula Tilagus in documents (“pelagos” in Greek means sea), and its Latin name was Insula maior. In the 15th century, it was registered as Veli otok.

The old and main settlement on the island was located in the southern area. It has only been inhabited significantly since the Turkish invasions (15th-16th centuries). Until then the island belonged to Zadar monasteries and citizens. Nowadays there is a total of 11 settlements on the island, and they are all on the north-eastern side of the island concerned primarily with fishing, although salt was once produced here.

The village of Veli Rat is also home to the Veli Rat lighthouse, another spectacular sight. The beautiful island of Dugi Otok, with a Mediterranean climate and ancient Croatian culture, receives very few visitors. Olive oil, figs, cheese, and wine accompany the seafood in the natives’ diet. A definite step back in time, the island boasts an ancient church and some Roman ruins. It is in close proximity to Kornati. Wikipedia

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An image from Dugi Otok Croatia

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The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is a historic cathedral in St. Augustine, Florida, and the seat of the Catholic Bishop of St. Augustine. It is located at 38 Cathedral Place between Charlotte and St. George Streets. Constructed over five years (1793–1797), it was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970. Its congregation, established in 1565, is the oldest Christian congregation in the contiguous United States.

In the mid-1560s, as the Spanish Empire expanded northward from the Caribbean to unexplored Florida, it founded the colony of St. Augustine, which has become the oldest continuously occupied European settlement on the United States mainland. Spanish settlers immediately established a shrine of the Catholic Church, the religion essential to the Spanish monarchy throughout its history. From the mid-1500s to the mid-1600s, the kingdom was undergoing a Catholic Revival in opposition to the Protestant Reformation.

As the early colonists were mostly sailors or soldiers with little expertise in architecture, the first church of St. Augustine was simply designed and rapidly built of disparate materials. The original parish was short-lived, burning to the ground in a 1586 attack on the town by the Englishman Sir Francis Drake. As two decades previously, the colonists hastily built a new church of straw and palmetto, which deteriorated quickly in the humid climate and burned down in 1599.

A tithe was raised in Spain, and in 1605 a third church was built, this time more permanently of timber by experienced architects and builders who had begun to make their way to the New World. For 95 years it stayed intact, though in disrepair, before again burning down in 1702 during a failed English attempt on the city by South Carolina colonist James Moore. Wikipedia

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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe on the Adriatic Sea. Croatia borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Italy to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city, Zagreb, forms one of the country’s primary subdivisions, with twenty counties. Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometers (21,851 square miles) and a population of 4.07 million.

The Croats arrived in the 6th century and organized the territory into two duchies by the 9th century. Croatia was first internationally recognized as independent on 7 June 879 during the reign of Duke Branimir. Tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. During the succession crisis after the Trpimirović dynasty ended, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of Austria to the Croatian throne. In October 1918, the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, independent from Austria-Hungary, was proclaimed in Zagreb, and in December 1918, merged into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, most of Croatia was incorporated into a Nazi-installed puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia. A resistance movement led to the creation of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, which after the war became a founding member and constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991, Croatia declared independence, and the War of Independence was fought for four years following the declaration.

A sovereign state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a member of the European Union, the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. An active participant in United Nations peacekeeping, Croatia has contributed troops to the International Security Assistance Force and took a nonpermanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2008–2009 term. Since 2000, the Croatian government has invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors.

Croatia is classified by the World Bank as a high-income economy and ranks very high on the Human Development Index. Service, industrial sectors, and agriculture dominate the economy, respectively. Tourism is a significant source of revenue, with Croatia ranked among the 20 most popular tourist destinations. The state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatia’s most important trading partner. Croatia provides social security, universal health care, and tuition-free primary and secondary education while supporting culture through public institutions and corporate investments in media and publishing. Wikipedia

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