Makarska (italiano. Macarsca; Deutsch. Macharscha) is a small town on the Adriatic coastline of Croatia, about 60 km southeast of Split and 140 km northwest of Dubrovnik. Administratively Makarska has the status of a town and it is part of the Split-Dalmatia county.
Шаблон:Infobox Settlement It is a tourist centre, located on a horseshoe shaped bay between the Biokovo mountains and the Adriatic Sea. The city is noted for its palm-fringed promenade, where fashionable cafés, bars and boutiques overlook the pretty harbour where many pleasure craft are moored. Adjacent to the beach are several large capacity hotels as well as a camping ground.
The center of Makarska is an old town with narrow stone-paved streets, a main church square where there is a flower and fruit market, and a Franciscan monastery that houses a sea shell collection featuring a giant clam shell.
Makarska is the center of the Makarska riviera, a popular tourist destination under the Biokovo mountain. It stretches for 60 km between the towns of Brela and Gradac. In the summertime tens of thousands of tourists flock to the area from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as other countries.
The area of Makarska was inhabited by the Illyrians. The city appeares in the Tabula Peutingeriana as the port of Inaronia, but is mentioned as Muccurum in a document of the synod held in the Salona (533), when also the town's diocese was created. In the 7th century the region between the Cetina and Neretva was occupied by the Slavs, who established the Neretva Principality, with Mokro (Makarska) as its administrative centre..[1][1 The doge of Venice Pietro I Candiano, whose Venetian fleet aimed to punish the piratesque activities of the city's vessels, was defeated here on September 18, 877.
The principality was annexed to the Kingdom of Croatia in the 12th century, and was conquered by the Republic of Venice a century later. In the late 15th century the Ottomans conquered Makarska (cited by this name for the first time in 1502), surrounding it with walls provided with three towers, not disappeared. After the return under the Venetian aegis from 1646, it was given to the Austrians by the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797). In 1805-1815 it was under French rule, which brought cultural, social and economic development. The Congress of Vienna assigned Makarska to Austria-Hungary, under which it remained until 1918.
In the early 20th century agriculture, trade and fishing remained the mainstay of economy. In 1914 the first hotel was built, beginning the tourism tradition in the area.
During World War II Makarska was part of the Independent State of Croatia. It was a port for the nation's navy and served as the headquarters of the Central Adriatic Naval Command, until it was moved to Split.<ref>Nigel Thomas, K. Mikulan, Darko Pavlovic. Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941-45. Osprey Publishing, 1995. (pg. 18)</ref> In 2007, exhumation of victims from the war was still ongoing.<ref>U Makarskoj iskopane žrtve drugog svjetskog rata</ref>
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