Travel Blog

Licitar - Gingerbread craft from northern Croatia

Posted by: ConnectoTravel.com


Besides seven ‘zero category’ monuments that are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, Croatia also has 12 cultural phenomena on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Heritage. If you still don‘t have an idea how to decorate your Christmas tree, maybe you can find the inspiration in famous Northern Croatian tradition of gingerbread baking.

The ingredients for traditional Croatian gingerbread are very simple; all you need is flour, sugar, water, baking soda and spices. One thing that isn’t simple is the craft that has been passed from generation to generation for centuries. It is the craft of baking and decorating gingerbread with edible colors and small mirrors. Each gingerbread maker uses his own imagination to make traditional, but at the same time an original piece of art.

UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage List was established in 2008 aiming to ensure the better protection of important intangible cultural heritages. Besides gingerbread craft from Northern Croatia, Croatia has an additional 11 traditions on this interesting list: lace making in Croatia; two-part singing and playing in the Istrian scale; Festivity of St. Blaise in Dubrovnik; spring procession of Ljelje/Kraljice (Queens) from Gorjani; annual carnival bell ringers’ pageant from the Kastav area; procession ‘Za križen’ (Following the Cross) on the island of Hvar; traditional manufacturing of children’s wooden toys in Hrvatsko Zagorje; the Sinjska Alka, a knights’ tournament in Sinj; ‘ojkanje’ singing; ‘Bećarac’ singing and playing from Eastern Croatia and ‘Nijemo Kolo’ silent circle dance of the Dalmatian hinterland.