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Zagreb

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Bec
2004-09-15 15:40:08

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Zagreb
This is the Zagreb train station. I decided to come here on the spur of the moment while reminiscing in Budapest about the good times I had enjoyed while travelling on business before I got married.

The memory of something extraordinary that happened to me in 1965 prompted me to come back.

The 1897 exhibition pavilion, in the King Tomislav park in front of the train station, has an outdoor cafe for patrons who come to see the contemporary art exhibitions inside.The park continues north where it is called Strossmeyer around the Art Gallery of that name and Zrinskog square here where concerts are given regularly in the 1891 music pavilion.

One block further north we come to the heart of the city, Jelacica square at the foot of a hill where clerics established the village of Kaptol in 1094.

It was a market place before becoming the main city square and was named in honour of Josip Jelacic who led a liberal democratic revolution against Austria-Hungary in 1848 and whose statue stands in the centre of the square.

During the same period, craftsmen established the town of Gradec on a nearby hill that is now reached by the funicular railway seen here at the end of Tomica street, a couple of blocks west of Jelacica square.

Cirilometodska street leads to St-Mark's Church, with its colourful tile roof, on the square of the same name in the centre of Gradec.

The street was named after the monks Cyril and Method who invented the Cyrillic alphabet as a tool to convert the Slavs to Christianity in the 9th century.

Coming out of the fortified Gradec to visit nearby Kaptol, we go through the "Stone Gate", last rebuilt in 1760, inside of which is a small chapel much revered by pious Croats (mostly catholic).

Dolac Market, in Kaptol, is ringed with terraces and restaurants one of which served me a Croat speciality, tripe stew with grated cheese (it was delicious).

On the eastern flank of Kaptol stands the impressive St-Stephen's Cathedral rebuilt in 1899 after being destroyed by an earthquake in 1880.

The round tower was part of fortifications erected in the 16th century for protection against the Ottoman advance into the Balkans.

Moving west on one of the pedestrian streets from Jelacica square, we come to the the small Petra Peradovica square (named after a poet), with its flower market, outdoor cafes, two cinemas and the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration.

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