- Donji Lapac
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Donji Lapac Location of Donji Lapac in Croatia
Donji LapacCoordinates: 44°33′N 15°58′E / 44.55°N 15.967°E Country Croatia County Lika-Senj Government - Mayor Dušan Šijan (SDP) Area - Total 353 km2 (136.3 sq mi) Population (2011)[1] - Total 2,200 Time zone CET (UTC+1) - Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2) Website http://www.donjilapac.hr/ 
the Donji Lapac municipality within the Lika-Senj County
Donji Lapac (Serbian: Доњи Лапац) is a small town and municipality in Lika, Croatia. The majority of the population are Serbs.
Contents
Geography
Donji Lapac is located a region of eastern Lika called Ličko Pounje, by the river Una that flows near the town in the valley between mountain Plješevica and Una on the altitude of 582m. It is connected with the road that connects Bihać with Gračac.
Demographics
According to the 2001 census, the town has population of 812 and a municipality of 1,880 people. Before the war the area was almost entirely Serb populated with only 0.5% Croats (according to the 1991 census). After the war the area of Donji Lapac municipality grew smaller because villages of Donji Srb and Gornji Srb were given to Municipality of Gračac in Zadar county. However according to the 2001 census Serbs continue to constitute a majority of 73.6% and Croats 25.1%.
Year of census total Serbs Croats 1910 17,433 15,995 (91.75%) 1,435 (8.23%) 1961 6,456 6,148 (95.23%) 202 (3.13%) 1971 9,609 9,337 (97.17%) 94 (0.97%) 1981 8,337 7,691 (91.05%) 47 (0.56%) 1991 8,054 7,854 (97.51%) 44 (0.54%) 2001 1,880 1,383 (73.56%) 471 (25.05%) 2011 2,200 [To be determined] [To be determined] Some Croats or Serbs declared their ethnicity as Yugoslav.
History
The area of Donji Lapac has been inhabited since the Iron age, which many material remains prove. During medieval times the area of Lapac was part of old-slavic Lapac župa and in 1449 it became possession of Frankopans. Old city Lapac was located on a nearby Obljaj hill (666m) south from Donji Lapac. When in 1528 Ottomans conquered Lika, Lapac was absorbed.
Donji Lapac was founded in 1791, in the year the Austro-Ottoman war ended and Eastern Lika was annexed by Habsburg empire as a frontier post. In 1941 Yugoslav partisans liberated the district center.
During the Croatian War of Independence, Donji Lapac was incorporated along with other towns into the unrecognized breakaway Republic of Serbian Krajina. In August 1995, it was returned to Croatian control following victories by the Croatian army. According to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Croatian conquest of the municipality was accompanied by widespread looting and ethnic cleansing by the Croatian forces, including the murder of four elderly civilians in the municipality of Donji Lapac, crimes which formed part of the indictment and conviction of the Croatian general Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač.[2]
Economy
Today Donji Lapac is one of the poorest municipalities in Croatia and is included in area of special state care. Before the war, Donji Lapac had a developed wood and textile industry. Many people worked in the transportation company Likatrans which employed more than 200 people. Today most of the inhabitants are unemployed and jobs are mostly restricted to public services or the renewed wood industry. Additionally many people work in basic agriculture, growing mostly potatoes and plums from which they make the alcohol Slivovitz.
Towns and Villages in Municipality
- Birovača
- Boričevac
- Brezovac Dobroselski
- Bušević
- Buševac
- Donji Štrbci
- Gajine
- Gornji Lapac
- Gornji Štrbci
- Kestenovac
- Kruge
- Melinovac
- Mišljenovac
See also
References
- ^ "Census of Population, Households and Dwellings 2011, First Results by Settlements" (in Croatian and English) (PDF). Statistical Reports (Zagreb: Croatian Bureau of Statistics) (1441): 118. June 2011. ISSN 1332-0297. http://www.dzs.hr/Hrv_Eng/publication/2011/SI-1441.pdf. Retrieved 30 June 2011.
- ^ Judgment of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, 15 April 2011, retrieved 15 April 2011
External links
Subdivisions of Lika-Senj County Towns 
Municipalities Stara Novalja · Brinje · Donji Lapac · Karlobag · Lovinac · Perušić · Plitvička Jezera · Udbina · VrhovineCategories:- Municipalities of Croatia
- Populated places in Lika-Senj County
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