Day 11. Zagreb Zeitgeist

Zagreb’s central feature, at first glance, is not a river or a lake, but a road running east west carrying cars and a number of trams.

During a walk through town, with the help of a city guidebook, the beauty and depth of Zagreb, Croatia’s capital opens up like the petals on a rose bud. The huge cathedral, with gothic towers is striking but we are more interested to notice the signs of life within the church. Nuns are moving about in numbers and with purpose, cleaning and tidying the sanctuary with devoted care. A good number of the faithful are waiting for a service to begin and even more surprising is the growing queue outside the confessional. Across town is another much smaller church, St Marks, which boasts a most unusual multi-coloured tiled roof.

Another surprise is the huge outdoor fruit and vegetable market. The Dolac Markets have been described as the stomach of Zagreb, since 1850.  Each stall is a single trestle table with fruit displays that rival the district exhibits at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. We also discover another covered market beneath the open-air market where sellers are hawking chicken, meat, cheese, cold meats and much more. 

At midday the old tower in the centre of town is crowded as people wait for the cannon to be fired at midday. We hear a number of guides peddling a variety of historical reasons for this event repeated daily for hundreds of years. Afterwards we resist the temptation to travel on the shortest funicular in Europe (what a strange boast). It travels a mere 66 metres in less than a minute.

We learn that Zagreb is one of the 50^th greenest cities in the world, with a U shaped array of parks peppered with wonderful historic buildings. We are disappointed to find the botanic gardens closed, but did notice through the fence the elaborate cold weather protection over many of the precious plants.

Finally, we take a long tram ride to the other side of town, to visit the communist architectural scar that Zagreb wears with a certain pride. Hundreds of apartment blocks, all identical, remind us of a poor version of Macquarie University’s architecture. Not pretty, but nevertheless in its own way, remarkable.