Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region of the eastern Adriatic. Today it is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow coastal region, stretching from island of Rab in the north to the Bay of Kotor in the south. The hinterland ranges in width from fifty kilometres in the north, to just a few kilometres in the south; it is mostly covered by rugged Dinaric Mountains. Numerous islands run parallel to the coast, the largest being Brač, Hvar and Korčula. The largest cities are Split, Zadar, Dubrovnik and Šibenik. Name of the region stems from an Illyrian tribe called the Dalmatae, who lived in the area in the classical antiquity. Later it became a Roman province, and as result a Romance culture emerged, along with the now-extinct Dalmatian language, later largely replaced with related Venetian. With the arrival of Slavs to the area in the 8th century, who occupied most of the hinterland, Slavic and Romance elements began to intermix in language and the culture. During the Middle Ages, its cities were often conquered by, or switched allegiance to, the kingdoms of the region.