Culture
Always part of central European and Mediterranean cultural circles, or to be more precise, the meeting-point of Western civilisation and the East, the richness of Croatian culture testifies today to the links Croats have had with key European cultural epochs. Among the visible traces of this are the monuments on the UNESCO World Heritage List, such as the untouched land division (parcelisation) of an Ancient Greek field in Stari Grad on Hvar, the Classical heart of Split with the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian, the early Christian Euphrasian Basilica in Poreč, the Romanesque centre of the town of Trogir, the early Renaissance Cathedral of St James in Šibenik, and Renaissance Dubrovnik. Among great artists and writers, Marko Marulić (1450–1524), the 'father of Croatian literature', whose works were read throughout Europe, deserves special mention. Juraj Dalmatinac (15th century) was the greatest Croatian Renaissance sculptor and architect, Julije Klović (1498–1578) the greatest Renaissance miniaturist, Luka Sorkočević (1734–89) the first Croatia composer of a symphony, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938) the 'Croatian Andersen', Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962) the most famous sculptor, and according to Rodin 'the greatest phenomenon among artists', Milka Trnina (1863–1941) the greatest opera diva, and Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981), an encyclopaedist, was in many ways the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. Among modern artists, Branko Lustig (1932), the producer of the Oscar-winning films Schindler's List and Gladiator, and the piano virtuoso Ivo Pogorelić are prominent.