Dabar (Otočac)

Dabar (Otočac)

Coordinates: 45 ° 2 ′ 33 ″ N , 15 ° 6 ′ 1 ″ E

Basic data

State :

Croatia

County :

Lika-Senj

Height :

552 m. i. J.

Area :

53.85 km²

Residents :

117 (2011)

Population density :

2 inhabitants per km²

Telephone code :

(+385) 053

Postal code :

53222

License plate :

GS

Structure and administration

Community type :

Village

Mayor :

Stjepan Kostelac ( HDZ )

Others

Patron saint :

Saint Michael

View of Dabar (Otočac)

Dabar is a village in Lika-Senj County (Ličko-senjska županija) in Croatia , 150 km southwest of Zagreb. It belongs to the large municipality of Otočac . The scattered settlement of Dabar is located at two springs in a deep karst sinkhole 600 meters above sea level between the Velebit near Senj and Mala Kapela mountain ranges, not far from the Plitvice Lakes . Despite the proximity to the Adriatic Sea (40 kilometers as the crow flies), the climate is continental with cold and snowy winters and hot and dry summers.

The place name Dabar is not derived from the rodent “Dabar” (in German: beaver), but rather refers to the Old Slavic “Dubo dolina” (deep bowl-shaped depression).

history

Dabar was first mentioned in a document in 1449 during the Frankopan rule. In 1577 there were 40 Austrian servants in the fortress. In 1672 the first 90 Orthodox Wallachians were settled in Dabar by Count Josef von Herberstein .

The Ottomans were pushed back from the Lika in 1689 , rendering the fortress of Dabar meaningless. Subsequently, new districts emerged below the castle, of which Zabare (Croatian), Lug (Croatian), Bobiči (Serbian), Zapolje (Serbian) and Varoš (mixed) still exist today. In 1835 there were 112 houses and 1696 inhabitants in Dabar, of whom 915 were Croatians and 781 Serbs. In 1910 there were 2394 inhabitants in Dabar (more than in the district town of Otočac ), of which 1235 were Serbs and 1159 Croatians.

Both churches were destroyed in the Second World War. In front of the Catholic Church there was a bloodbath among the population when partisan units and the Ustaše soldiers holed up in the church shot at each other. After the Second World War, the population decreased to 1700. 147 inhabitants emigrated between 1981 and 1991 and 64 more people died than were born in the same period. The 1991 census showed that Dabar had 596 inhabitants.

On December 19, 1991, in response to Croatia's declaration of independence , Dabar was occupied by Serbian troops and became part of the Republic of Serbian Krajina . The Croatian population was driven out or locked in camps, their houses looted and / or burned down. The driveway to Dabar and the farms of the Croats were laid out by Serbian irregulars with mines , some of which have not yet been removed.

In July 1995 Dabar was occupied by the Croatian army in the course of Operation Oluja and came back under Croatian control. The Serbian population was not displaced and is now the largest part of the population, as the surviving Croatian families did not return to Dabar. The last census from 2011 recorded 117 residents, including two school-age children.

Culture

Dabar became internationally known through the discovery of a breviary. This Dabar breviary is a book of hours of prayer dating from 1486 and written in Glagolitic-Croatian handwriting. With the permission of Pope Innocent IV , from 1248 the Croats were the only people in Europe to use their own Glagolitic script instead of Latin without restrictions. This permission was formally given to Bishop Philip of Senj, but shortly afterwards it was passed on to the entire Croatian people. The breviary consists of 306 pages of parchment paper and was written by "pop Stipan" (Pastor Stefan). Along with the Glagoljica (more precisely: the Bašćanska ploča tablet from Baška), this work is one of the most important medieval Glagolitic prayer books. In addition to the usual mass prayers, there are also entries on the history of the place, such as attacks by Ottoman soldiers or the names of debtors of that time, as the following example shows:

Excerpt: List of debtors recorded by Pastor Stefan in 1515: Škarići, Jarići, Silaševići, Starkići, Vučetići, Volčevići, Trhožići, Stričići, Berojići, Brajenkovići, Šimajevići i Križići.