Ploče is a town and a notable seaport in the Dubrovnik-Neretva county of Croatia, population 10,834 (2001).

Ploče is located on the Adriatic coast just north of the Neretva river delta and is as such the natural seaside endpoint of most north-south routes through the central Dinaric Alps. This makes it the primary seaport used by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the endpoint of the Pan-European corridor 5C.

The Ploče harbour was first mentioned on November 6, 1387, but the building of a larger port waited until the modern times. The work on the present harbor area first began in 1939 but it was all destroyed in World War II. It was rebuilt beginning with 1945 and the village of Ploče grew to 480 inhabitants by 1948. After the Adriatic road and Neretva railway lines were built to the port in the mid-1960s, the town experienced a steady growth.

Ploče had been renamed to Kardeljevo after the Yugoslav politician Edvard Kardelj in 1950-1954 and again in 1980-1990.

Bosnia and Croatia are currently in negotiations regarding the establishment of a privileged economic zone for the Bosnian businesses in the Ploče port facilities, though this development is slowed by the opposition of the local government to the idea of loss of sovereignty over their port.

External link

• Ploče (http://www.ploce.hr/)

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