Austrians of Croatia are officially recognized as a minority in the Republic of Croatia, and therefore have their own permanent seat in the Croatian Parliament.

History

Austrians first began settling in Croatia as military personnel after the Croatian nobles met in Cetin to elect Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria as their king,R. W. SETON -WATSON:The southern Slav question and the Habsburg Monarchy page 18
/ref> and in return the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

s would defend Croatia from the Ottoman invasion.Milan Kruhek: Cetin, grad izbornog sabora Kraljevine Hrvatske 1527, Karlovačka Županija, 1997, Karlovac This led to the creation of the Military Frontier (''Vojna Krajina'', ''German'' Militaergrenze) within Croatian territory which would be ruled directly from Vienna's military headquarters. This led to an increase of Austrian and other settlers and military elite within the Military Frontier. In 1815, the Habsburgs finally secured possession of

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

and

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...

after the fall of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. In time the Austrian elite began flocking to the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...

for holiday and sunbathing. Towns such as Opatija gained reputations as health resorts and became populated by mainly Austrian season-goers.

Geographic representation

According to the 2011 census, there are 297 people who consider themselves Austrians, with the largest group (35% of Croatia's ethnic Austrians) residing in Zagreb.Croatia Census 2011
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Notable individuals

* Gordon Schildenfeld, Croatian football player

External links

Republic of Croatia Ministry of Culture
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austrians of Croatia Austrian diaspora in Europe Ethnic groups in Croatia