Establishment of the inventory of the historic bridges analyzing the maps of Europe in the XIX. Century, in the area of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia

Abstract. Croatia is a country rich with monuments, enchanting historic buildings, and rife cultural heritage. The paper presents main aspects of the research on the identifying the historic bridges built till the end of the Austro Hungarian monarchy (AHM) (till 1918), and by their identification, the inventory of these bridges was established. The Croatian territory, specifically, Dalmatia is brimming with rivers, lakes, streams, etc., so the bridge construction was indeed necessary and often in usage in this area. There are various reasons why all these bridges are not preserved until today. Because of this, authors found it important to define the total number of these bridges that will need further qualitative and sustainable preservation, remediation and management. The research started by collecting the data from various institutions and interviewing conservatives, historians, managers of these bridges and also the local habitants. When the data were collected, European maps from the XIX. Century were analyzed with the intention to find which of the identified bridges belong to the period of the AHM. Bridges found on those maps were later compared with modern maps to define how many of them still exist. The aim is to establish the inventory of the historic bridges built till the end of the AHM in the area of Split-Dalmatian County.