Sunday May 19 was a mix of sun and cloud and a warm 26C. We got up reasonably early and went to a farmers' market about five minutes from the apartment, which Ana had told us about. On Sundays, the market finishes earlier than weekdays, but there were lots of fresh fruit and vegetable vendors and we found a fish store on the edge of the market. The red umbrellas are the signs of a farmers' market in Zagreb.
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| While not the largest farmers' market in town, it was close to the apartment, and Ana said it had more reasonable prices. |
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Fresh fruit and vegetable
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We got lots of great fruit in season. Strawberries, cherries, apricots and nectarines. We dropped our purchases off in the apartment and had a quick breakfast with some of our fruit, baguette, coffee and Allan had yogurt.
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| Breakfast on our deck-- already warm out by 10:15 a.m. |
We then walked to Ban Josip Jelačić Square, the main square of Zagreb to meet up with the Free Spirit Walking Tour at 11:00 a.m. The square is named after Governor (Ban) Josip Jelačić and features his statue in the centre. Josip Jelačić (1801-1859) was the 19th century governor who extended citizens' rights and did much to unite the Croats within the Habsburg realm. He was a controversial figure as he chose to fight alongside the Habsburgs to put down the 1848 Hungarian uprising against Habsburg rule, as he thought he would have a better shot of protecting Croatian cultural autonomy under the Austrians than the Hungarians, who had been trying to make Hungarian the official language of Croatia. In the Yugoslav era, Jelačić was considered a dangerously nationalistic symbol, and the statue was stored away. He returned in 1991.
The Square has served as the city's commercial heart since 1641. Most of the buildings around the square date from the 19th century and display different architectural styles- Biedermeier, Art Nouveau and Post- modern.
There was a large crowd for our tour and luckily there were two tour guides that divided the group into two separate tours. Our tour guide was Darco, who was from Zagreb. He was another interesting guide. Born in 1992, he described himself as a war baby. His mother who was a nurse before the 1991-95 war, became a "war nurse" and his father, a firefighter, fought in the Croatian army. Darco was quite progressive and later on in the tour commented on the political situation in Croatia.
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| The Square |
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Meeting place at the Statue of Jelačić
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Darco gave us a general introduction to Zagreb and Croatian history. In brief, Croatia was an independent country from the 7th century until 1102. From that time until 1992, Croatia was under Hungarian rule, then the Ottomans, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ustače ("Independent State of Croatia" the Axis puppet state from 1941-45). Then from 1945 until 1990, Zagreb functioned as the capital of the Socialist Republic of Croatia, one of the six constituent socialist republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and then in 1992, Croatia became an independent democracy.
Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, has a population of around 800,000. Zagreb began as two walled medieval towns, Gradec and Kaptol separated by a stream. Gradec, the poorer part, was ruled by Kings and Kaptol, the wealthier town became a bishopric in 1094 and is still home to Croatia's most important church. The two towns fought with each other for years and there was once a bridge over the stream named "Bloody Bridge." The two towns finally merged in 1850 to become Zagreb and in 1899, the stream was paved over and the bridge removed but the alley is still called "Bloody Bridge".
The medieval part of town (Gradec and Kaptol) is known as Upper Town. Lower Town (which used to be farmers' fields) is the more modern part of the centre of the city that runs south from Jelačić Square to the train station. All very walkable. Beyond Upper and Lower Town, is the rest of the sprawling city.
Zagreb had been subject to a devastating fire in 1786 and an earthquake of 6.3 magnitude in 1880, which damaged many buildings. More recently, in March 2020, the city experienced a 5.3 magnitude earthquake, which damaged a number of buildings in the historic downtown area. It was the strongest earthquake to affect the city since the 1880 earthquake. Then on December 29, an even stronger earthquake in central Croatia sent more damaging shockwaves to Zagreb. Many buildings are still being repaired and a number of museums and churches, including the Cathedral which were damaged, are still closed to the public.
Our first stop was a model of the city centre which was installed in 2013.
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| Darco orienting us to the city centre- Upper and Lower Town and the places we were going to visit |
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| Southern end of the city-- train station-rectangular at the bottom-- lots of trees marking the Green Horseshoe are shown in the model of the city centre |
Our next stop was the Zagreb Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Kaptol area. The original cathedral built from 1094-1217 was destroyed by invading Tatars in 1242. It was rebuilt and surrounded by a medieval wall. The church was damaged again by the 1880 earthquake. The restoration-reconstruction of the cathedral in Neo-Gothic style led by the architect Hermann Bollé (Cologne, 1845- Zagreb, 1926) brought the cathedral to its present form in 1902. He also had a hand in the reconstruction of a number of other Zagreb buildings damaged by the 1880 earthquake.
In the 1970s, when money was short, the big chandeliers in the nave were imported from Las Vegas. Further renovations on the towers began in 1990, and have not been completely free of scaffolding for over three decades. One of its two spires was damaged in the 2020 earthquake and a cross broke off and crashed into the roof of the adjacent Archbishop's Palace.
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| Still undergoing renovation-- Darco says another eight years, but one never knows. He told has about the Croatian fjaka state of mind (ie embracing the art of doing nothing). He said it definitely applied to the renovation of the Cathedral which never seems to be taking place. |
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| Mary Column in front of the Cathedral- surrounded by four angels |
We stopped at the Dolac Market, marked by the red umbrellas. Lots of fruit and vegetable vendors. There is a fish market in a separate building. The fish market is closed Monday. We will definitely be back to the Market.
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| Dolac Farmers' Market |
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Statue of famous literary character Petrica Kerempuch, Croatia's national jester
sits in the midst of the flower stalls |
We then quickly climbed stairs up to the Lotrščak tower for the noon cannon firing. It has been firing almost every day since January 1, 1877. The custom started in 1887 so that all churches could set their bells to ring at the exact same time. The tower, which dates to the 13th century, was built to guard the southern gate of the Gradec town wall. In the 19th century, a fourth floor and windows were added to the tower and a cannon was placed on top.
There is 55 second funicular that dates to the 19th century which is often used by tourists to get to the tower and the Gradec area. It was out of service until later in May.
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Crowd gathering at noon for the cannon shot.
After the shot, the man who shot the cannon appeared out of the window. |
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| View from near the tower |
We then stopped at the Jesuit Church of St. Catherine. As Darco noted, it is not much to look at from the outside, but he told us that the interior is intricately decorated- bubbly pink-and-white Baroque, dripping with stucco. He called it the "Barbie" interior, where apparently many marriages take place. Unfortunately, this is another one of the churches undergoing repairs.
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Outside of the Church of St. Catherine--- this austere-outside, ornate-inside style
is known as "Zagreb Baroque". |
A few steps away was the Museum of Broken Relationships.
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| Museum of Broken Relationships-- very popular with tourists-- not sure it's top of our list |
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| The Cathedral viewed from Gradec side |
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| Darco explaining the political history of Croatia |
Darco gave us some background to the Yugoslav Wars (1991-95) which led to Croatia's independence in 1992. He talked about the differing views of the Tito's government (similar to our Guide in Split)- some very favourable and others not and the fact that Yugoslavia is not much talked about today. He also talked about the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence which was fought between Serbia, under Slobodan Milošević who wanted a Greater Serbia comprising of any countries that had Serbs living in them, and the Croatian government which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991 after a referendum. The war between Croatia and Serbian ended with the Jan 15 1992 recognition of Croatia's independence. Darco said that the younger generation of Croatians is not as antagonistic to Serbs as the older generation and wants to live in peace. However, with recent Croatian elections, the extreme right wing party has amped up anti-Serbian rhetoric.
Free Spirit Walking Tours has another paid tour on Zagreb's recent history from WWII, Communist Yugoslavia, the fall of communism in Croatia, and the fight for independence in the Homeland War 1991-1995. Darco said it received no assistance from the government in planning the tour, and eventually organized it themselves.
We also stopped by the yellow Town Hall. To the left of the entrance is a plaque honouring Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), who championed alternating current (AC) as a better electrical system than Thomas Edison's direct current. Darco noted that although Tesla was Serbian due to his father being Serbian, he was born in a remote village in central Croatia, so both Serbs and Croats claim him. Zagreb had been planning to name their airport after Tesla, but Belgrade named their airport after him first. Croatia countered by putting his picture on their 0.10, 0.20 and 0.50 euro coins.
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| Town Hall |
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| Nikola Tesla plague |
We then walked to St. Mark's Square, which has a number of important buildings on it.
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| Seat of the Government of Croatia on the western side of the square- built at the beginning of the 19th century and former residence of the Civil Governor of Croatia |
St. Mark's Church has the famous colourful roof with the coat of arms of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia on the left and the City of Zagreb (featuring a walled city) on the right. The red-and-white checkerboard symbolizes north-central Croatia, the three lions' heads stand for the Dalmatian Coast and the marten represents Slavonia-Croatia's northern, inland panhandle.
The church dates back to 1849 and the colourful roof dates to 1880. It was also damaged in the 2020 earthquake and remains closed.
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| Croatian coat of arms on the left side of the roof and Zagreb coat of arms on the right |
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| The Croatian Parliament on the eastern part of the square- dating to 1734 |
We then reached Gradec's only surviving town gate, the Stone Gate, which has an evocative chapel inside. The focal point is a painting of the Virgin Mary that miraculously survived a major fire in the house in 1731.
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| Walking towards the stone gate |
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| Painting inside |
We headed back to the main square, where the tour ended. Darco was an excellent guide. It was a very worthwhile 2.5 hours spent exploring part of the city and learning about it's history
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| Passing a statue to #4 Dražen Petrović, the basketball Mozart" (1964-1993), who played with the Portland Trail Blazers (1989-91) and New Jersey Nets (1991-93) after playing professional basketball in Europe. He died in a car accident in 1993. He is considered a Croatian national hero. |
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| A quieter Jelačić Square |
Darco had recommended Quahwa Coffee, which is located in a courtyard not far from the main square. It had been on our list as well. It has its own roastery on-site.
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| Allan under the sign- leading into the courtyard ("coffee lovers only") |
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| Outside patio where we sat--- large indoor seating area with a roastery on the main floor and two small rooms upstairs where folks can work. |
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| Allan had a latte and I had an iced oat milk cortado. |
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| Beans and roastery inside -we made a purchase |
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| Looking down from the second floor- great coffee shop |
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| Street paintings |
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Statue of Nikola Tesla by Ivan Meštrović, whose summer home/gallery we visited in Split.
Unfortunately, his atelier and gallery in Zagreb are closed for renovation, due to the earthquake. |
We then headed down to the railway station, passing a series of parks called the "Green Horseshoe", which Darco had earlier described.
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| Lots of signage in the city--- many cultural sites |
We then walled down part of the Green Horseshoe, a string of parks and squares with landmark buildings and museums. The series of parks leads down to the train station.
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| Beautiful buildings line the sides of the parks and squares |
We passed the statue to Tomislav, Croatia's first king whose statue is between the Art Pavilion and the Train Station.
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| Tomislav, the first king of Croatia. He became Duke of Croatia c. 910 and was crowned king in 925, reigning until his death in 928. |
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Zagreb's central Train Station, constructed in 1892 and a stop on the famous
Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul |
Just beside the train station, is the Holocaust memorial, which was inaugurated in 2022. There had been some controversy over the initial dedication and it was amended before it was erected to refer to the "victims of the Holocaust and the Ustasha regime".
Holocaust Memorial-- "in memory of victims of the Holocaust and the Ustasha regime".
The monument is made of steel, and is 12 metres high. It is an irregular-shaped wall comprised of 300 suitcases, representing those that were taken from Jews before they were deported to concentration camps. Around 800 Zagreb Jews were deported to Auschwitz in August 1942. The monument was designed by Rijeka-born architect Krešimir Regina and sculptor Dalibor Stoštić. It is illuminated at night.
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| The Monument |
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| Another view |
We walked back from the Train Station and decided to have a glass of lemonade at Program, just a few blocks from the apartment.
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| Outside of Program |
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| A few of tables across from the indoor section |
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| I had lemonade with mint and Allan had lemonade with ginger |
The cafés seem to have a lot of seating and folks hang for a long time. Croatians drink their coffee for hours, even a small Italian espresso with a glass of water takes at least 30 minutes to be consumed properly. As a lot of Croatians say "there's no hurry, just relax." They are practicing fjaka! We're doing our best to follow their lead.
A very full day with a great introductory walking tour. Back at the apartment, Allan made a delicious fish dinner with green beans, potatoes, salad and a glass of Croatian red wine.
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