| Donji Lapac | |
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Donji Lapac
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| Coordinates: | |
| 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/ |
Donji Lapac is a small town and municipality in Lika, Croatia.
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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.
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 |
Some Croats or Serbs declared their ethnicity as Yugoslav.
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]
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.
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