Zadar - a City on the Border - an Outline for the Socio-demographic History of the City

Abstract

Basing it on a concise history of Zadar the author develops his thesis about Zadar as a “ city on the border” . This has been true since Venetian times when the boundary with the Turkish dominion was located here, during the Italian occupation of the city when it found itself “ on that side o f the border", and up to quite recently when its immediate hinterland was occupied by Serbian aggression. In these conditions the relationship between the city and its neighbouring environs become specific, ambivalent and discontinuous. These historical conditons determined to a large extent die development and the physiognomy of the city, diwarted the natural circulation of people and goods, prevented die growth of die city and influenced the sociopsychological characteristics of its populace. The author considers, in a more specific way, the consequences of die city’s prolonged isolation from transportation networks which lasted up to die mid-sixties of this century and concludes with some indications about the position of Zadar in the post-socialist period.