page_title: Albanians of Croatia
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Albanians of Croatia / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: Vestibule with the scene of The Baptism of Christ made by Andrija Aleši. Cathedral of St. Lawrence in Trogir
context_page_description: The Albanians of Croatia are people of full or partial Albanian ancestry and heritage in Croatia.
  They are an autochthonous national minority recognized by the Constitution of Croatia. As such, they elect a special representative to the Croatian Parliament, shared with members of four other national minorities. The Albanian language is recognised in Croatia.
  In the 2011 Croatian census, there were 17,513 Albanians living in Croatia, 0.41% of total population. The largest religious groups among the Albanians were Muslims and Catholics.
  In the 1712/14 census done in Lika and Krbava among Vlach population, and other documents, many surnames with Albanian and Arbanasi word roots were recorded, such as those with suffixes "-aj", "-ez", and others.
  Albanians came to Croatia in various historical periods. In the Middle Ages they lived in coastal cities and some were assimilated with Vlachs, in the 17th and 18th century the Arbanasi people settled the area around Zadar, and in modern time they came as seasonal workers, war refugees or sportspeople.
context_section_description: Some of them came to Croatian lands at the time of Venetian rule because in parts of Croatia and Albania were under the rule of the Venetian Republic. Thus through the internal migration, the Albanian families also migrated, of which a large number was croatianized over the centuries to come. Internal migration has been of economic nature.
  Another period is the time of liberation wars against the Ottomans when Christian Albanian families migrated to the liberated territories of Croatia.
  The Arbanasi (Albanian also Arbëreshët e Zarës "Albanians of Zadar") are a small population group in Croatia still existing today. They are Catholic Albanians who fled the Ottomans between 1726 and 1733 in the Croatian coastal country, where they are still present today. In the city of Zadar they founded their own named after them district, which persists to this day. The Arbanasi traditionally speak a different dialect of Albanian.
  The original Albanian inhabitants of Catholic faith Peroj (Albanian Përrua) in Pula, who fled from the Ottomans in 1657, have given up their Albanian nationality.
caption: The relief of the entrance of the Cathedral of Trogir worked by Andrea Nikollë Aleksi.
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