title: Demon's Souls

text: In their 2009 Best and Worst Awards, "GameSpot" awarded "Demon's Souls" with Overall Game of the Year, Best PS3 game, Best Role-Playing game and Best Original Game Mechanic for the online integration. "GameTrailers" awarded it Best RPG and Best New intellectual property. "IGN" also awarded the game Best RPG for the PS3. "X-Play" awarded the multiplayer Best Gameplay Innovation. "PC World" awarded it Game of the Year. "RPGamer" awarded "Demon's Souls" RPG of the Year 2009, including Best Graphics and Best PS3 RPG. In 2015, "Edge" ranked the game 20th on their list of the greatest video games of all time. At the 2010 Interactive Achievement Awards, "Demon's Souls" was nominated for "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming".


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, a seaport and the centre of the Dubrovnik-Neretva County. Its total population is 42,615 (2011 census). In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in recognition of its outstanding medieval architecture and fortified old town.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The history of the city probably dates back to the 7th century, when the town known as was founded by refugees from Epidaurum (). It was under the protection of the Byzantine Empire and later under the sovereignty of the Republic of Venice. Between the 14th and 19th centuries, Dubrovnik ruled itself as a free state. The prosperity of the city was historically based on maritime trade; as the capital of the maritime Republic of Ragusa, it achieved a high level of development, particularly during the 15th and 16th centuries, as it became notable for its wealth and skilled diplomacy. At the same time, Dubrovnik became a cradle of Croatian literature.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The entire city was almost destroyed when a devastating earthquake hit in 1667. During the Napoleonic Wars, Dubrovnik was occupied by the French Empire forces, and then the Republic of Ragusa was abolished and incorporated into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy and later into the Illyrian Provinces. Later on, in the early 19th to early 20th century, Dubrovnik was part of the Kingdom of Dalmatia within the Austrian Empire. Dubrovnik became part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia immediately upon its creation, and it was incorporated into its Zeta Banovina in 1929, before becoming part of the Banovina of Croatia upon its creation in 1939. During World War II, it was part of the Axis puppet state Independent State of Croatia, before being reincorporated into SR Croatia in SFR Yugoslavia.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence, Dubrovnik was besieged by the Yugoslav People's Army for seven months and suffered significant damage from shelling. After undergoing repair and restoration works in the 1990s and early 2000s, it re-emerged as one of the Mediterranean's top tourist destinations, as well as a popular filming location.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The names "Dubrovnik" and "Ragusa" co-existed for several centuries. "Ragusa", recorded in various forms since at least the 10th century (in Latin, Dalmatian, Italian; in ), remained the official name of the Republic of Ragusa until 1808, and of the city within the Kingdom of Dalmatia until 1918, while "Dubrovnik", first recorded in the late 12th century, was in widespread use by the late 16th or early 17th century.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The name "Dubrovnik" of the Adriatic city is first recorded in the Charter of Ban Kulin (1189). The most common explanation for the origin is from a Proto-Slavic word meaning 'oak', and the term referring to 'oak wood' or 'oak forest', as in all other Slavic languages the word , , means 'oak' and , mean 'oakwood'.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The historical name "Ragusa" is recorded in the Greek form (, Latinized ) in the 10th century. It was recorded in various forms in the medieval period, "Rausia, Lavusa, Labusa, Raugia, Rachusa". Various attempts have been made to etymologize the name. Suggestions include derivation from Greek , "grape"; from Greek , "narrow passage"; Greek "ragged (of rocks)", () "fissure"; from the name of the Epirote tribe of the "Rhogoi", from an unidentified Illyrian substrate. A connection to the name of Sicilian Ragusa has also been proposed. Putanec (1993) gives a review of etymological suggestion, and favours an explanation of the name as pre-Greek ("Pelasgian"), from a root cognate to Greek "fissure", with a suffix "-ussa" also found in the Greek name of Brač, "Elaphousa". The name of the city in the native Dalmatian language, now extinct, was , as shown by a 1325 letter in Dalmatian. In Albanian, the city was referred to as "Rush" (), from Latin "Ragusium", which itself could be derived from Proto-Albanian "*rāguša" meaning "berry".


title: Dubrovnik

text: The classical explanation of the name is due to Constantine VII's "De Administrando Imperio" (10th century). According to this account, Ragusa () is the foundation of the refugees from Epidaurum (Ragusa Vecchia), a Greek city situated some to the south of Ragusa, when that city was destroyed in the Slavic incursions of the 7th century. The name is explained as a corruption of a Dalmatae/Romance word "Lausa", the name of the rocky island on which the city was built (connected by Constantine to Greek "rock, stone").


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik was inhabited by the Illyrian tribe of Dalmatae in ancient times. According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus's "De Administrando Imperio" ( 950), Ragusa was founded in the 7th century, named after a "rocky island" called "Lausa", by refugees from Epidaurum (Ragusa Vecchia), a Roman city situated some 15 km to the south, when that city was destroyed by Slavs fighting with the Avars. It was one of the Dalmatian city-states.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Antun Ničetić, in his 1996 book "" (), expounds the theory that Dubrovnik was established by Greek sailors, as a station halfway between the two Greek settlements of Budva and Korčula, apart from each of them.


title: Dubrovnik

text: After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the town came under the protection of the Byzantine Empire. Dubrovnik in those medieval centuries had a Roman population. In 12th and 13th centuries Dubrovnik became a truly oligarchic republic, and benefited greatly by becoming a commercial outpost for the rising and prosperous Serbian state, especially after the signing of a treaty with Stefan the First-Crowned. After the Crusades, Dubrovnik came under the sovereignty of Venice (1205–1358), which would give its institutions to the Dalmatian city. In 1240, Ragusa purchased the island of Lastovo from Stefan Uroš I, king of Serbia, who had rights over the island as ruler of parts of Hum. After a fire destroyed most of the city in the night of August 16, 1296, a new urban plan was developed. By the Peace Treaty of Zadar in 1358, Dubrovnik achieved relative independence as a vassal-state of the Kingdom of Hungary. Ragusa experienced further expansion when, in 1333, Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan, sold Pelješac and Ston in exchange for cash and an annual tribute at the moment when her connection with the rest of Europe, especially Italy, brought her into the full current of the Western Renaissance.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Between the 14th century and 1808, Dubrovnik ruled itself as a free state, although it was a tributary from 1382 to 1804 of the Ottoman Empire and paid an annual tribute to its sultan. The Republic reached its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries, when its thalassocracy rivalled that of the Republic of Venice and other Italian maritime republics.


title: Dubrovnik

text: For centuries, Dubrovnik was an ally of Ancona, the other Adriatic maritime republic rival of Venice, which was itself the Ottoman Empire's chief rival for control of the Adriatic. This alliance enabled the two towns set on opposite sides of the Adriatic to resist attempts by the Venetians to make the Adriatic a "Venetian Bay", also controlling directly or indirectly all the Adriatic ports. Ancona and Dubrovnik developed an alternative trade route to the Venetian (Venice–Austria–Germany): starting in Dubrovnik it went on to Ancona, through Florence and ended in Flanders.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Republic of Ragusa received its own Statutes as early as 1272, which, among other things, codified Roman practice and local customs. The Statutes included prescriptions for town planning and the regulation of quarantine (for sanitary reasons).


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Republic was an early adopter of what are now regarded as modern laws and institutions: a medical service was introduced in 1301, with the first pharmacy, still operating to this day, being opened in 1317. An almshouse was opened in 1347, and the first quarantine hospital (Lazarete) was established in 1377. Slave trading was abolished in 1418, and an orphanage opened in 1432. A water supply system, instead of a cistern, was constructed in 1438 by the Neapolitan architect and engineer Onofrio della Cava. He completed the aqueduct with two public fountains. He also built a number of mills along one of its branches.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The city was ruled by the local aristocracy which was of Latin-Dalmatian extraction and formed two city councils. As usual for the time, they maintained a strict system of social classes. The republic abolished the slave trade early in the 15th century and valued liberty highly. The city successfully balanced its sovereignty between the interests of Venice and the Ottoman Empire for centuries.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Latin was originally used in official documents of the Republic. Italian came to use in the early 15th century. A variant of the Dalmatian language was among the spoken ones, and was influenced by Croatian and Italian. The presence of Croatian in everyday speech increased in late 13th century, and in literary works in the mid-15th century. In the coming decades, Dubrovnik became a cradle of Croatian literature.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The economic wealth of the Republic was partially the result of the land it developed, but especially of seafaring trade. With the help of skilled diplomacy, Dubrovnik merchants travelled lands freely and the city had a huge fleet of merchant ships (argosy) that travelled all over the world. From these travels they founded some settlements, from India (cf. Ragusan trade with India) to America, and brought parts of their culture and flora home with them. One of its keys to success was not conquering, but trading and sailing under a white flag with the word (freedom) prominently featured on it. The flag was adopted when slave trading was abolished in 1418.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Many Conversos, Jews from Spain and Portugal who converted to Christianity, were attracted to the city. In May 1544, a ship landed there filled exclusively with Portuguese refugees, as Balthasar de Faria reported to King John. During this time there worked in the city one of the most famous cannon and bell founders of his time: Ivan Rabljanin (Magister Johannes Baptista Arbensis de la Tolle). Already in 1571 Dubrovnik sold its protectorate over some Christian settlements in other parts of the Ottoman Empire to France and Venice. At that time there was also a colony of Dubrovnik in Fes in Morocco. The bishop of Dubrovnik was a Cardinal protector in 1571, at that time there were only 16 other countries which had Cardinal protectors.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik was a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire at one time. From this, they gained benefits such as access to the Black Sea, paid less customs duties (they however needed to make tribute payments) and had the diplomatic support of the Turks in trade disputes against the Venetians. This status also allowed increased trade with the inland regions through the Balkan overland trade which made merchants from Dubrovnik to build up a strong network unequaled with other Christian states.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Republic gradually declined due to a combination of a Mediterranean shipping crisis and the catastrophic earthquake of 1667 that killed over 5,000 citizens, levelled most of the public buildings and, consequently, negatively affected the well-being of the Republic. In 1699, the Republic was forced to sell two mainland patches of its territory to the Ottomans in order to avoid being caught in the clash with advancing Venetian forces. Today this strip of land belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is that country's only direct access to the Adriatic. A highlight of Dubrovnik's diplomacy was the involvement in the American Revolution.


title: Dubrovnik

text: On 27 May 1806, the forces of the Empire of France occupied the neutral Republic of Ragusa. Upon entering Ragusan territory without permission and approaching the capital, the French General Jacques Lauriston demanded that his troops be allowed to rest and be provided with food and drink in the city before continuing on to take possession of their holdings in the Bay of Kotor. However, this was a deception because as soon as they entered the city, they proceeded to occupy it in the name of Napoleon. Almost immediately after the beginning of the French occupation, Russian and Montenegrin troops entered Ragusan territory and began fighting the French army, raiding and pillaging everything along the way and culminating in a siege of the occupied city (during which 3,000 cannonballs fell on the city). In 1808 Marshal Marmont issued a proclamation abolishing the Republic of Ragusa and amalgamating its territory into the French Empire's client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Marmont claimed the newly created title of "Duke of Ragusa" () and in 1810 Ragusa, together with Istria and Dalmatia, went to the newly created French Illyrian Provinces.


title: Dubrovnik

text: After seven years of French occupation, encouraged by the desertion of French soldiers after the failed invasion of Russia and the reentry of Austria in the war, all the social classes of the Ragusan people rose up in a general insurrection, led by the patricians, against the Napoleonic invaders. On 18 June 1813, together with British forces they forced the surrender of the French garrison of the island of Šipan, soon also the heavily fortified town of Ston and the island of Lopud, after which the insurrection spread throughout the mainland, starting with Konavle. They then laid siege to the occupied city, helped by the British Royal Navy, who had enjoyed unopposed domination over the Adriatic sea, under the command of Captain William Hoste, with his ships HMS "Bacchante" and . Soon the population inside the city joined the insurrection. The Austrian Empire sent a force under General Todor Milutinović offering to help their Ragusan allies. However, as was soon shown, their intention was to in fact replace the French occupation of Ragusa with their own. Seducing one of the temporary governors of the Republic, Biagio Bernardo Caboga, with promises of power and influence (which were later cut short and who died in ignominy, branded as a traitor by his people), they managed to convince him that the gate to the east was to be kept closed to the Ragusan forces and to let the Austrian forces enter the City from the west, without any Ragusan soldiers, once the French garrison of 500 troops under General Joseph de Montrichard had surrendered.


title: Dubrovnik

text: After this, the Flag of Saint Blaise was flown alongside the Austrian and British colors, but only for two days because, on 30 January, General Milutinović ordered Mayor Sabo Giorgi to lower it. Overwhelmed by a feeling of deep patriotic pride, Giorgi, the last Rector of the Republic, refused to do so "for the masses had hoisted it". Subsequent events proved that Austria took every possible opportunity to invade the entire coast of the eastern Adriatic, from Venice to Kotor. The Austrians did everything in their power to eliminate the Ragusa issue at the Congress of Vienna. Ragusan representative Miho Bona, elected at the last meeting of the Major Council, was denied participation in the Congress, while Milutinović, prior to the final agreement of the allies, assumed complete control of the city.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Regardless of the fact that the government of the Ragusan Republic never signed any capitulation nor relinquished its sovereignty, which according to the rules of Klemens von Metternich that Austria adopted for the Vienna Congress should have meant that the Republic would be restored, the Austrian Empire managed to convince the other allies to allow it to keep the territory of the Republic. While many smaller and less significant cities and former countries were permitted an audience, that right was refused to the representative of the Ragusan Republic. All of this was in blatant contradiction to the solemn treaties that the Austrian Emperors signed with the Republic: the first on 20 August 1684, in which Leopold I promises and guarantees inviolate liberty ("inviolatam libertatem") to the Republic, and the second in 1772, in which the Empress Maria Theresa promises protection and respect of the inviolability of the freedom and territory of the Republic.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The official language until 1472 was Latin. As a consequence of the increasing migration of Slavic population from inland Dalmatia, the language spoken by much of the population was Croatian, typically referred to in Dubrovnik's historical documents simply as "Slavic". To oppose the demographic change due to increased Slavic immigration from the Balkans, the native Romance population of Ragusa, which made up the oligarchic government of the Republic, tried to prohibit the use of any Slavic languages in official councils. Archeologists have also discovered medieval Glagolitic tablets near Dubrovnik, such as the inscription of Župa Dubrovačka, indicating that the Glagolitic script was also likely once used in the city.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Italian language as spoken in the republic was heavily influenced by the Venetian language and the Tuscan dialect. Italian took root among the Dalmatian-speaking merchant upper classes, as a result of Venetian influence which strengthened the original Latin element of the population.


title: Dubrovnik

text: When the Habsburg Empire annexed these provinces after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the new authorities implemented a bureaucratic administration, established the Kingdom of Dalmatia, which had its own Sabor (Diet) or Parliament which is the oldest Croatian political institution based in the city of Zadar, and political parties such as the Autonomist Party and the People's Party. They introduced a series of modifications intended to slowly centralise the bureaucratic, tax, religious, educational, and trade structure. These steps largely failed, despite the intention of wanting to stimulate the economy. Once the personal, political and economic damage of the Napoleonic Wars had been overcome, new movements began to form in the region, calling for a political reorganisation of the Adriatic along national lines.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The combination of these two forces—a flawed Habsburg administrative system and new national movement claiming ethnicity as the founding block toward a community—posed a particularly perplexing problem: Dalmatia was a province ruled by the German-speaking Habsburg monarchy, with bilingual (Croatian- and Italian-speaking) elites that dominated the general population consisting of a Slavic Catholic majority, as well as a Slavic Orthodox minority. Further complicating matters was the reality that increased emphases on ethnic identification in the nineteenth century did not break down along religious lines, as evident in the Serb-Catholic movement in Dubrovnik.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1815, the former Dubrovnik government (its noble assembly) met for the last time in Ljetnikovac in Mokošica. Once again, extreme measures were taken to re-establish the Republic, but it was all in vain. After the fall of the Republic most of the aristocracy was recognised by the Austrian Empire.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1832, Baron Šišmundo Getaldić-Gundulić ("Sigismondo Ghetaldi-Gondola") (1795–1860) was elected Mayor of Dubrovnik, serving for 13 years; the Austrian government granted him the title of "Baron".


title: Dubrovnik

text: Count Rafael Pucić ("Raffaele Pozza") (1828–1890) was elected for first time Podestà of Dubrovnik in the year 1869 after this was re-elected in 1872, 1875, 1882, 1884) and elected twice into the Dalmatian Council, 1870, 1876. The victory of the Nationalists in Split in 1882 strongly affected in the areas of Korčula and Dubrovnik. It was greeted by the mayor (podestà) of Dubrovnik Rafael Pucić, the National Reading Club of Dubrovnik, the Workers Association of Dubrovnik and the review "Slovinac"; by the communities of Kuna and Orebić, the latter one getting the nationalist government even before Split.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1889, the Serb-Catholic circle supported Baron Francesco Ghetaldi-Gondola, the candidate of the Autonomous Party, vs the candidate of Popular Party Vlaho de Giulli, in the 1890 election to the Dalmatian Diet. The following year, during the local government election, the Autonomous Party won the municipal re-election with Francesco Gondola, who died in power in 1899. The alliance won the election again on 27 May 1894. Frano Getaldić-Gundulić founded the "Società Philately" on 4 December 1890.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1905, the Committee for establishing electric tram service, headed by Luko Bunić – certainly one of the most deserving persons who contributed to the realisation of the project – was established. Other members of the Committee were Ivo Papi, Miho Papi, Artur Saraka, Mato Šarić, Antun Pugliesi, Mato Gracić, Ivo Degiulli, Ernest Katić and Antun Milić. The tram service in Dubrovnik existed from 1910 to 1970.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Pero Čingrija (1837–1921), one of the leaders of the People's Party in Dalmatia, played the main role in the merger of the People's Party and the Party of Right into a single Croatian Party in 1905.


title: Dubrovnik

text: With the fall of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the city was incorporated into the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later renamed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia). Dubrovnik became one of the 33 oblasts of the Kingdom. When Yugoslavia was divided among nine banovinas in 1929, the city became part of the Zeta Banovina. In 1939, Dubrovnik became part of the newly created Banovina of Croatia.


title: Dubrovnik

text: During the World War II in Yugoslavia, Dubrovnik became part of the Axis puppet state, Independent State of Croatia (NDH), occupied by the Italian Army first, and by the German Army after 8 September 1943. There were clashes between Italian and German troops in Dubrovnik when the Germans took over. In October 1944, Yugoslav Partisans liberated Dubrovnik, arresting more than 300 citizens and executing 53 without trial; this event came to be known, after the small island on which it occurred, as the Daksa executions. Communist leadership during the next several years continued political prosecutions, which culminated on 12 April 1947 with the capture and imprisonment of more than 90 citizens of Dubrovnik. After the war the remaining members of Dalmatian Italians of Dubrovnik left Yugoslavia towards Italy (Istrian-Dalmatian exodus).


title: Dubrovnik

text: Under communism Dubrovnik became part of SR Croatia within SFR Yugoslavia. After the World War II, the city started to attract crowds of tourists–even more after 1979, when the city joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The growth of tourism also led to the decision to demilitarise the Dubrovnik Old Town. The income from tourism was pivotal in the post-war development of the city, including its airport. The Dubrovnik Summer Festival was founded in 1950. The Adriatic Highway ("Magistrala") was opened in 1965 after a decade of works, connecting Dubrovnik with Rijeka along the whole coastline, and giving a boost to the tourist development of the Croatian riviera.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1991, Croatia and Slovenia, which at that time were republics within SFR Yugoslavia, declared their independence. At that event, Socialist Republic of Croatia was renamed to Republic of Croatia.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Despite the demilitarisation of the Old Town in early 1970s in an attempt to prevent it from ever becoming a casualty of war, following Croatia's independence in 1991, Yugoslav People's Army (JNA)–by then composed primarily of Serbs–attacked the city. The new Croatian government set up a military outpost in the city itself. Montenegro–led by President Momir Bulatović and Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, who came to power in the Anti-bureaucratic Revolution and were allied to Slobodan Milošević in Serbia–declared that Dubrovnik should not remain in Croatia because they claimed it historically had never been part of an independent Croatia, but rather more historically aligned with the coastal history of Montenegro. Be that as it may, at the time most residents of Dubrovnik had come to identify as Croatian, with Serbs accounting for 6.8 percent of the population.


title: Dubrovnik

text: On 1 October 1991, Dubrovnik was attacked by the JNA resulting in a siege that lasted for seven months. The heaviest artillery attack was on 6 December with 19 people killed and 60 wounded. The number of casualties in the conflict, according to Croatian Red Cross, was 114 killed civilians, among them poet Milan Milišić. Foreign newspapers were criticised for placing heavier attention on the damage suffered by the Old Town than on human casualties. Nonetheless, the artillery attacks on Dubrovnik damaged 56% of its buildings to some degree, as the historic walled city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sustained 650 hits by artillery rounds. The Croatian Army lifted the siege in May 1992, and liberated Dubrovnik's surroundings by the end of October, but the danger of sudden attacks by the JNA lasted for another three years.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Following the end of the war, damage caused by the shelling of the Old Town was repaired. Adhering to UNESCO guidelines, repairs were performed in the original style. Most of the reconstruction work was done between 1995 and 1999. The inflicted damage can be seen on a chart near the city gate, showing all artillery hits during the siege, and is clearly visible from high points around the city in the form of the more brightly coloured new roofs.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) issued indictments for JNA generals and officers involved in the bombing. General Pavle Strugar, who coordinated the attack on the city, was sentenced to a seven-and-a-half-year prison term by the tribunal for his role in the attack.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The 1996 Croatia USAF CT-43 crash, near Dubrovnik Airport, killed everyone on a United States Air Force jet, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, "The New York Times" Frankfurt Bureau chief Nathaniel C. Nash, and 33 other people.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik has a borderline humid subtropical ("Cfa") and Mediterranean climate ("Csa") in the Köppen climate classification, since only one summer month has less than of rainfall, preventing it from being classified as solely humid subtropical or Mediterranean. Dubrovnik has hot, muggy, moderately dry summers and mild to cool wet winters. The bora wind blows cold gusts down the Adriatic coast between October and April, and thundery conditions are common all the year round, even in summer, when they interrupt the warm, sunny days. The air temperatures can slightly vary, depending on the area or region. Typically, in July and August daytime maximum temperatures reach , and at night drop to around . In Spring and Autumn maximum temperatures are typically between and . Winters are among the mildest of any Croatian city, with daytime temperatures around in the coldest months. Snow in Dubrovnik is very rare.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The annual Dubrovnik Summer Festival is a 45-day-long cultural event with live plays, concerts and games. It has been awarded a Gold International Trophy for Quality (2007) by the Editorial Office in collaboration with the Trade Leaders Club.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The patron saint of the city is Sveti Vlaho (Saint Blaise), whose statues are seen around the city. He has an importance similar to that of St. Mark the Evangelist to Venice. One of the larger churches in city is named after Saint Blaise.


title: Dubrovnik

text: February 3 is the feast of Sveti Vlaho. Every year the city of Dubrovnik celebrates the holiday with Mass, parades, and festivities that last for several days.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Old Town of Dubrovnik is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 50 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2002.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The city boasts many old buildings, such as the Arboretum Trsteno, the oldest arboretum in the world, which dates back to before 1492. Also, the third-oldest European pharmacy and the oldest still in operation, having been founded in 1317, is in Dubrovnik, at the Little Brothers monastery.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In history, many Conversos (Marranos) were attracted to Dubrovnik, formerly a considerable seaport. In May 1544, a ship landed there filled exclusively with Portuguese refugees, as Balthasar de Faria reported to King John. Another admirer of Dubrovnik, George Bernard Shaw, visited the city in 1929 and said: "If you want to see heaven on earth, come to Dubrovnik."


title: Dubrovnik

text: In the bay of Dubrovnik is the wooded island of Lokrum, where according to legend, Richard the Lionheart, King of England, was cast ashore after being shipwrecked in 1192. The island includes a fortress, botanical garden, monastery and naturist beach.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Among the many tourist destinations are a few beaches. Banje, Dubrovnik's main public beach, is home to the Eastwest Beach Club. There is also Copacabana Beach, a stony beach on the Lapad peninsula, named after the popular beach in Rio de Janeiro.


title: Dubrovnik

text: By 2018, the city had to take steps to reduce the excessive number of tourists, especially in the Old Town. One method to moderate the overcrowding was to stagger the arrival/departure times of cruise ships to spread the number of visitors more evenly during the week.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Few of Dubrovnik's Renaissance buildings survived the earthquake of 1667 but enough remained to give an idea of the city's architectural heritage. The finest Renaissance highlight is the Sponza Palace which dates from the 16th century and is currently used to house the National Archives. The Rector's Palace is a Gothic-Renaissance structure that displays finely carved capitals and an ornate staircase. It now houses a museum. Its façade is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 50 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2002. The St. Saviour Church is another remnant of the Renaissance period, next to the much-visited Franciscan Church and Monastery. The Franciscan monastery's library possesses 30,000 volumes, 216 incunabula, 1,500 valuable handwritten documents. Exhibits include a 15th-century silver-gilt cross and silver thurible, and an 18th-century crucifix from Jerusalem, a martyrology (1541) by Bemardin Gucetic and illuminated psalters.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik's most beloved church is St Blaise's church, built in the 18th century in honour of Dubrovnik's patron saint. Dubrovnik's Baroque Cathedral was built in the 18th century and houses an impressive Treasury with relics of Saint Blaise. The city's Dominican Monastery resembles a fortress on the outside but the interior contains an art museum and a Gothic-Romanesque church. A special treasure of the Dominican monastery is its library with 216 incunabula, numerous illustrated manuscripts, a rich archive with precious manuscripts and documents and an extensive art collection.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Neapolitan architect and engineer Onofrio della Cava completed the aqueduct with two public fountains, both built in 1438. Close to the Pile Gate stands the Big Onofrio's Fountain in the middle of a small square. It may have been inspired by the former Romanesque baptistry of the former cathedral in Bunić Square. The sculptural elements were lost in the earthquake of 1667. Water jets gush out of the mouth of the sixteen mascarons. The Little Onofrio's Fountain stands at the eastern side of the Placa, supplying water to the market place in the Luža Square. The sculptures were made by the Milanese artist Pietro di Martino (who also sculpted the ornaments in the Rector's Palace and made a statue – now lost – for the Franciscan church).


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Dubrovnik Bell Tower, built in 1444, is one of the symbols of the free city state of Ragusa. It was built by the local architects Grubačević, Utišenović and Radončić. It was rebuilt in 1929 as it had lost its stability through an earthquake and was in danger of falling. The brass face of the clock shows the phases of the moon. Two human figures strike the bell every hour. The tower stands next to the House of the Main Guard, also built in Gothic style. It was the residence of the admiral, commander-in-chief of the army. The Baroque portal was built between 1706 and 1708 by the Venetian architect Marino Gropelli (who also built St Blaise's church).


title: Dubrovnik

text: In 1418, the Republic of Ragusa, as Dubrovnik was then named, erected a statue of Roland (Ital. Orlando) as a symbol of loyalty to Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368–1437), King of Hungary and Croatia (as of 1387), Prince-Elector of Brandenburg (between 1378 and 1388 and again between 1411 and 1415), German King (as of 1411), King of Bohemia (as of 1419) and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (as of 1433), who helped by a successful war alliance against Venice to retain Ragusa's independence. It stands in the middle of Luža Square. Roland statues were typical symbols of city autonomy or independence, often erected under Sigismund in his Electorate of Brandenburg. In 1419 the sculptor Bonino of Milano, with the help of local craftsmen, replaced the first Roland with the present Gothic statue. Its forearm was for a long time the unit of measure in Dubrovnik: one ell of Dubrovnik is equal to .


title: Dubrovnik

text: A feature of Dubrovnik is its walls (1.3 million visitors in 2018), which run almost around the city. The walls are thick on the landward side but are much thinner on the seaward side. The system of turrets and towers were intended to protect the vulnerable city. The walls of Dubrovnik have also been a popular filming location for the fictional city of King's Landing in the HBO television series, "Game of Thrones".


title: Dubrovnik

text: The population was 42,615 in 2011, down from 49,728 in 1991 In the 2011 census, 90.34% of the population identified as Croat.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik has its own international airport, located approximately southeast of Dubrovnik city centre, near Čilipi. Buses connect the airport with the Dubrovnik old main bus station in Gruž. In addition, a network of modern, local buses connects all Dubrovnik neighbourhoods running frequently from dawn to midnight. However, Dubrovnik, unlike Croatia's other major centres, is not accessible by rail; until 1975 Dubrovnik was connected to Mostar and Sarajevo by a narrow gauge railway (760 mm) built during the Austro-Hungarian rule of Bosnia.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The A1 highway, in use between Zagreb and Ploče, is planned to be extended all the way to Dubrovnik. Because the area around the city is disconnected from the rest of Croatian territory, the highway will either cross the Pelješac Bridge whose construction is in preparation as of 2018, or run through Neum in Bosnia and Herzegovina and continue to Dubrovnik.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik has a number of higher educational institutions. These include the University of Dubrovnik, the Libertas University (Dubrovnik International University), Rochester Institute of Technology Croatia (former American College of Management and Technology), a University Centre for Postgraduate Studies of the University of Zagreb, and an Institute of History of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The city will host the 2025 World Men's Handball Championship at the new arena, along with the countries Denmark and Norway.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Roger Corman's 1964 war thriller "The Secret Invasion" is set in Dubrovnik and was filmed on location there. Although the story is fiction the fighting between Italian and German troops depicted at the end is based on fact.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The HBO series "Game of Thrones" used Dubrovnik as a filming location, representing the cities of King's Landing and Qarth.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Parts of "" were filmed in Dubrovnik in March 2016, in which Dubrovnik was used as the setting for the casino city of Canto Bight.


title: Dubrovnik

text: Dubrovnik was one of the European sites used in the Bollywood movie "Fan" (2016), starring Shah Rukh Khan.


title: Dubrovnik

text: In Kander and Ebb's song "Ring Them Bells," the protagonist, Shirley Devore, goes to Dubrovnik to look for a husband and meets her neighbor from New York.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The text-based video game "Quarantine Circular" is set aboard a ship off the coast of Dubrovnik, and a few references to the city are made throughout the course of the game.


title: Dubrovnik

text: The Dubrovniks were an Australian Independent rock band formed in 1987. Often regarded as a 'Supergroup' due to the band members having played in various established bands such as Hoodoo Gurus, Beasts of Bourbon, and The Scientists. The band chose their name due to two members of the band Roddy Radalj (guitar vocals) and Boris Sujdovik (bass) being born in Dubrovnik.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans (; ; ; ) are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic and ethnic religion.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritan tradition claims the group descends from the northern Israelite tribes who were not deported by the Neo-Assyrian Empire after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. They consider Samaritanism to be the true religion of the ancient Israelites and regard Judaism as a closely related but altered religion. Samaritans also regard Mount Gerizim (near both Nablus and biblical Shechem), and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to be the holiest place on Earth. They attribute the schism between Samaritanism and Judaism to have been caused by Eli creating an alternate shrine at Shiloh, in opposition to Mount Gerizim.


title: Samaritans

text: Once a large community, the Samaritan population shrank significantly in the wake of the brutal suppression of the Samaritan revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Mass conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines and later to Islam following the Muslim conquest of the Levant further reduced their numbers. In the 12th century, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela estimated that only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in the regions of Palestine and Syria. As of 2021, the community stood at around 840 individuals, divided between Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim and the Samaritan compound in Holon. There are also small populations in Brazil and Sicily and elsewhere. The head of the Samaritan community is the Samaritan High Priest. The Samaritans in Kiryat Luza speak Levantine Arabic, while those in Holon primarily speak Israeli Hebrew. For the purposes of liturgy, Samaritan Hebrew and Samaritan Aramaic are used, both written in the Samaritan script.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice versa, largely due to interfaith marriages. While Israel's rabbinic authorities came to consider Samaritanism to be a sect of Judaism, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel requires Samaritans to undergo a formal conversion to Judaism in order to be officially recognized as Halakhic Jews. Rabbinic literature rejected Samaritans unless they renounced Mount Gerizim as the historical Israelite holy site. Samaritans possessing only Israeli citizenship in Holon are drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, while those holding dual Israeli and Palestinian citizenship in Kiryat Luza are exempted from mandatory military service.


title: Samaritans

text: Inscriptions from the Samaritan diaspora in Delos, dating as early as 150-50 BCE, and perhaps slightly earlier, provide the "oldest known self-designation" for Samaritans, indicating that they called themselves "Israelites". Strictly speaking, the Samaritans now refer to themselves generally as 'Israelite Samaritans.'


title: Samaritans

text: In their own language the Samaritans call themselves "Shamerim" (שַמֶרִים), meaning 'Guardians/Keepers/Watchers', and in Arabic ().


title: Samaritans

text: The term is cognate with the Biblical Hebrew term "Šomerim", and both terms reflect a Semitic root שמר, which means "to watch, guard".


title: Samaritans

text: Historically, Samaritans were concentrated in Samaria. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called "Shomronim" {שומרונים}, which also means "inhabitants of Samaria", literally, "Samaritans".


title: Samaritans

text: That the meaning of their name signifies "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers [of the Law/Torah", rather than being a toponym referring to the inhabitants of the region of Samaria, was remarked on by a number of Christian Church fathers, including Epiphanius of Salamis in the "Panarion", Jerome and Eusebius in the "Chronicon" and Origen in "The Commentary on Saint John's Gospel."


title: Samaritans

text: Josephus uses several terms for the Samaritans, which he appears to use interchangeably. Among them is reference to "Khuthaioi", a designation employed to denote peoples in Media and Persian putatively sent to Samaria to replace the exiled Israelite population. These Khouthaioi were in fact Hellenistic Phoenicians/Sidonians. "Samareis" (Σαμαρεῖς) may refer to inhabitants of the region of Samaria, or of the city of that name, though some texts use it to refer specifically to Samaritans.


title: Samaritans

text: The similarities between Samaritans and Jews was such that the rabbis of the Mishnah found it impossible to draw a clear distinction between the two groups. Attempts to date when the schism among Israelites took place, which engendered the division between Samaritans and Judaeans, vary greatly, from the time of Ezra down to the destruction of Jerusalem (70 CE) and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-136 CE). The emergence of a distinctive Samaritan identity, the outcome of a mutual estrangement between them and Jews, was something that developed over several centuries. Generally, a decisive rupture is believed to have taken place in the Hasmonean period.


title: Samaritans

text: Ancestrally, Samaritans affirm that they descend from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh in ancient Samaria. Samaritan tradition associates the split between them and the Judean-led Southern Israelites to the time of the biblical priest Eli, described as a "false" high priest who usurped the priestly office from its occupant, Uzzi, and established a rival shrine at Shiloh, and thereby prevented southern pilgrims from Judah and the territory of Benjamin from attending the shrine at Gerizim. Eli is also held to have created a duplicate of the Ark of the Covenant, which eventually made its way to the Judahite sanctuary in Jerusalem.


title: Samaritans

text: A Jewish Orthodox tradition, based on material in the Bible, Josephus and the Talmud, dates their presence much later, to the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. In Rabbinic Judaism, for example in the Tosefta Berakhot, the Samaritans are called "Cuthites" or Cutheans (, "Kutim"), referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. Josephus in both the "Wars of the Jews" and the "Antiquities of the Jews", in writing of the destruction of the temple on Mt. Gerizim by John Hyrcanus 1, also refers to the Samaritans as the Cuthaeans. In the biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of several cities from which people were brought to Samaria.


title: Samaritans

text: The Israeli biblical scholar Shemaryahu Talmon has supported the Samaritan tradition that they are mainly descended from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh who remained in Israel after the Assyrian conquest. He states that the description of them at as foreigners is tendentious and intended to ostracize the Samaritans from those Israelites who returned from the Babylonian exile in 520 BCE. He further states that could be interpreted as confirming that a large fraction of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (i.e., Samaritans) remained in Israel after the Assyrian exile.


title: Samaritans

text: Modern genetic studies support the Samaritan narrative that they descend from indigenous Israelites. Shen et al. (2004) formerly speculated that outmarriage with foreign women may have taken place. Most recently the same group came up with genetic evidence that Samaritans are closely linked to Cohanim, and therefore can be traced back to an Israelite population prior to the Assyrian invasion. This correlates with expectations from the fact that the Samaritans retained endogamous and biblical patrilineal marriage customs, and that the Samaritans remained a genetically isolated population.


title: Samaritans

text: The Samaritan traditions of their history are contained in the "Kitab al-Ta'rikh" compiled by Abu'l-Fath in 1355. According to this, a text which Magnar Kartveit identifies as a "fictional" apologia drawn from earlier sources, including Josephus but perhaps also from ancient traditions, a civil war erupted among the Israelites when Eli, son of Yafni, the treasurer of the sons of Israel, sought to usurp the High Priesthood of Israel from the heirs of Phinehas. Gathering disciples and binding them by an oath of loyalty, he sacrificed on the stone altar, without using salt, a rite which made the then High Priest Ozzi rebuke and disown him. Eli and his acolytes revolted and shifted to Shiloh, where he built an alternative Temple and an altar, a perfect replica of the original on Mt. Gerizim. Eli's sons Hophni and Phinehas had intercourse with women and feasted on the meats of the sacrifice, inside the Tabernacle. Thereafter Israel was split into three factions: the original Mt. Gerizim community of loyalists, the breakaway group under Eli, and heretics worshipping idols associated with the latter's sons. Judaism emerged later with those who followed the example of Eli.


title: Samaritans

text: Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The reference to Mount Gerizim derives from the biblical story of Moses ordering Joshua to take the Twelve Tribes of Israel to the mountains by Shechem (Nablus) and place half of the tribes, six in number, on Mount Gerizim, the Mount of the Blessing, and the other half on Mount Ebal, the Mount of the Curse.


title: Samaritans

text: Accounts of Samaritan origins in respectively 2 Kings 17:6,24 and Chronicles, together with statements in both Ezra and Nehemiah differ in important degrees, suppressing or highlighting narrative details according to the various intentions of their authors.


title: Samaritans

text: The emergence of the Samaritans as an ethnic and religious community distinct from other Levant peoples appears to have occurred at some point after the Assyrian conquest of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel in approximately 721 BCE. The records of Sargon II of Assyria indicate that he deported 27,290 inhabitants of the former kingdom.


title: Samaritans

text: Jewish tradition affirms the Assyrian deportations and replacement of the previous inhabitants by forced resettlement by other peoples but claims a different ethnic origin for the Samaritans. The Talmud accounts for a people called "Cuthim" on a number of occasions, mentioning their arrival by the hands of the Assyrians. According to 2 Kings 17:6, 24 and Josephus, the people of Israel were removed by the king of the Assyrians (Sargon II) to Halah, to Gozan on the Khabur River and to the towns of the Medes. The king of the Assyrians then brought people from Babylon, Kutha, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim to place in Samaria. Because God sent lions among them to kill them, the king of the Assyrians sent one of the priests from Bethel to teach the new settlers about God's ordinances. The eventual result was that the new settlers worshipped both the God of the land and their own gods from the countries from which they came.


title: Samaritans

text: In the Chronicles, following Samaria's destruction, King Hezekiah is depicted as endeavouring to draw the Ephraimites, Zebulonites, Asherites and Manassites closer to Judah. Temple repairs at the time of Josiah were financed by money from all "the remnant of Israel" in Samaria, including from Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin. Jeremiah likewise speaks of people from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria who brought offerings of frankincense and grain to the House of YHWH. Chronicles makes no mention of an Assyrian resettlement. Yitzakh Magen argues that the version of Chronicles is perhaps closer to the historical truth and that the Assyrian settlement was unsuccessful, a notable Israelite population remained in Samaria, part of which, following the conquest of Judah, fled south and settled there as refugees.


title: Samaritans

text: Adam Zertal dates the Assyrian onslaught at 721 BCE to 647 BCE, infers from a pottery type he identifies as Mesopotamian clustering around the Menasheh lands of Samaria, that they were three waves of imported settlers.


title: Samaritans

text: The "Encyclopaedia Judaica" (under "Samaritans") summarizes both past and present views on the Samaritans' origins. It says:


title: Samaritans

text: Josephus, a key source, has long been considered a prejudiced witness hostile to the Samaritans, He displays an ambiguous attitude, calling them both a distinct, opportunistic ethnos and, alternatively, a Jewish sect.


title: Samaritans

text: The Dead Sea scrolls' Proto-Esther fragment 4Q550 has an obscure phrase about the possibility of a "Kutha(ean)"("Kuti") man returning but the reference remains obscure. 4Q372 records hopes that the northern tribes will return to the land of Joseph. The current dwellers in the north are referred to as fools, an enemy people. However, they are not referred to as foreigners. It goes on to say that the Samaritans mocked Jerusalem and built a temple on a high place to provoke Israel.


title: Samaritans

text: The narratives in Genesis about the rivalries among the twelve sons of Jacob are viewed by some as describing tensions between north and south. According to the Hebrew Bible, they were temporarily united under a United Monarchy, but after the death of Solomon, the kingdom split in two, the northern Kingdom of Israel with its last capital city Samaria and the southern Kingdom of Judah with its capital, Jerusalem. The Deuteronomistic history, written in Judah, portrayed Israel as a sinful kingdom, divinely punished for its idolatry and iniquity by being destroyed by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE. The tensions continued in the post-exilic period. The Books of Kings are more inclusive than Ezra–Nehemiah since the ideal is of one Israel with twelve tribes, whereas the Books of Chronicles concentrate on the Kingdom of Judah and ignore the Kingdom of Israel.


title: Samaritans

text: Contemporary scholarship confirms that deportations did take place both before and after the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in 722-720 BCE. However, these deportations are thought to have been less severe than the Book of Kings portrays. During the earlier Assyrian invasions, the Transjordan did experience significant deportations, with entire tribes vanishing; the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Dan, and Naphtali are never again mentioned. However, Samaria was a larger and more populated area, and even if the Assyrians did deport 30,000 people as they claimed, many would have remained in the area. The cities of Samaria and Megiddo were mostly left intact, and the rural communities were generally left alone. Some scholars have claimed there's no evidence to support the settlement of foreigners in the area, however, others disagree. Nevertheless, the Book of Chronicles records that King Hezekiah of Judah invited members of the tribes of Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Issachar and Manasseh to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover after the destruction of Israel. In light of this, it has been suggested that the bulk of those who survived the Assyrian invasions remained in the region. The Samaritan community of today is thought to be predominantly descended from those who remained.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans claim to be descended from the Israelites of ancient Samaria who were not expelled by the Assyrian conquerors of the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BCE. They had their own sacred precinct on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. Moreover, they claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter the other's territories or even to speak to the other. During the New Testament period, the tensions were exploited by Roman authorities as they likewise had done between rival tribal factions elsewhere, and Josephus reports numerous violent confrontations between Jews and Samaritans throughout the first half of the first century.


title: Samaritans

text: According to Chronicles 36:22–23, the Persian emperor, Cyrus the Great (reigned 559–530 BCE), permitted the return of the exiles to their homeland and ordered the rebuilding of the Temple (Zion). The prophet Isaiah identified Cyrus as "the Lord's Messiah".


title: Samaritans

text: During the First Temple, it was possible for foreigners to help the Jewish people in an informal way until tension grew between the Samaritans and Judeans. This meant that foreigners could physically move into Judean land and abide by its laws and religion.


title: Samaritans

text: Ezra 4 says that the local inhabitants of the land offered to assist with the building of the new Temple during the time of Zerubbabel, but their offer was rejected. According to Ezra, this rejection precipitated a further interference not only with the rebuilding of the Temple but also with the reconstruction of Jerusalem. The issue surrounding the Samaritans offer to help rebuild the temple was a complicated one that took a while for the Judeans to think over. There had always been a division between the north and the south and this instance perfectly illustrates that. Following Solomon's death, sectionalism formed and inevitably led to the division of the kingdom. This division led to the Judeans rejecting the offer made by the Samaritans to centralise worship at the Temple.


title: Samaritans

text: The text is not clear on this matter, but one possibility is that these "people of the land" were thought of as Samaritans. We do know that Samaritan and Jewish alienation increased and that the Samaritans eventually built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, near Shechem.


title: Samaritans

text: The term "Cuthim" applied by Jews to the Samaritans had clear pejorative connotations, and is regarded as an insult to Samaritanism, implying that they were interlopers brought in from Kutha in Mesopotamia and rejecting their claim of descent from the ancient Tribes of Israel.


title: Samaritans

text: The archaeological evidence from can find no sign of habitation in the Assyrian and Babylonian periods at Mount Gerizim, but indicates the existence of a sacred precinct on the site in the Persian period, by the 5th century BCE. According to most modern scholars, the split between the Jews and Samaritans was a gradual historical process extending over several centuries rather than a single schism at a given point in time.


title: Samaritans

text: Antiochus IV Epiphanes was on the throne of the Seleucid Empire from 175 to 163 BCE. His policy was to Hellenize his entire kingdom and standardize religious observance. According to 1 Maccabees 1:41-50 he proclaimed himself the incarnation of the Greek god Zeus and mandated death to anyone who refused to worship him. In the 2nd century BCE, a series of events led to a revolution by a faction of Judeans against Antiochus IV.


title: Samaritans

text: The universal peril led the Samaritans, eager for safety, to repudiate all connection and kinship with the Jews. The request was granted. This was put forth as the final breach between the two groups. The breach was described at a much later date in the Christian Bible (John 4:9), "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans."


title: Samaritans

text: During the Hellenistic period, Samaria was largely divided between a Hellenizing faction based in Samaria (Sebastia) and a pious faction in Shechem and surrounding rural areas, led by the High Priest. Samaria was a largely autonomous state nominally dependent on the Seleucid Empire until around 110 BCE, when the Hasmonean ruler John Hyrcanus destroyed the Samaritan temple and devastated Samaria. Only a few stone remnants of the temple exist today.


title: Samaritans

text: Under the Roman Empire, Samaria became a part of the Herodian Tetrarchy, and with the deposition of the Herodian ethnarch Herod Archelaus in the early 1st century CE, Samaria became a part of the province of Judaea.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans appear briefly in the Christian gospels, most notably in the account of the Samaritan woman at the well and the parable of the Good Samaritan. In the former, it is noted that a substantial number of Samaritans accepted Jesus through the woman's testimony to them, and Jesus stayed in Samaria for two days before returning to Cana. In the latter, it is only the Samaritan who helped the man stripped of clothing, beaten, and left on the road half dead, his Abrahamic covenantal circumcision implicitly evident. The priest and Levite walked past. But the Samaritan helped the naked man regardless of his nakedness (itself religiously offensive to the priest and Levite), his self-evident poverty, or to which Hebrew sect he belonged.


title: Samaritans

text: The Temple of Gerizim was rebuilt after the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Romans, around 136 CE. A building dating to the second century BCE, the Delos Synagogue, is commonly identified as a Samaritan synagogue, which would make it the oldest known Jewish or Samaritan synagogue.


title: Samaritans

text: According to Samaritan sources, Eastern Roman emperor Zeno (who ruled 474–491 and whom the sources call "Zait the King of Edom") persecuted the Samaritans. The Emperor went to Neapolis (Shechem), gathered the elders and asked them to convert to Christianity; when they refused, Zeno had many Samaritans killed, and re-built the synagogue as a church. Zeno then took for himself Mount Gerizim, and built several edifices, among them a tomb for his recently deceased son, on which he put a cross, so that the Samaritans, worshiping God, would prostrate in front of the tomb. Later, in 484, the Samaritans revolted. The rebels attacked Sichem, burned five churches built on Samaritan holy places and cut the finger of bishop Terebinthus, who was officiating at the ceremony of Pentecost. They elected a Justa (or Justasa/Justasus) as their king and moved to Caesarea, where a noteworthy Samaritan community lived. Here several Christians were killed and the church of St. Sebastian was destroyed. Justa celebrated the victory with games in the circus. According to the Chronicon Paschale, the "dux Palaestinae" Asclepiades, whose troops were reinforced by the Caesarea-based Arcadiani of Rheges, defeated Justa, killed him and sent his head to Zeno. According to Procopius, Terebinthus went to Zeno to ask for revenge; the Emperor personally went to Samaria to quell the rebellion.


title: Samaritans

text: Some modern historians believe that the order of the facts preserved by Samaritan sources should be inverted, as the persecution of Zeno was a consequence of the rebellion rather than its cause, and should have happened after 484, around 489. Zeno rebuilt the church of St. Procopius in Neapolis (Sichem) and the Samaritans were banned from Mount Gerizim, on whose top a signaling tower was built to alert in case of civil unrest.


title: Samaritans

text: According to an anonymous biography of Mesopotamian monk named Barsauma, whose pilgrimage to the region in the early 5th century was accompanied by clashes with locals and the forced conversion of non-Christians, Barsauma managed to convert Samaritans by conducting demonstrations of healing. Jacob, an ascetic healer living in a cave near Porphyreon, Mount Carmel in the 6th century CE, attracted admirers, including Samaritans who later converted to Christianity. Under growing government pressure, many Samaritans who refused to convert to Christianity in the sixth century may have preferred paganism and even Manicheism.


title: Samaritans

text: Under a charismatic, messianic figure named Julianus ben Sabar (or ben Sahir), the Samaritans launched a war to create their own independent state in 529. With the help of the Ghassanids, Emperor Justinian I crushed the revolt; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved. The Samaritan faith, which had previously enjoyed the status of "religio licita", was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire; from a population once at least in the hundreds of thousands, the Samaritan community dwindled to tens of thousands.


title: Samaritans

text: The Samaritan community dropped in numbers during the various periods of Muslim rule in the region. The Samaritans could not rely on foreign assistance as much as the Christians did, nor on a large number of diaspora immigrants as did the Jews. The once-flourishing community declined over time, either through emigration or conversion to Islam among those who remained. According to Milka Levy-Rubin, many Samaritans converted under Abbasid and Tulunid rule.


title: Samaritans

text: By the time of the Muslim conquest of the Levant, apart from Palestine, small dispersed communities of Samaritans were living also in Arab Egypt, Syria, and Iran. Like other non-Muslims in the empire, such as Jews, Samaritans were often considered to be People of the Book, and were guaranteed religious freedom. Their minority status was protected by the Muslim rulers, and they had the right to practice their religion, but, as dhimmi, adult males had to pay the jizya or "protection tax". This however changed during late Abbasid period, with increasing persecution targeting the Samaritan community and considering them infidels which must convert to Islam. The tradition of men wearing a red tarboosh may go back to an order by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861 CE) that required non-Muslims to be distinguished from Muslims.


title: Samaritans

text: During the Crusades, the Frankish takeover of Nablus, where the majority of Samaritans lived, was relatively peaceful compared to the massacres elsewhere where one can assume that Samaritans shared the fate of Arabs and Jews generally in Palestine by being put to death or enslaved. Such acts took place in Samaritan maritime communities in Arsuf, Caesarea, Acre and perhaps Ascalon. During the initial razzia in Nablus, nonetheless, the invading Franks destroyed Samaritan buildings and sometime latter tore down their ritual bath and synagogue on Mt. Gerizim. Christians bearing crosses successfully pleaded for a calm transition. Like the non-Latin Christian inhabitants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, came to be tolerated and perhaps favored because they were docile and had been mentioned positively in the New Testament. The calamities that befell them during the Frankish reign came from Muslims such as the commander of the Dasmascene army, Bazwȃdj, who raided Nablus in 1137 and abducted 500 Samaritan men, women and children back to Damascus.


title: Samaritans

text: While the majority of the Samaritan population in Damascus was massacred or converted during the reign of the Ottoman Pasha Mardam Beqin in the early 17th century, the remainder of the Samaritan community there, in particular, the Danafi family, which is still influential today, moved back to Nablus in the 17th century.


title: Samaritans

text: The Nablus community endured because most of the surviving diaspora returned, and they have maintained a tiny presence there to this day. In 1624, the last Samaritan High Priest of the line of Eleazar son of Aaron died without issue, but according to Samaritan tradition, descendants of Aaron's other son, Ithamar, remained and took over the office.


title: Samaritans

text: By the late Ottoman period, the Samaritan community dwindled to its lowest. In the 19th century, with pressure of conversion and persecution from the local rulers and occasional natural disasters, the community fell to just over 100 persons.


title: Samaritans

text: The situation of the Samaritan community improved significantly during the British Mandate of Palestine. At that time, they began to work in the public sector, like many other groups. The censuses of 1922 and 1931 recorded 163 and 182 Samaritans in Palestine, respectively. The majority of them lived in Nablus.


title: Samaritans

text: After the end of the British Mandate of Palestine and the subsequent establishment of the State of Israel, some of the Samaritans who were living in Jaffa emigrated to Samaria and lived in Nablus. By the late 1950s, around 100 Samaritans left the West Bank for Israel under an agreement with the Jordanian authorities in the West Bank. In 1954, Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi fostered a Samaritan enclave in Holon, Israel, located in 15a Ben Amram Street. During Jordanian rule in the West Bank, Samaritans from Holon were permitted to visit Mount Gerizim only once a year, on Passover.


title: Samaritans

text: In 1967, Israel conquered the West Bank during the Six-Day War, and the Samaritans there came under Israeli rule. Until the 1990s, most of the Samaritans in the West Bank resided in the West Bank city of Nablus below Mount Gerizim. They relocated to the mountain itself near the Israeli settlement of Har Brakha as a result of violence during the First Intifada (1987–1990). Consequently, all that is left of the Samaritan community in Nablus itself is an abandoned synagogue. The Israeli army maintains a presence in the area. The Samaritans of Nablus relocated to the village of Kiryat Luza. In the mid-1990s, the Samaritans of Kiryat Luza were granted Israeli citizenship. They also became citizens of the Palestinian Authority following the Oslo Accords. As a result, they are the only people to possess dual Israeli-Palestinian citizenship.


title: Samaritans

text: Today, Samaritans in Israel are fully integrated into society and serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The Samaritans of the West Bank seek good relations with their Palestinian neighbors while maintaining their Israeli citizenship, tend to be fluent in Hebrew and Arabic, and use both a Hebrew and Arab name.


title: Samaritans

text: Demographic investigations of the Samaritan community were carried out in the 1960s. Detailed pedigrees of the last 13 generations show that the Samaritans comprise four lineages:


title: Samaritans

text: Recently several genetic studies on the Samaritan population were made using haplogroup comparisons as well as wide-genome genetic studies. Of the 12 Samaritan males used in the analysis, 10 (83%) had Y chromosomes belonging to haplogroup J, which includes three of the four Samaritan families. The Joshua-Marhiv family belongs to Haplogroup J-M267 (formerly "J1"), while the Danafi and Tsedakah families belong to haplogroup J-M172 (formerly "J2"), and can be further distinguished by the M67 SNP—the derived allele of which has been found in the Danafi family—and the PF5169 SNP found in the Tsedakah family. However the biggest and most important Samaritan family, the Cohen family (Tradition: Tribe of Levi), was found to belong to haplogroup E.


title: Samaritans

text: A 2004 article on the genetic ancestry of the Samaritans by Shen "et al." concluded from a sample comparing Samaritans to several Jewish populations, all currently living in Israel—representing the Beta Israel, Ashkenazi Jews, Iraqi Jews, Libyan Jews, Moroccan Jews, and Yemenite Jews, as well as Israeli Druze and Palestinians—that "the principal components analysis suggested a common ancestry of Samaritan and Jewish patrilineages. Most of the former may be traced back to a common ancestor in what is today identified as the paternally inherited Israelite high priesthood (Cohanim) with a common ancestor projected to the time of the Assyrian conquest of the kingdom of Israel."


title: Samaritans

text: There were 1 million Samaritans in biblical times, but in recent times the numbers are smaller. There were 100 in 1786 and 141 in 1919, then 150 in 1967. This grew to 745 in 2011, 751 in 2012, 756 in 2013, 760 in 2014, 777 in 2015, 785 in 2016, 796 in 2017, 810 in 2018 and 820 in 2019.


title: Samaritans

text: Half reside in modern homes at Kiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim, which is sacred to them, and the rest in the city of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv. There are also four Samaritan families residing in Binyamina-Giv'at Ada, Matan, and Ashdod.


title: Samaritans

text: As a small community physically divided between neighbors in a hostile region, Samaritans have been hesitant to overtly take sides in the Arab–Israeli conflict, fearing that doing so could lead to negative repercussions. While the Samaritan communities in both the West Bank's Nablus and Israeli Holon have assimilated to the surrounding respective cultures, Hebrew has become the primary domestic language for Samaritans. Samaritans who are Israeli citizens are drafted into the military, along with the Jewish citizens of Israel.


title: Samaritans

text: Relations of Samaritans with Israeli Jews, Muslim and Christian Palestinians in neighboring areas have been mixed. Samaritans living in both Israel and in the West Bank have Israeli citizenship.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans in the Palestinian Authority-ruled territories are a minority in the midst of a Muslim majority. They had a reserved seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the election of 1996, but they no longer have one. Samaritans living in the West Bank have been granted passports by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.


title: Samaritans

text: One of the biggest problems facing the community today is the issue of continuity. With such a small population, divided into only four families or houses (Cohen, Tsedakah, Danafi, and Marhiv, with the Matar family dying out in 1968), and a general refusal to accept converts, it is common for Samaritans to marry within their extended families, even first cousins. There has been a history of genetic disorders within the group due to the small gene pool. To counter this, the Holon Samaritan community has allowed men from the community to marry non-Samaritan (primarily, Israeli Jewish) women, provided that the women agree to follow Samaritan religious practices. There is a six-month trial period before officially joining the Samaritan community to see whether this is a commitment that the woman would like to take. This often poses a problem for the women, who are typically less than eager to adopt the strict interpretation of biblical (Levitical) laws regarding menstruation, by which they must live in a separate dwelling during their periods and after childbirth. There have been a few instances of intermarriage. In addition, all marriages within the Samaritan community are first approved by a geneticist at Tel HaShomer Hospital, in order to prevent the spread of genetic disorders. In meetings arranged by "international marriage agencies", a small number of women from Russia and Ukraine who agree to observe Samaritan religious practices have been allowed to marry into the Qiryat Luza Samaritan community in an effort to expand the gene pool.


title: Samaritans

text: The Samaritan community in Israel also faces demographic challenges as some young people leave the community and convert to Judaism. A notable example is Israeli television presenter Sofi Tsedaka, who has made a documentary about her leaving the community at age 18.


title: Samaritans

text: The head of the community is the Samaritan High Priest, who is the 133rd generation since Ithamar, a son of Aaron the priest's line from 1624 CE onward; before then, the line of priesthood went through Elazar, son of Aaron the priest. The current high priest is Aabed-El ben Asher ben Matzliach who assumed the office on 19 April 2013. The High Priest of every generation is selected by the eldest in age from the priestly family and resides on Mount Gerizim.


title: Samaritans

text: Much of the local Palestinian population of Nablus is believed to be descended from Samaritans who converted to Islam. According to the historian Fayyad Altif, large numbers of Samaritans converted due to persecution under various Muslim rulers, and because the monotheistic nature of Islam made it easy for them to accept it. The Samaritans themselves describe the Ottoman period as the worst period in their modern history, as many Samaritan families were forced to convert to Islam during that time. Even today, certain Nabulsi family names such as Al-Amad, Al-Samri, Maslamani, Yaish, and Shaksheer among others, are associated with Samaritan ancestry.


title: Samaritans

text: For the Samaritans in particular, the passing of the al-Hakim Edict by the Fatimid Caliphate in 1021, under which all Jews and Christians in the Southern Levant were ordered to either convert to Islam or leave, along with another notable forced conversion to Islam imposed at the hands of the rebel ibn Firāsa, would contribute to their rapid unprecedented decrease, and ultimately almost complete extinction as a separate religious community. As a result, they had decreased from nearly a million and a half in late Roman (Byzantine) times to 146 people by the end of the Ottoman period.


title: Samaritans

text: In 1940, the future Israeli president and historian Yitzhak Ben-Zvi wrote an article in which he stated that two thirds of the residents of Nablus and the surrounding neighboring villages were of Samaritan origin. He mentioned the name of several Palestinian Muslim families as having Samaritan origins, including the Al-Amad, Al-Samri, Buwarda and Kasem families, who protected Samaritans from Muslim persecution in the 1850s. He further claimed that these families had written records testifying to their Samaritan ancestry, which were maintained by their priests and elders.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritanism is centered on the Samaritan Pentateuch, which Samaritans believe to be the original and unaltered version of the Torah that was given to Moses and the Israelites on Mount Sinai. The Samaritan Pentateuch contains some differences from the Masoretic version of the Torah used in Judaism; according to Samaritan tradition, key parts of the Jewish text were fabricated by Ezra. The Samaritan version of the Book of Joshua also differs from the Jewish version, which focuses on Shiloh. According to Samaritan tradition, Joshua built a temple ("al-haikal") on Mount Gerizim and placed therein a tabernacle ("al-maškan") in the second year of the Israelites' entry into the land of Canaan.


title: Samaritans

text: According to Samaritan scripture and tradition, Mount Gerizim, located near the Biblical city of Shechem (on the southern side of modern-day Nablus, West Bank), has been venerated as the holiest place for the Israelites since the conquest of Canaan by Joshua, long before the Temple in Jerusalem was established under Davidic and Solomonic rule over the United Kingdom of Israel. This view differs from Jewish belief which views the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as the holiest site in the world to worship God. It is commonly taught in Samaritan tradition that there are 13 references to Mount Gerizim in the Torah to prove their claim of holiness in contrast to Judaism, which relies solely on the later Jewish prophets and writings to back their claims of the holiness of Jerusalem.


title: Samaritans

text: Other Samaritan tradition books include the Memar Marqah (The teachings of Marqah), the Samaritan liturgy known as "the Defter", and Samaritan law codes and biblical commentaries.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans outside the Holy Land observe most Samaritan practices and rituals such as the Sabbath, ritual purity, and all festivals of Samaritanism with the exception of the Passover sacrifice, which can only be observed at Mount Gerizim.


title: Samaritans

text: According to Samaritans, it was on Mount Gerizim that Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. God then causes the sacrifice to be interrupted, explaining that this was the ultimate test of Abraham's obedience, as a result of which all the world would receive blessing.


title: Samaritans

text: The Torah mentions the place where God chooses to establish his name (Deuteronomy 12:5), and Judaism takes this to refer to Jerusalem. However, the Samaritan text speaks of the place where God to establish his name, and Samaritans identify it as Mount Gerizim, making it the focus of their spiritual values.


title: Samaritans

text: The legitimacy of the Samaritan temple was attacked by Jewish scholars including Andronicus ben Meshullam.


title: Samaritans

text: In the Christian Bible, the Gospel of John relates an encounter between a Samaritan woman and Jesus in which she says that the mountain was the center of their worship. She poses the question to Jesus when she realizes that he is the Messiah. Jesus affirms the Jewish position, saying "You [that is, the Samaritans] worship what you do not know," although he also says, "a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."


title: Samaritans

text: The Samaritans have retained an offshoot of the Ancient Hebrew script, a High Priesthood, the slaughtering and eating of lambs on Passover eve, and the celebration of the first month's beginning around springtime as the New Year. Yom Teru'ah (the biblical name for "Rosh Hashanah"), at the beginning of Tishrei, is not considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism. The Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Jewish Masoretic Text as well. Some differences are doctrinal: for example, the Samaritan Torah explicitly states that Mount Gerizim is "the place that God " to establish his name, as opposed to the Jewish Torah that refers to "the place that God ". Other differences are minor and seem more or less accidental.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritans refer to themselves as "Benai Yisrael" ("Children of Israel") which is a term used by all Jewish denominations as a name for the Jewish people as a whole. They, however, do not refer to themselves as "Yehudim" (literally "Judeans"), the standard Hebrew name for Jews.


title: Samaritans

text: The Talmudic attitude expressed in tractate Kutim is that they are to be treated as Jews in matters where their practice coincides with Rabbinic Judaism but as non-Jews where their practice differs. Some claim that since the 19th century, Rabbinic Judaism has regarded the Samaritans as a Jewish sect and the term "Samaritan Jews" has been used for them.


title: Samaritans

text: Samaritan law is not the same as Halakha (Rabbinic Jewish law). The Samaritans have several groups of religious texts, which correspond to Jewish Halakha. A few examples of such texts are:


title: Samaritans

text: Samaria or Samaritans are mentioned in the New Testament books of Matthew, Luke, John and Acts. The Gospel of Mark contains no mention of Samaritans or Samaria. The best known reference to the Samaritans is the Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in the Gospel of Luke. The following references are found:


title: Quezon City

text: Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 2,960,048 people. It was founded on October 12, 1939, and was named after Manuel L. Quezon, the second president of the Philippines.


title: Quezon City

text: The city was intended to be the national capital of the Philippines that would replace Manila, as the latter was suffering from overcrowding, lack of housing, poor sanitation, and traffic congestion. To create Quezon City, several barrios were carved out from the towns of Caloocan, Marikina, San Juan and Pasig, in addition to the eight vast estates the Philippine government purchased for this purpose. It was officially proclaimed as the national capital on October 12, 1949, and several government departments and institutions moved out of Manila and settled into the new capital city. This necessitated the expansion of the city northwards, carving out Novaliches from Caloocan which divided it into two non-contiguous parts. Several barrios were also taken from San Mateo and parts of Montalban. However, on June 24, 1976, Presidential Decree 940 was enacted, which reverted national capital status to Manila while the whole of Metro Manila was designated as the seat of government.


title: Quezon City

text: Quezon City is known for its culture, entertainment industry and media, and is aptly called the "City of Stars". Major broadcasting networks have their headquarters and studios in the city. It is also known for its commerce, education, research, technology, politics, tourism, art and sports. Several national government branches including the Batasang Pambansa Complex, the seat of House of Representatives of the Philippines, calls the city home.


title: Quezon City

text: Quezon City is a planned city. It covers a total area of , making it the largest city in Metro Manila in terms of land area. It is politically subdivided into Six Congressional Districts, which represents the city in the Lower House of the Congress of the Philippines. The city has 142 barangays under the City Government. National government departments and agencies are mostly situated at the National Government Center I (NGC I) in Diliman, and the National Government Center II (NGC II) in Batasan Hills, where the Lower House of the Philippine Congress is located. Most of the city's northern part lies at the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountain range, including the La Mesa Watershed Reservation, the largest watershed in Metro Manila and a designated protected area.


title: Quezon City

text: Before the creation of Quezon City, the land on where it would eventually rise was part of several towns such as Caloocan, Marikina, Pasig and San Juan, all under Manila province until 1901 and Rizal province from 1901 to 1975.


title: Quezon City

text: In the 1930s, Manila's urban problems were apparent and problematic. It lacks public housing, where thousands of the city's residents live in congested informal settler communities, especially in the central districts of Binondo, Intramuros, Quiapo, San Nicolas and Tondo. There are also problems in sanitation and traffic congestion. The rise of slums in Manila gave rise to the development of its suburbs outside the city limits in the municipalities of Pasay, San Felipe Neri (renamed as Mandaluyong), San Francisco del Monte, San Pedro Macati, and San Juan del Monte. These towns became favorable to the upper and middle-class who wanted to escape the congested city but has economic links to it.


title: Quezon City

text: President Manuel L. Quezon, aware of the problem besetting Manila, initiated housing projects called "Barrio Obrero" ("Worker's Community"). These communities were established in various places in Manila such as Avenida Rizal, Sta. Cruz and Barrio Vitas, Tondo. However, the project failed miserably and these communities became slum areas.


title: Quezon City

text: Alejandro Roces Sr., a prominent Filipino author, was said to be influential in Quezon's vision to establish a new city. Quezon dreamt of a city where the common people can live and thrive. Roces suggested that a sizeable tract of land be purchased for this purpose. However, the government had no available fund except for 3 million in the hands of the National Development Company (NDC).


title: Quezon City

text: In order to make Quezon's dream a reality and to mobilize funds for the land purchase, the People's Homesite Corporation (PHC) was created on October 14, 1938, as a subsidiary of NDC, with an initial capital of . Roces was the chairman of the Board of PHC, and they immediately acquired the vast Diliman Estate of the Tuason family at a cost of 5 centavos per square meter. PHC conducted topographical and subdivision surveys, and then subdivided the lots and sold them to the target buyers at an affordable price. Its target users and beneficiaries are obviously Manila's working class, who are suffering from the shortage of affordable and decent housing in the capital. The service of the Metropolitan Waterworks system was extended to site. The Bureau of Public Works, then under Secretary Vicente Fragante, constructed the streets and highways within the property. Quezon also tapped Architect Juan M. Arellano to draft a design of the city.


title: Quezon City

text: Eight vast estates were acquired in order to create Quezon City: Diliman Estate , Santa Mesa Estate , Mandaluyong Estate , Magdalena Estate , Piedad Estate , Maysilo Estate and the San Francisco Del Monte Estate . Quezon's goal to create a place for the working class coincided with the planned transfer of the University of the Philippines campus in Manila to a more suitable location, which became the precedents for the creation of Quezon City.


title: Quezon City

text: As early as 1928, the University of the Philippines (UP) had planned to expand by adding more academic units and constructing new buildings. The university experienced increase in enrollment and its planned expansion was hampered by its small campus in Manila. The revised Burnham Plan of Manila envisioned the new campus to be located just outside Manila's city limits at 'the heights behind Manila'. The UP Board of Regents informed Quezon of their desire to relocate the campus and he was supportive of the idea. Furthermore, he wanted the facilities in the Manila campus to be used for government purposes. In 1939, Quezon urged the National Assembly to enact UP's relocation and on June 8, 1939, Commonwealth Act 442 was passed, enacting the transfer of UP outside of Manila. A portion of Mariquina Estate, which was adjacent to Magdalena Estate, was chosen as the new site with an approximate area of 600 hectares. Additional land from the Diliman Estate was also added as part of the new university campus.


title: Quezon City

text: With the development of the People's Homesite Corporation housing in the Diliman Estate and the creation of the new UP Campus, the creation of Quezon City was justified. On October 12, 1939, Commonwealth Act No. 502, also known as the Charter of Quezon City, was passed by the National Assembly, which created Quezon City. Surprisingly, Quezon allowed the bill to lapse into law because he did not sign it. The city was originally to be known as Balintawak City according to the first bill filed by Assemblyman Ramon P. Mitra Sr. from Mountain Province, but Assemblymen Narciso Ramos and Eugenio Perez, both from Pangasinan, amended and successfully lobbied the assembly to name the city after the President in honor of his role in the creation of this new city. The creation of Quezon City halted the full implementation of the Burnham of Plan of Manila and funds were diverted for the establishment of the new capital.


title: Quezon City

text: Several barangays from different towns were carved out to correspond to the estates that PHC bought for the creation of Quezon City. The new city has an area of , and the barrios and sitios that were taken for its creation were the following: Bagubantay (Bago Bantay), Balingasa, Balintauac (Balintawak), Kaingin, Kangkong, Loma (La Loma), Malamig, Matalahib, Masambong, San Isidro, San Jose, Santol and Tatalon, were taken from Caloocan; Cubao, Diliman, Kamuning, New Manila, and San Francisco del Monte were taken from San Juan; Balara, Barranca (Barangka), Jesus de la Peña, Krus na Ligas, Tañong and the site of the new UP Campus were taken from Marikina; and, the barrios and sitios of Libis, and Ogong (Ugong Norte) from Pasig. Commonwealth Act No. 659, enacted on June 21, 1941, changed the cities boundaries. Under this law, the area of Wack Wack Golf and Country Club were to be reverted to Mandaluyong, and the barrios of lower Barranca and Jesus de la Peña were reverted to Marikina. However, Camp Crame was taken out of San Juan and was given to Quezon City.


title: Quezon City

text: On 1939, in the year the city was established, it had a population of 39,103 people. The city in its early days was predominantly rural, but Quezon asked American Architect William Parsons to craft a master plan for the newly created city. Parsons was the one who advise Quezon to locate the National Government Center in Diliman instead of Wallace Field (now Rizal Park), due to the possibility of naval bombardment from Manila Bay. Unfortunately, he died in December 1939 and his partner Harry T. Frost took over and become the lead planner. Frost arrived on the Philippines on May 1, 1940, and became the architectural adviser of the Philippine Commonwealth government. Together with Juan M. Arellano, Alpheus D. Williams, and Welton Becket, they created the Master Plan for Quezon City which was approved by the Philippine government in 1941. The Frost Plan featured wide avenues, large open spaces and roundabouts at major intersections. The plan for major thoroughfares made by Louis Croft for the Greater Manila Area served as the backbone for the Plan of Quezon City. The center of the city was a 400-hectare quadrangle formed by four avenues — North, West, South and East — which was designed to be the location of the National Government of the Philippines. At the northeast corner of the Quadrangle was a large roundabout, a 25-hectare elliptical site, were the proposed Capitol Building is envisioned to rise.


title: Quezon City

text: To make the city accessible, Quezon ordered Luzon Bus Lines to ply from Kamuning towards Tutuban in Divisoria, Manila to provide transport for the city's residents. However, the fare was not affordable to minimum wage earners. Because of the city's unaffordable housing prices and lack of transportation for low income earners, the goal of creating mass housing for the working class was not met. Instead, those who opt to live in Quezon City were middle-class households such as in Kamuning, whose residents petitioned to rename it from "Barrio Obrero" (Worker's Community) to Kamuning (a type of tree that grows abundantly in the area) because its residents were not "Obreros" (Workers).


title: Quezon City

text: The Philippine Exposition in 1941 was held on the newly established Quezon City, but participants were limited to locals because of the increasing turbulence at the beginning of the Second World War. Eventually, parts of Manila were bombed by the Japanese Imperial Forces in December 1941, bringing the war to the Philippines. On January 1, 1942, President Quezon issued Executive Order No. 400 as an emergency measure to form the City of Greater Manila, with Jorge B. Vargas as its designated mayor. It merged the city with Manila and the towns of Caloocan, Makati, Mandaluyong, Parañaque, Pasay, and San Juan. The mayors of these towns and cities served as the assistant mayor of their respective localities and were under the mayor of Greater Manila. The City of Greater Manila was the basis for the formation of Metro Manila in 1975.


title: Quezon City

text: After Imperial Japanese forces conquered the Philippines during the Pacific War, the City of Greater Manila was reorganized in 1942 into twelve districts, two of which were formed by dividing Quezon City: Balintawak which consisted of San Francisco del Monte, Galas, and La Loma; and Diliman which was composed of Diliman proper, Cubao, and the University District. In 1945, the City of Greater Manila was dissolved by President Sergio Osmeña, thus separating the cities and towns that were consolidated and regaining their pre-war status. The area which formed the city was then governed by the Philippine Executive Commission. On the same year, combined Filipino and American troops under the United States Army, Philippine Commonwealth Army, and Philippine Constabulary, with help from recognized guerrilla units, liberated and recaptured Quezon City in a few months, expelling Imperial Japanese forces. Heavy fighting occurred in Novaliches, which at that time was within Caloocan, and New Manila which had been fortified. Smaller actions were fought at Barrio Talipapa and the University District.


title: Quezon City

text: On July 17, 1948, President Elpidio Quirino signed Republic Act No. 333 into law, making Quezon City the capital of the Philippines. The Act created the Capital City Planning Commission, which was tasked to develop and implement a masterplan for the city. As the capital, the city was expanded northwards, and the barrios of Baesa, Bagbag, Banlat, Kabuyao, Novaliches Proper ("Bayan"/"Poblacion"), Pasong Putik, Pasong Tamo, Pugad Lawin, San Bartolome, and Talipapa in Novaliches were taken from Caloocan. This territorial change caused the division of Caloocan into two non-contiguous parts. Quezon City was formally inaugurated as the capital on October 12, 1949. President Quirino laid the cornerstone on the proposed Capitol Building at Constitution Hills.


title: Quezon City

text: On June 16, 1950, the Quezon City Charter was revised by Republic Act No. 537, changing the city's boundaries to an area of . Exactly six years after on June 16, 1956, more revisions to the city's territory were made by Republic Act No. 1575, which defined its area as . However, according to the 1995 GIS graphical plot, the city's total area is , making it the largest Local Government Unit in Metro Manila in terms of land area.


title: Quezon City

text: During the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, the region of Metro Manila was created as an integrated unit with the enactment of Presidential Decree No. 824 on November 7, 1975. The region encompassed four cities and thirteen adjoining towns, as a separate regional unit of government.> A year later, on June 24, 1976, Manila was reinstated by President Marcos as the capital of the Philippines for its historical significance as the seat of government since the Spanish Period. Presidential Decree No. 940 states that Manila has always been to the Filipino people and in the eyes of the world, the premier city of the Philippines being the center of trade, commerce, education and culture. Concurrent with the reinstatement of Manila as the capital, Ferdinand Marcos designated his wife, Imelda Marcos, as the first governor of Metro Manila, who started the construction of massive government edifices with architectural significance as she re-branded Manila as the "City of Man".


title: Quezon City

text: On March 31, 1978, President Marcos ordered the transfer of the remains of President Quezon from Manila North Cemetery to the newly completed Quezon Memorial Shrine. It now houses the mausoleum where President Quezon and his wife Aurora Aragon Quezon are interred. It also contains a museum dedicated to President Quezon and his life.


title: Quezon City

text: Quezon City became the venue of a lot of resistance activity against the Marcos dictatorship, as youth and student demonstrators repeatedly clashed with the police and military which were subservient to the Marcos regime. The Diliman Commune was the first of such uprising against the government, as the student, faculty members and residents of UP Diliman protested the three centavos increase in oil prices. It was preceded by the First Quarter Storm, a period of civil unrest mostly organized by students. During the martial law era, a series of demonstrations, protests, and marches against the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos took place at various locations in the city.


title: Quezon City

text: Among the prominent cases of abuse suffered specifically by Quezon City residents were the cases of Primitivo Mijares and his son Boyet Mijares, who lived in Project 6 at the time of their deaths.


title: Quezon City

text: On 1986, the nonviolent People Power Revolution, led by Corazon Aquino and Cardinal Jaime Sin, occurred that ousted Marcos from power. Thousands of people flocked EDSA between Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo in a series of popular demonstrations and civil resistance against the Marcos government that occurred between February 22 and 25, 1986.


title: Quezon City

text: All of the three major monuments commemorating the Martial Law era are located in Quezon City. The People Power Monument and the EDSA Shrine were built in the city to commemorate the event, with the latter being a symbol of the role that the Catholic Church played in the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. The Bantayog ng mga Bayani was constructed along Quezon Avenue to honor the heroes and martyrs that struggled under the 20-year Marcos regime. The Wall of Remembrance at the Bantayog honors prominent figures during the martial law era.


title: Quezon City

text: On February 23, 1998, Republic Act. No. 8535 was signed by President Fidel Ramos, which paved the way for the creation of the City of Novaliches by carving out the 15 northernmost barangays of Quezon City. The voting process only includes the affected barangays, but then-city mayor Ismael "Mel" Mathay Jr. lobbied to include the whole city. He also campaigned against the secession of Novaliches. In the succeeding plebiscite that was held on October 23, 1999, an overwhelming majority of Quezon City residents rejected the secession of Novaliches. Mathay was succeeded by Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who served as the city mayor from 2001 to 2010.