Exploring Zagreb

October 5, 2023 · by Dano · in Zagreb

Good night’s rest, great breakfast now off to explore. Going to get our steps in today, Lower Old Town is a good 20-minute shuffle, throw in 10 more for climbing up to Upper Old Town. With so many places temporarily closed, kind of limits our choices but there are still places to see. The Square, for example. The statue of Josip is there, lots of people hanging out, and street vendors selling roasted corn-on-the-cob, chestnuts, and popcorn. There was also one guy with a calliope that was a hit with little kids but other than that, no street performers.

Had to try the corn. There are two kinds of corn vendors on the square, one that roasts the corn over coals, and one that boils the corn. Had to try the roasted variety for a little something different. Not bad, but not really good. There was a heavy starch taste but other than that, tasted like corn. No butter, which would have helped immensely, just a bit of salt. OK, did that.

One roasted corn, coming up!

Now the hike to Upper Old Town. It’s not a long walk but it is up a steep hill. We could take Europe’s shortest funicular, less than a 60 second ride to the top of the hill, or walk. We’ll walk so we can see the Stone Gate on the way.

Shortest funicular in Europe. Less than 60 second ride!

The Stone Gate, or Porta di Pietra is the only remaining medieval entrance to the city. It has become a shrine to the Mother of God complete with pews for praying and an altar with the likeness of the Virgin Mary. Little confusing for this old Episcopalian boy who was taught that Mary was the Mother of Jesus, who was the Son of God. Whatever. Seems the tranquility and peace mentioned in the tour books is a little difficult to experience with 4-5 tour groups converging on this small space at once.

The Stone Gate

Inside the gate, the shrine of Virgin Mary

Fighting our way through, we come to our next site, Lotrscak Tower, once a guard tower for Upper Old Town. (Probably called Upper New Town back then) Built in the 13^th century, this square building with a white-washed exterior and red tile roof, serves as the town clock today. At exactly 12:00pm, a WW1 era cannon goes off to set the time for the bell ringers in the city. The only time in Zagreb’s modern history that this cannon, or a previous version, has not shot off at noon, was immediately following WW1, when it was deemed by the City Council to be unnecessary. That didn’t last long so we’re back to shooting the cannon at 12pm. Great views of the city from the tower. Just don’t be at the top around 12pm!

Nice views of the city from Lotrscak’s Tower

Ye ole cannon clock

Continuing on with our trek through Zagreb, the Dolac Market. Now if you’ve been reading any of our earlier posts, especially the one about the Spanish Steps in Rome, you’ll understand why I’m perplexed by the coming discussion about Dolac Market.

Seems that back in the day, somewhere around 1928-1929, the market in Zagreb was held in Ban Josip Jelacic Square, remember, the Governor of Croatia. But things were getting crowded so, here is my issue, the town sent an envoy out to visit markets in Frankfurt, Munch, Leipzig, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna to get an idea how to build a market. Did this guy have a pat job or what! I think you build a market by putting up a series of tables, maybe add a little shade, and have people fill the tables with goods. Doesn’t take a world tour to figure that out. But it did. Once the chosen one returned from far away, he bestowed his newly learned knowledge of how to build a market on the good people of Zagreb. And there was peace.

Today, Dolac Market is a nice market, nothing really special, that has flowers, fruits, vegetables, meats, etc. It works so I guess the world tour was money well spent.

Dolac Market

Pushing on, time to hit a museum. With 50% of all the museums closed, we thought we’d hit one of the more unusual museums (the only ones open), the Museum of Broken Relationships. According to the overview, the museum houses artifacts and stories about relationships gone wrong. Some will make you cry; some will make you laugh. Sounds perfect.

Well, not quite as dramatic as the overview would lead you to believe. Yes, some of the stories were sad, neither Collette or I cried except when we realized we’d paid 14 EUR to get in. But seriously, some stories were sad, like the ones about loves that never happened, so they lived their lives alone, wanting and wishing for their love to return or call. Didn’t come across any that made us laugh.

After that, had to take a break and have a glass of wine and a snack before heading back to the apartment. Thought we’d share some sights of Zagreb on our way back. Tomorrow we drive to Zadar, pronounced, “za dah”, a coastal town located on the Adriatic Sea. It’s about a 4.5hr drive from Zagreb, not using toll roads. Time to say goodbye to Zagreb, go back and pack up our things, and get ready for more adventure in Croatia.

Do sutra

More around town pics…