Day 34: Seeing Zagreb

6/9/22

Today was a rainy day, so we had a driving/walking tour of Zagreb.

Zagreb's key buildings have gorgeous yellow brick/plaster. The city has been nicknamed mini-Vienna for these architectural styles.

In medieval times, Zagreb actually used to be two cities, Gradec and Kaptol, and they hated each other. Eventually in the 1800s, a push of expansion unified the two and they were joined together.

A unique statue with a twist on a popular legend exists in Zagreb. Everyone knows the story of St. Michael slaying the dragon, and it is often depicted on the walls of cathedrals or in famous paintings, but here, there is the only known work of him paying his respects to the creature. Here, he has removed his helmet and bows his head to the creature on the granite below.

One of the most famous symbols of Zagreb is St. Mark's cathedral. Here you can see its intricate roof mosaic tiles depicting the crest of Croatia (which is itself composed of three crests) on the left and of Zagreb on the right.

Inside the old Stone Gate, the last extant of the four gates to the city, the people of Zagreb made an altar to Virgin Mary, and this place is known as Our Lady of the Stone Gate. Locals come to pray here and leave tributes of gratitude.

Here, you can see people's tributes to her, saying "thank you mother," "hvala majke." The middle black stone one says "thank you for saving my son."

Locals light candles at the altar. Also here, Dora Krupićeva, the figure from a famous Zagreb novel holds the historic key to the city's gates.

There was a really cool miniature sculpture of the city.

We climbed to an overlook and saw two more churches. The front is St. Mary, and the other for the Assumption of Mary. You can really see who the patron saint of Zagreb is!

Lunch was delicious- we had juicy duck, tons of dumplings and side dishes, and traditional Croatian flat pasta which was very tasty. That's what's to the side of the duck on the platter. Our appetizer was an egg soup, which at first mystified the table, but quickly became something we devoured.

Here is the statue of Ban Josip Jelacic. His statue in Zagreb was removed by the Communists in 1947 and reinstalled in 1990, this time not pointing his sword north towards Hungary, but instead facing south, according to the sculptor's wish that he face where people lived, and south was where the majority of the population was now.

When trying to get home, I got lost on the wrong tram, but then learned how to use city transit and navigated my way back to the hotel after a bit. Oh well, I learned something new and grew today! 😂

Ćao for now.