The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Rabat on Thursday added the tradition of Lipizzaner horse breeding in eight countries, including Croatia, to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

According to the Ministry of Culture and the Media, the initiative for the Lipizzan Horse Breeding Traditions to be inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was launched by Slovenia in 2017 and later supported and joined by Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

The Lipizzaner horse breed was bred in the Lipica stud farm (now the Republic of Slovenia), after which the breed was named. The stud farm was founded by the Austrian Archduke Charles II in 1580 for the purpose of breeding carriage and riding horses for the needs of the Vienna Court. The establishment of the stud farm launched the formation of the Lipizzan breed, one of the oldest horse breeds in Europe, whose characteristics have been perfected through careful selection. Even today, Lipizzaner horses are bred in large numbers in the territory of the former Habsburg, later Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

The Lipizzan Horse Breeding Tradition in Slavonija, Baranja, and Srijem regions is an important part of Croatian cultural heritage, and it was inscribed in the Register of Croatian Cultural Heritage in 2017.