ЗАДАРСКА ПАРОХИЈА И ПРАВОСЛАВНО СТАНОВНИШТВО У ЗАДРУ, ПРЕМА ПОПИСУ ИЗ 1831. ГОДИНЕ
THE ZADAR PARISH AND THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN POPULATION IN ZADAR, ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1831

Summary/Abstract: The paper is based on the census of the Orthodox Christian (hereinafter: Orthodox) population of Zadar, dating back to 1831 and compiled by priest Spiridon Aleksijević. The census, which contains the names of all parishioners, dates of birth, age, marital status, wedding dates, as well as priest’s notes, sheds light on the demographic structure of the Orthodox population in this city, their background, social status, the jobs they performed, relation to the Orthodox parish and religion. The Orthodox inhabitants of Zadar represented a small community of several hundred inhabitants, gathered around St Elijah’s Church, which became Orthodox in the mid-16th century. Although they accounted for only a few percent of the city’s total population, they were able to create the economic, religious, political and cultural center of the Orthodox Dalmatians in this city. There was the seat of the diocese, a clerical school, and books and magazines were printed in Cyrillic script. The Serbs came to this city from the Serb-inhabitated villages in the city’s hinterland, but also from the more distant areas. The Orthodox people of Zadar shared the fate of their fellow citizens at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries, and went through different state structures, wars, poverty and reforms, which left a mark on their economic and religious position. A major problem was the relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, which, with the support of state authorities, tried to impose its influence on the Orthodox community through Roman Catholicism or Greek Byzantine Catholicism. The demographic structure of the Orthodox population was generally similar to that of the rest of the city, but somewhat different from that of the villages in Dalmatia with Orthodox population. However, caution should be exercised with regard to the census, as not all information was accurately recorded, especially for those who were born or married outside the parish of Zadar, or for those who were out of town at the time of the census. The male population was slightly larger than the female population, especially those between the ages of 15 and 24. It is noticeable that the mortality rate among the Orthodox was relatively high, much higher than the birth rate, which could be explained by their situation at the time, but also by the fact that there was a hospital in the city, as well as a dungeon, where more deaths could be expected. Mortality was higher among men than women. As the natural increase is generally negative, the Orthodox population was renewed by the influx from the surrounding areas. Most of the Orthodox inhabitants of the city came from the surrounding area, but there were some settlers from other Dalmatian cities, as well as from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lika. There were only a few Orthodox Greeks, who invested effort to establish a parish in this city. Most Orthodox residents were of modest wealth. Several families succeeded in developing a lucrative business by trading livestock from Bosnia to Venice at the turn of the 18th to 19th centuries, such as the Petrovićs, Đurićs and Vukovićs, but the political changes of the first decades of the 19th century probably had a negative impact on their business. Apart from the merchants, there were clerks, artisans, servants and those whose occupations were unknown. Although religion and culture were intertwined in Zadar, as in other cities in the Dalmatian coast, the influx of Serbs from the surrounding Orthodox villages in the hinterland did not decrease the number of Orthodox inhabitants.

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