Delnice () is a town in western Croatia, the largest settlement in the mountainous region of Gorski Kotar, in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County. The town has a population of 3861, and total municipality population is 5135 (2021). Delnice is Gorski Kotar's main town.
History The first mention of Delnice was "Stjepan Kalmin iz Delnica" in the 1436–1461 Liber Civilium of Rijeka.
One of the first mentions of Delnice was on 22 February 1481 in a document freeing the citizens of Grič from tariffs in Delnice and elsewhere.
The town was first mentioned in a 1482 document issued by Sabor, the Croatian Parliament.
After the Lujzijana was built, the Družtvo lujzinske ceste constructed an inn in Delnice. In 1874, the society would sell all its assets along the road, including those in Delnice.
On 21 February 1852 by a decree of the Ban of Croatia and Slavonia, Josip Jelačić, a Chamber of Commerce and Industry () was to be founded in Rijeka with jurisdiction over Delnice. It was founded, and began to function on the 11th of March that year.
In 1860–1879, Matija Mažuranić wrote a 62 folio manuscript today titled Writings on the Building of Roads in Gorski Kotar and Lika (), today with signature HR-ZaNSK R 6424. A 21 folio manuscript dated 1872 titled Darstellung der Entstehung des Baues ... der Luisenstrasse togethr with a translation by I. Mikloušić is kept as HR-ZaNSK R 4572.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Delnice was a district capital in the Modruš-Rijeka County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.
The volunteer fire department DVD Delnice was founded in 1875. The Javna vatrogasna postrojba Grada Delnice was founded on 9 December 1999. Today, both are part of the Požarno područje Gorski Kotar I.
Past commanders of the VZ Denice and JVP Grada Delnice:
Livio Andlar (2005–2009) Dražen Rački
Past commanders of the DVD Delnice:
Livio Andlar (1988–) Dražen Rački
In 1898, the local chapter of the HPS was founded.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia Since the inclusion of Ski jumping at the 1924 Winter Olympics, the sport grew in popularity. In 1934, a ski jump was opened below Skradski Vrh for jumps up to , the first on the territory of the ZZSP. Not to be outdone by Skrad, in 1935, the Klimatsko povjerenstvo of Delnice commissioned its own ski jump, designed by engineer Šafar, for jumps up to . The ski jump was initially handed over to the Športski Klub Delnice, but when they discontinued their winter section in 1935, it was transferred to the PD "Risnjak".
The winter of 1931–1932 was particularly harsh in Čabar and surrounding areas. The lack of livestock feed caused a sharp decrease in livestock price. In the spring, a lack of supplies threatened to collapse the resale and even financial sectors locally. On 30 April 20, the emergency Law on the Protection of Farmers () came into force, which prevented forcible sale of farmland until 20 October.
The local chapter of the HPS is HPD "Risnjak", which had 56 members in 1936 under the Vilim Tausani presidency. At the time, it had a ski section, which fused with the ski section of Deška. Membership rose to 62 in 1937. It fell to 38 in 1938. It rose to 70 in 1939, of which 55 in the ski section.
A 22 December 1939 decision as part of agrarian reforms by Ban Šubašić to confiscate the forest property in Delnice and surroundings of the Thurn and Taxis family, Kálmán Ghyczy and Nikola Petrović resulted in a legal dispute known as the Thurn and Taxis Affair, in part because of the relative status of the family and in part because of the proximity to the Italian border.
WWII See also
Delnice was the most prominent centre of resistance to occupation in western Gorski Kotar during WWII. During WWII, 601 people were killed in the kotar of Delnice, of which 555 by Italians, 28 by Germans, 11 by Serbs and 7 by Croats.
1941 On 11 April 1941 at around 18:00, a small Wehrmacht column reached Delnice, but apart from one Hitler supporter, one local electritian and two or three county officials, no one welcomed them. Ante Pavelić himself arrived on the 13th, awaited by a small group of Frankists. They asked Pavelić for assistance against some Royal Yugoslav Army soldiers who were in the hills nearby, and received from Pavelić a number of Ustaše in response. More concretely, a large group of Yugoslav soldiers had been retreating from the Italian border through Jelenje, Lokve, Mrkopalj and Jasenak. Upon entering Mrkopalj, they were met by a Croat force belonging to , but the Yugoslav soldiers refused to disarm.
During the mass arrests of late May and early June, the Ustaša administration of Delnice kotar was more tolerant of Serbs than in the neighbouring Vrbovsko and Ogulin kotars. Tuk Vojni was the only Serbian village in Delnice kotar. The Ustaše had a list of 15 prominent Serbs in Tuk that they needed to arrest, but thanks to JRZ members of Mrkopalj and the notary they were not jailed.
On 1 July 1941, Pavelić founded the with its seat in Ogulin, by merging Ogulin with Slunj, Vrbovsko and Delnice.
In October 1941, the Minister of Sport and Mountaineering of the NDH, Miško Zebić, named Stjepan Petranović as the state povjerenik of the HPD "Risnjak", and designated as the chapter's advisory board: Nikola Premer, Makso Jelinek, Ivan Šipek, Vladimir Čurda, Vilko Tausani and Dragutin Baal. The HPD "Risnjak" was officially renamed Hrvatsko planinarsko društvo u Delnicama in March 1942, but Gospić did not reply to the order.
1942 At 7:30 on 12 April 1942, an Italian battalion was travelling on foot along the road from Delnice to Fužine. At the south exit from Delnice they were attacked from a small woods by Partisans of the with machine guns and rifles, heavily wounding 1 and lightly wounding 4.
At 11:15 on 11 June, Partisans attacked a freight train by the "Risnik" tunnel southeast of Delnice, after which the train hit a damaged stretch of track, derailing it along with 6 wagons, mortally wounding the conductor Matija Jugović and killing 2 Italian soldiers and heavily wounding 6 soldiers. The same day, a second Italian train was attacked with rifle and machine gun fire between Lokve and Delnice, wounding a number of Italian soldiers. Then at 7:30 on 12 June, an Italian battalion set out on foot from Delnice along the state road in the direction of Fužine. When they reached the exit from Delnice, a group of Partisans armed with rifles and machine guns attacked them from a small woods, wounding 5. Then on the 13th/14th, an attack was carried out with rifles on Delnice from the surrounding forest, but was repelled without victims by Croatian and Italian forces.
On 15 July, a train encountered an improvised explosive device between Delnice and Lokve. There were no victims, and transport was restored shortly after.
At 19:00 on 11 September, a group of around 1000 Partisans attacked a guard stationed at the power plant consisting of 20 Domobrans of the 25th company of the 3rd Regiment of the , capturing the plant and blowing it up with explosives, leaving Brod Moravice, Delnice and Skrad without electricity.
1944 On 9–10 December 1944, there was an Omladina rally in Delnice, in which even some from Rijeka and Sušak managed to participate despite being behind enemy lines at the time.
When the 4th Army was formed in North Dalmatia in March 1945, its 11th Corps included the 13th Division as well as the 35th, 43rd and 1st. The 4th Army received instructions to first break the enemy front from the Una to the Adriatic, taking Lika, Gorski Kotar and Primorje in the process. Axis forces were pushed back after a battle in eastern Lika, and together with the 4th Corps, the 4th Army took Bihać.
In early April, the 4th Army advanced in western Lika and broke through to Gorski Kotar and Primorje. By the first half of April, it had taken all of Primorje, being at the door of Rijeka and Istria. With RAF air support and RN transportation, the 4th Army had taken Pag, Rab, and would take Lošinj. Krk would be taken without outside support. The assault to reach the Ingridstellung defensive line followed.
The battle for the Ingridstellung pitted the 4th Army against the 188th, the 237th, the remains of the 392nd, DKP, SDK and Dinara Division, with a combined strength of around 75,000. On April 16, the staff of the 4th Army gave the order to attack the Mrzla Vodica-Lokve-Kraljevica line, leading to fierce battles on 17–20 April. The 13th, 19th and 43rd divisions took the right bank of the Rječina from the 237th, while the 26th took Krk, the 9th with Kvarnerski odred mornaričke pješadije Mornarice took Lošinj and Cres, and the 20th reached Prezid through Delnice and Brod.
On April 20, the JNA General Staff gave the order to break through to Trieste. For this, the 29th was joined to the 4th Army. The 9th and 19th would stay behind to take Rijeka, while the 13th and 26th would take Klana and Ilirska Bistrica, the 20th would cross through Mašun, and the 29th would secure the right flank at Prezid. The Axis held the Rijeka-Klana-Zabič-Knežak-Sveti Petar na Krasu, which they termed the Ingridstellung. The began on the 21st, and from then to the 23rd the 43rd, 13th and 19th attacked the 188th, 237th and Kampfgruppe Fiume with its constituents. The attacks failed to break the line, so on the 24th the Staff of the 4th Army introduced the 26th to the attack on Klana. This attack also failed, because the 188th with about 15,000 counterattacked at Klana with the aim of pushing the 4th Army back across the Rječina. This one day long German attack on the positions of the 26th also failed.
Seeing this, the Staff of the 4th Army decided to attempt a simultaneous breakthrough north of Rijeka and landing operation from Cres to the Istrian shore at Brseč-Mošćenička Draga. A battalion of the 2nd Brigade of the 9th landed at Brseč on the night of the 24th–25th, who secured the landing site. The night of the 25th–26th, the 2nd Brigade landed at Mošćenička Draga and the 4th Brigade at Brseč. Because the Axis had transferred the remainder of the XCVII Corps to the Ingridstellung, where back-and-forth clashes continued until the 30th, they were unable to offer any resistance until after the 9th had begun operations in Istria. The bloodiest battles were taking place at Klana between the 26th and 13th on the one hand and the 188th and newly transferred troops on the other, so the 9th was able to take Medveja and Lovran on the 26th and then besiege Ičići and partly take Opatija. Then the 3rd and 4th Brigades of the 9th landed. Opatija was taken on the 28th and the attack was continued towards Volosko and the Kastavština. The 20th was bolstered with tanks and motorised artillery, and the 11th Brigade of the 26th was transferred from Rijeka with trucks to the 20th. In the meantime, the units of the 43rd had joined the 9th in Istria, operating in its interior. Thus, the 20th broke through to Ilirska Bistrica on the 28th. General Kübler pleaded with General Löhr to allow his forces in Rijeka to retreat, but he was denied permission. On the 28th, the Axis lost its ability to carry out offensive action from Rijeka.