Sunday, 16 February 2025
Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas - The editor and big chief of The Dubrovnik Times. Born in the UK he has been living and working in Dubrovnik since 1998, yes he is one of the rare “old hands.” A unique insight into both British and Croatian life and culture, Mark is often known as just “Englez” or Englishman. He is a traveller, a current affairs freak and a huge AFC Wimbledon fan.

Email: mark.thomas@dubrovnik-times.com

Rising 37 metres above the Adriatic Sea the Lovrijenac Fortress is an imposing structure that is part of the Dubrovnik City Walls defence system. Believed to be constructed in the 11th century the fortress dominates the western entrance to the historic Old City of Dubrovnik.

lovrijenac fortress dubrovnik croatia

 

Triangular in shape the thickness of the walls reaches up to 12 metres towards the seaside, however on the sides facing the land the thickness is only 60 centimetres. The reason for this differing thickness was that the fortress had its own commander and in case he decided to rebel the cannons from the city walls could easily break through the thinner inland walls. An inscription over the gate on the entrance to the fortress reads “Non Bene Pro Toto Libertas Venditur Auro” – “Freedom is not to be sold for all the gold in the world.”

dubrovnik fortress sea

 

One of the most iconic landmarks in Dubrovnik Lovrijenac has been used by many international theatre productions and often hosts the Dubrovnik Summer Festival. It is also one of the main locations for the popular Game of Thrones serial, where it plays the Red Keep.

According to the Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Central Europe list for 2017, the average growth rate in the period from 2013 to 2016 (including) reached new record of 1,127 percent.

‘’This is the second year in a row which recorded a growth over 1,000 percent’’, commented Zlatko Bazianec, the manager of the Croatian office and a partner at Deloitte’s Business Consulting Department.

This year’s Deloitte list of the 50 fastest growing public or private technology companies in Central Europe included 11 countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Bulgaria) and 300 applications from innovative companies.

After Poland with 19 innovative companies on the list, Croatia was the second country with eight ranked companies in the main category of the competition. However, two more Croatian companies made it to the Rising Star category thus Croatia had ten representatives on the Deloitte’s list.

On the Technology Fast 50 Central Europe list, the best-ranked Croatian company was Rimac Automobili in the Clean Tech and Energy category. The company placed as the 10th on the list with a growth of 1,059 percent.

Rimac Automobili was followed by Code Consulting Ltd, which placed as the 22nd in the IT & Digital Solutions category with a growth rate of 545 percent, Telum d.o.o. (25th, Internet, Media& Telecom, 520% growth), Profico (28th, IT & Digital Solutions, 466% growth), Undabot d.o.o. (35th, IT & Digital Solutions, 421% growth), Hangar 18 d.o.o. (40th, IT & Digital Solutions, 368% growth), Gauss LTD (45th, IT & Digital Solutions, 347% growth) and Infinium d.o.o., which placed as the 49th in the IT & Digital Solutions category with a growth of 315 percent.

In the category Rising Stars, Croatia had two representatives; the Q company for Digital Solutions which placed as the 2nd on this list with a growth of 2,246 percent, and Merit Media which was in the 9th place with a growth rate of 712 percent.
Apart from being the best-placed company from Croatia on the Technology Fast 50 Central Europe list, Rimac Automobili was the only company from the Clean Tech and Energy category to rank in the overall competition at the level of Central Europe.

The last concert of the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in the Rector's Palace for this season will be a real musical treat.

On Friday, October 20th, the orchestra will be conducted by charismatic Indonesian conductor with a German address Noorman Widjaja, while Luka Ljubas, the winner of this year's International Violin Competition Vaclav Huml, will also perform as the soloist. He is also the first Croatian to win the first place during the forty years of this prestigious competition. The start of the concert is at 8:30 pm.

Luka Ljubas was born in 1996 in Vienna, in the Croatian - Japanese music family. He received his first violin lesson from his mother, and then studied at the Margareten Music School in Vienna in the class of Professor Arkadij Winokurov. In 2006, he started violin studies at the Klagenfurt State Conservatory in the class of Professor Brian Finlayson. In 2012 he graduated from the Academy of Music in Vienna, and since 2015 has become a regular student in the class of Professor Gerhard Schulz after his successful entrance exam.

Luka is the winner of numerous first prizes at national and international competitions. During his previous career, he has often performed in Austria, among others in Vienna Konzerthaus and on numerous international stages - in Armenia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Slovenia and Japan.

Heineken Croatia has received the prestigious Heineken Quality Award from its Head office in Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

‘’We received this great acknowledgement for Heineken’s top quality, which is primarily related to product quality and packaging as well as freshness on the market. Besides, a beer with a true Heineken profile requires precisely defined taste and aroma characteristics, and that is exactly what we have managed to achieve in our products. We are very proud that our efforts have been recognized and that we have become the best among 70 countries where Heineken operates’’, commented Valentina Belavic, the supply chain director at Heineken Croatia.

The Heineken Quality Award – The Most Improved Operation Award has been awarded to a Heineken brewery that achieves the largest progress in the overall quality of the brand Heineken. The passion for quality is one of the company’s values; the main brand Heineken is the same everywhere in the world, which is ensured with strict analytical and sensory controls throughout the entire production process and distribution.

With constant efforts and investment in the quality, the company with a well known green bottle and red star shows the importance of its main premium brand to retain its original, traditional recipe and the highest quality of natural ingredients. Thus, it is no wonder that Heineken is the world’s leading brand in the premium beer lager with a global market share of almost 19 percent – twice as much as the second-placed brand in this segment.

At the official award ceremony held in Amsterdam, the Heineken general director Jean-Francois van Boxmeer declared Heineken Croatia the winner in the category The Most Improved Operation, whilst Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, a member of the Heineken family and the CEO of the company presented the award.

Even though the filming of a new sequel ''Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again'' on Vis officially ended a few days ago, the former agent 007 is still on the island.

Pierce Brosnan, who became a favourite among Vis locals during filming, is still posting photos of the island on his Instagram profile.

During his stay on the island accompanied by his wife Keeley Shaye Smith, the actor was obviously so enchanted with Vis and its beauty that his recent post includes one of the photos from the island.

‘’A Moment in time on the island of Vis/Croatia’’, commented Brosnan the photo of him resting and relaxing on a swing among pine trees looking down at the sea.

The photo was taken by his colleague Christine Baranski.

mamma mia team on vis

Finding a free parking space around the Old City of Dubrovnik can be challenging to say the least but some drivers clearly lose their minds in desperation.

This driver today managed to block a public path which is bad enough but to make matters even worse a mother was forced to haul her pram and baby around and over this moronic driver.

Remember you are part of a community and not an island – parking and blocking public paths is not only illegal but also extremely selfish.

bad parking dubrovnik

A continuous 24-hour speed control will take place in Croatia tomorrow, modelled after TISPOL’s action. Dubrovnik-Neretva County Police also joined in and will control the speed from 6 am tomorrow until 6 am on Thursday. The goal of the action is, apart from the repressive, to act as preventive to all the drivers, which is why this action is announced in advance.

The action will be carried out on a large number of locations. Police Administration called on citizens to propose speed monitoring locations and selected the most suitable ones. All available devices will be used, and the action will include the maximum possible number of police officers. In order to cover as wide a territory as possible, the monitoring locations will be changed every two to three hours.

Speed is the most common cause of traffic accidents, often those with the most severe consequences.  In the first eight months of 2017, in the Republic of Croatia, out of a total of 216 people killed in traffic accidents, 81 or 37.5 percent died due to improper and unsuitable speeds. The results of the action will be announced on Friday, October 19th , on the website of the Police Administration.

According to the latest data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS), in the first eight months of 2017, nine Croatian airports recorded 6.8 million passengers or 17.9 percent more over the same period last year.

The data also show that only this year’s August recorded more than 1.68 million passengers or 18.5 percent more than in the same month last year.

The increase in the number of passengers in all airports is also associated with an increase in the number of aircraft operations that totalled 83,200 or 8.3 percent more than in the first eight months last year.

Only in this August, there were 18,300 operations or 8.6 percent more than the same month last year.

As far as freight transport in Croatian airports is concerned, in the first eight months of this year it increased by 4.9 percent to around 5,600 tonnes, with an increase reaching 63.4 percent or 1,028 tonnes in August.

Out of the total 1.68 million passengers in all nine Croatian airports in August this year, Split Airport was the busiest airport with 590,800 passengers with an increase of 22.3 percent in comparison to August 2016.

Dubrovnik Airport tailed Split with 438,200 passengers in August or 16.8 percent more over the same month last year.
Split and Dubrovnik airports were followed by Zagreb Airport Franjo Tudjman with 346,800 passengers and 13.4 percent growth, and Pula Airport which recorded 137,700 passengers in August or 23.1 percent more than the same month last year.

The Voice of Dubrovnik

THE VOICE OF DUBROVNIK


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