Marin Cilic, Croatian professional tennis player has been enjoying Christmas Eve celebration in the Dubrovnik historical center. He was spotted with his girlfriend, Kristina Milkovic, beautiful lady from Dubrovnik. No surprise they picked Dubrovnik for the celebration – City was full of people and great atmosphere. 

In case you didn't know, Cilic's biggest success to date is having won the 2014 US Open. Over the course of his career, Cilic has won 16 ATP singles titles. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 6, achieved in November this year.

The Croatian air carrier Croatia Airlines in cooperation with Zagreb Airport has been conducting first aircraft docking tests at the new passenger terminal of the Franjo Tudman International Airport which is to be opened in March 2017.

More than 50 professionals are participating in the testing in order to examine operations at the new terminal and to check compliance with regulated safety standards and standards of operational efficiency between Croatia Airlines and Zagreb International Airport. The testing will continue until the airport finally opens for passengers.

Valued at more than 300 million Euros the Zagreb Airport's new terminal building will stretch over 65,000 square metres and three levels, feature three baggage carousels, eight air bridges (six for international flights and two for domestic services), nine security checkpoints, 23 passport control booths and a car park with the capacity of more than 1000 vehicles.

Apart from the new passenger terminal the Franjo Tudman International Airport is most likely to get new direct flights to Beijing starting from next year. The Beijing Capital Airlines has already announced its plans to introduce direct flights between the capital cities of China and Croatia in June 2017.

A strong earthquake shook Dubrovnik about half an hour after midnight, just at the start of Christmas Eve. According to information the earthquake was 4.6magnitude on the Richter scale. 

The epicenter was 10 kilometers away from Herceg Novi, Montenegro and was strongly felt in Dubrovnik, Konavle and all the area. So far no material damage was reported.

Timeless music of the French artist Edith Piaf revived last night in the Marin Drzic Theatre. Ksenija Prohaska, recognized theater, television and film actress with a long career in Hollywood paid this demanding part. 

With musical accompaniment on the piano by multiple award-winning composer and pianist Ivan Bozicevic, Ksenija staged the story of legendary French singer.

The play brings a story about the life of Edith Piaf and Ksenija interpretes it as an actress in the first person with the biggest musical successes that have marked her life. These are songs like La Vie en Rose, Milord, etc ...

Ksenija interpretes songs and events in Croatian, content of the chansons in French, so the audience can feel even closer to great poetry of chansons, written by great artists such as Jacques Prevert.

                                                                                                                                                  Photos by Zeljko Tutnjevic

Thanks to the record breaking figures of Croatian airports this year, more new air carriers with new flights will be over Croatian skies in the near future.

Eurowings, a low cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, has announced the launching of three new flights for its summer schedule 2017 from Munich to Croatia.

The new flight from Munich to Dubrovnik will be operating twice a week, every Wednesday and Saturday starting from the 29th of April 2017.
Pula in Istria will also be connected to Munich three times a week, every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday from the 2nd of May 2017, whilst the new line from Munich to Zadar will start from the 3rd of May 2017 and will be flying three times a week, i.e. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Air Berlin aircraft Airbus 320 will operate on all new flights from Munich to the three Croatian coastal cities.

Libertas Dubrovnik, City bus company, has sent an information about different bus schedule during the holidays. On Christmas Eve, passenger lines in urban transport will be increased, and that the last departure on lines 1A, 1B, 3, 4, 6 and 8 will be at 2 am from Pile station.

The line that will not operate on Christmas are: 15 Dubrovnik - Ston, 16 Dubrovnik - Plat, 16A Dubrovnik - Srebreno, 30 Vodovada - Cavtat, 31 Vitaljina - Cavtat, and 23A Dubac - Brgat – Srebreno.

“Live Nativity” was held last night in the heart of the historic city centre. This special Christmas event tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, a real life Christmas nativity scene.

Narrators were Mary Djurovic and Zvonimir Cetinic, traditional songs were sung by the choir of young people from the parish of St. Michael and figures of shepherds and angels were staged by Dubrovnik animators and children. Marija and Mario Luetic with their two-month child played the roles of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus and the older children of this family were present too.

The “Live Nativity” on the Stradun is sponsored by the Diocese of Dubrovnik, the City of Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik Tourist Board.

Francis Bacon, one of the foremost artists of modern and contemporary European painting, was presented to the Croatian public for the first time in the Dubrovnik Art Gallery last night.This is a unique exhibition from the collection of Ravarino, called "The Limits of the mind" and is made up of more than a hundred drawings in pastel, pencil and collages. It is divided into four parts - Self-portraits, Pope, portraits and the Crucifixion. 

Dubrovnik exhibition was presented by the Italian art historian and writer Giulia Zadonandi and director of the Art Gallery of Dubrovnik Vesna Delic Gozze, both authors of the text in the catalog and curators of the exhibition which was opened by art historian Ivan Viden.

At the opening visitors, in addition to this exceptional exhibition, had the opportunity to see the performance of the monodrama Pope Head - The Secret Life of Francis Bacon, which was wrote and performed by an English actor Garry Roost.

                                                                                                                                                        Photos by Tonci Plazibat