Capital Croatia - Zagreb in springtime

Zagreb, capital city of the Republic of Croatia since independence in 1991, is an old-style central European city. For centuries a focal point of culture and science, it now has international pretensions and seeks to exploit its position at the intersection of important routes between the Adriatic coast and Central Europe. It's the country's political and administrative centre and hub of the business, academic, cultural, artistic and sporting worlds in Croatia.

More than that, it's simply lovely - a thriving smorgasbord of Baroque atmosphere, picturesque open-air markets, diverse shopping opportunities including an abundant selection of crafts and picturesque fruit and vegetable markets, many green parks and open spaces for walking.

In spite of the recent rapid economic development and improved transportation infrastructure, it retains its charm along with a relaxed feeling that makes it a human city. All this, plus 10 theatres, 21 museums, 14 galleries, and 12 permanent art collections.

Quick Tips:

To get a feeling for both historic and modern Zagreb, wander through the streets of the Lower and Upper Towns plus the grander museums and administrative buildings - each has a quite different feel.

The Upper Town (comprising Kaptol and Gradec) with famous St. Mark's Church (its painted roof appears on every postcard and it's virtually a symbol of Zagreb), the best city views from the landmark white Lotrscak Tower and Zagreb's cathedral and markets (like Dolac, east of the cathedral); the Lower with a multitude of art, history, and sculpture, plus some glorious Austro-Hungarian buildings on the walk from the station to the main square.

I also found it worth understanding a bit of the history of the place, both to appreciate the architecture in context and the inordinate amount of statues of writers, politians, historians, artists which are virtually around every corner and whose place in the grand scheme you won't know without some grasp of how the history fits together.

Best Way To Get Around:

Despite being on two levels, the centre of town is nonetheless pretty compact - cheap, regular trams run all round if you should want to venture outside the main drag and the only other form of transport you're likely to use is the KN3 funicular (which runs every 15 minutes or so and takes all of 30 seconds - it might be worthwhile if you've had it with hills or are in a hurry to get to the Upper Town for example for the noon cannon) and drops you right outside the Tower.

A Zagreb Card costing KN60 (about US) is valid for three days/72 hrs and will get you a 50% discount off entry into the museums/galleries and free transportation/50% off city bus tours (which I don't think are worthwhile - this is a place for mooching and enjoying whatever is round the next corner.

This holds itself out as a business hotel and charges accordingly, but actually seems to cater primarily for tourist groups, particularly coach parties of German and American travellers.

On the plus side, it's very big and unlikely to run short on rooms even in the busy season. It's also right on the main square with easy access to all of the outdoor cafes and amenities that this entails and, though rather unattractive inside and oddly laid out (rather too many walls of Perspex blocks for my liking although they do at least make it quite light inside), it has the usual minibar/TV/AC facilities you'd expect (though, being picky, again not quite commensurate with the price). Despite apparently having been recently renovated, it's still a little tatty around the edges (occasional peeling paint work and stained or fraying carpet) and the service at reception was somewhat iffy and unpolished (long queues, no bellboy, surly receptionist heaving a sigh at every small request).

So-so breakfasts are served in the attached Piccolo Mondo pizza joint next door (including last night's cold leftover pasta if you're so inclined). It's not bad (cereals, toast, a few pieces of yesterday's fruit, some cold cuts/cheese) although again you might expect waitress service and fresh (rather than coffee-machine) coffee for the price of the hotel and juice rather than squash.

A 10% reduction for dinner/lunch at the Piccolo Mondo comes by showing your room key but, unless the pasta was a great deal better first time around than it was next morning at breakfast, I wouldn't bother for the prices.

Overall, I'd give it 5/10, and to be honest there are few reasonably priced hotel alternatives in town so you may have little choice and pay a little over the odds to stay somewhere quiet and central.

If you're out and about, mooching around the city, this is perfect way to brush up on your history and see it in context . . . certainly there as as many celebrated Croatian figures as you could possibly want to see in the "flesh" and this is a much nicer way than visiting an indoor museum and wasting good weather! The variety is enormous (and spread out) :

There are rulers and fighters . . . Coming out of the railway station onto Trg Kralja Tomislava, you'll see King Tomislav (photo attached to history entry below), the first king of medieval Croatia, who ruled from 910 and 928, on horseback (one raised hoof traditionally means the rider was injured in battle -- 2 raised means s/he died in battle). There are several St Georges, including one outside the Faculty of Law, just up from Tomislava Sq, and another as you pass through the "Stone Gate" chapel (see entry below about the Upper Town), either skewering or already victorious over their respective dragons.

There are writers . . . including a curious bench-bound silvery man, Antun Matos, with an improbably sized moustache and a welcoming air, a spookily real full-sized woman, Marija Zagorda, standing beneath a sundial just beyond St George (see photo below).

There are politicians... best of all is Vecesslav Holjevac who stands outside the National Library, hands in the pockets of his ultra-smooth bronzed coat -- he was an anti-fascist major, apparently smooth of tongue in life and now of appearance in immortality . . .

. . . and there is Life, to be specific the mesmerising "Well of Life", by Ivan Mestrovic, in front of the National Theatre, a bright green circular construction of struggling or thriving figures in various stages of aging and activity, which is itself surrounded by another, outer circle of seats from which to rest and survey the images depicted on the well (see photo below).

Lastly, look out for Madonna outside the cathedral -- all golden and sparkling in the sunshine, looking down from on high. She's rather irreligiously in the middle of a mini-roundabout, but, nonetheless, the people of Zagreb bow their heads to her as they walk past.

I hope the photos below help to inspire and to demonstrate the variety and effort to which the city has gone -- it's certainly worth taking the trouble to search these out while you're a-wanderin' and, as you'd probably have come across almost all of them in any event, I hope this is a guide to who they are and why they're here.

The earliest records are of Roman settlement in Scitarjevo (Andautonia) which declined on the arrival of the first Croats in 600 BC (check out the Roman remains around the cathedral of St Stephen). The first known Croatian king, Tomislav (you'll see his impressive horseback statue on the open park right outside the main station -- cue photo below), ruled the Zagreb area as part of the Croatian state from 879 onwards.

Today's Zagreb derives from two once-competing medieval settlements on neighbouring hills. In 1094, a diocese was founded by Hungarian king, Ladislas, on Kaptol and later, in 1242, neighbouring Gradec(pronounced "Gradech") was proclaimed a free royal city by the Hungarian-Croat king, Bela IV, in appreciation of its inhabitants’ protection of him during a Turkish invasion in 1242. Each encampment had city walls and look-out towers (of which you can see some remains today).

During the Turkish onslaughts on Europe, between the 14th and 18th centuries, Zagreb was an border fortress, gaining in importance as the years passed. The first reference to Zagreb as the capital of Croatia dates from 1557, and the 1600s brought a flurry of historical activity: a lightning fire destroying the main church, the foundation of a Jesuit printing house, and a royal charter for the establishment of the university. The 1700 and 1800s heralded more progress: the first weekly newspaper was printed (in Latin), the government moved its seat to Zagreb, the first dedicated theatre building and first railway line opened. Revenues from trade fairs and landed estates contributed to the city's wealth, and affluent aristocratic families, royal officials, church dignitaries and rich traders from across Europe gravitated towards Zagreb, introducing their European manners and architectural designs. This Baroque makeover of the city changed its appearance - old wooden houses were demolished and in their place came opulent palaces, monasteries and churches (in the Lower Town, look for example for the creamy-yellow Exhibition Palace, the Strossmeyer and modern galleries and Archaeological Museum on the main street from the station to Jelacica Square). The medieval city borders could not hold this new vibrant melting-pot, which spread to the lowlands where the first parks and country houses were built, and the formal consolidation of Kaptol, Gradec and the new surrounding settlements gave rise to the city of Zagreb in 1850. The 1880 earthquake necessitated further reconstruction and allowed modernisation of many of the shabbier buildings to house the ever-growing population of the new city; you'll see that many buildings date from the 1890s.

Zagreb has had its share of natural disasters - flooding, blazes and earthquakes in particular - but obviously the worst problems to befall it have been the fallout from the historic problems throughout the Balkans which you might imagine might weigh down the capital and country with poverty and despair. If it does, it's not apparent - 30 May 1990 saw the first free, democratic, multi-party elections taking place, with 30 May becoming a national holiday known as Statehood Day, and the first session of the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) taking place shortly after. (The Parliament Building (and Presidential Residence) are in the Upper Town, either side of St Mark's Church; the former can occasionally be visited to see history in action.)

Zagreb looks a city on the up and up - shopping, accommodation and eating out are comparable in price to cities such as Paris, Rome or Barcelona, and tourism (especially from nearby Germany and Italy) is booming.

So much for history, now to the city itself . . .

The twin settlements which make up Zagreb's hilly Upper Town are Gradec (to the east) and Kaptol (to the west). Kaptol has been a settlement for approaching a millennium (though few of the buildings date back that far thanks to the prevalence of earthquakes) and Gradec in the 1400s. Together they form the oldest part of the city.

You can either climb slowly from the Lower Town via the Dolac Market into Kaptol by heading towards the cathedral spires or, slightly more spectacularly, take the 1888 funicular up to the foot of the Lotrscak Tower and straight into Gradec. Assuming the latter route, head up into the Tower (via the door on the main street towards St Mark's - the door by the funicular exit is just a shop/gallery) and on the first level you'll find the ticket office (KN10) to allow you to head up another 40 or so spiral steps to the 360 degree views from the open-air platform (actually, the views from the lower level across to St. Mark's and St Catherine's aren't bad at all if you're on a budget and the big windows are open, and they're not at all pushy if you just want to sit down there and take some photos).

From there, head up towards gothic St Mark's, looking to your right at the white-facade of the baroque St Catherine's Church and stopping in on your left at the Naive Art Museum (Galeija Klovicevi Dvori). St Mark's is the epicentre of Gradec and, with its painted roof tiles shining and catching the light beautifully, it doesn't look quite real. On one side, the tiles make up two shields (the flags of Zagreb and Croatia, and forming, at the rear, a plain sheet of lovely fir-tree green (it's worth wandering right round Jezuitski square to view the whole building). There is apparently some modern sculpture inside but the church looked pretty permanently closed to me.

On the church's left is the rather plain 17th-century Banski Dvori (presidential palace) with its a guard of honour (changed at noon in the summer month) and on the right is the Sabor (national assembly) dating from 1908 - look out for the crest above the Croatian flag. Past the palace on the right hand side is a small-ish entrance which turns into a passageway - coming out into the light again, you'll see an open-air shrine with pews on the left hand wall divided by the path from an image of the Virgin Mary surrounded by plaques and lit candles. Apparently, this area survived the 1880 earthquake when all around it did not and has since been deemed holy.

From this point, the path starts to drop downhill, stopping off for a grand mounted St George skewering a vile-looking dragon (see "Beloved Ljubljana" for the contrasting treatment of dragons in the region), before rising once more as you head into Kaptol. First stop is the Dolac market with blue and white striped stalls loaded down with fantastic-smelling fruit and veg and then, going north along Opatovina, you reach the spiky twin spires of the 1899 Cathedral (to which local refer as St Stefan's but whose name had formally changed to the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). Cleaning and renovation works have been going on for a long time and one spire is currently covered in scaffolding. To the left of the entrance are the remains of the medieval Archiepiscopal Palace and some 16th century ruins of fortifications against Turkish invaders. The interior of the Cathedral is grand and gilded with an enormous baroque pulpit - not my cup of tea but you have to admire the workmanship.