Šibenik (Italian: Sebenico) is a historic town in Croatia, population 52,654 (2001), located in central Dalmatia where the Krka river flows into the Adriatic Sea. It is a political, educational, traffic, industrial and tourist center of Šibenik-Knin county.
Šibenik was mentioned for the first time under its present name in 1066 in a Charter of the Croatian king Petar Krešimir IV . Unlike other Dalmatian towns that were founded by the Illyrians, Greeks, and Romans, it is the oldest native Croatian town on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. Šibenik was given the status of a town and its own diocese in 1298. Excavations of the castle of Saint Anna have since proven that the place was inhabited long before the actual arrival of the Croats.
The city, like the rest of Dalmatia, resisted the Venetians up to 1412. The Ottoman Turks started to threaten Šibenik at the end of the 15th century, but they would never succeed in conquering it. In the 16th century, the fortress of St. Nicholas was built and, by the 17th century, its fortifications were improved again by the fortresses of St. John (Tanaja) and Šubićevac (Barone). The fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797 brought Šibenik under the authority of Austria. Since then it has changed hands among Austria-Hungary, Yugoslavia, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and Yugoslavia until finally becoming part of the Republic of Croatia in 1990.
Today, Šibenik is a source of artistic and cultural life. The yearly Šibenik International Children's Festival (Međunarodni Dječji Festival) is one of the examples. Its Cathedral of St. James is on the UNESCO world heritage list. It was built between 1431 and 1536 and the work was overseen by masters Juraj (the Dalmatian, Dalmatinac) and Nikola (the Florentine, Firentinac).
The composer Jakov Gotovac founded the city's "Philharmonia society" in 1922. The composer Franz von Suppé was part of the city's cultural fabric, as he was a native of nearby Split. The most famous residents were the inventor Faust Vrančić, and in more recent times, basketball legend Dražen Petrović.
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