Emblems of the town, Zagreb

Favorite thing: As a capital city, Zagreb represents the whole country. It bears Croatian spirit and seems to combine some features from all the areas of the country.
The Medieval area of Zagreb is called "Upper town". It's dominated by a beautiful church with tile roof. Tiles are of different colours and the pattern on the church rool represents Croatian national flag.

Favorite thing: Hrvojka took us for a walk around the old town of Zagreb and one of the spots we came across is the St. Marks Church here in St.Marks Square. It was built in the 13th century. The roof tiles (only applied during the 19th century) on the left depict the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia and the right show coat of arms of the city of Zagreb.

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Favorite thing: St. Mark's Church stands in the middle of St. Mark's Square in the Upper Town. It dates back to the 13th century and use to be the parish church of Gradec (Upper Town). The multi-coloured tiles on the left side of the roof represent the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, while those on the right side represent the coat of arms of the city of Zagreb. The earliest known Zagreb coat of arms is the one walled in on the exterior north-western wall of the church in 1499.

Fondest memory: The St. Mark's Church is one of the emblems of the town of Zagreb.

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Favorite thing: Lotrscak Tower, one of the landmarks of the town, was built in the 13th century with a purpose of protecting the city's gates. The tower's name comes from "campana latruncolorum", the bell of the robber. The bell chimed from the tower every evening before the city gates were closed.

Fondest memory: Every day for over a hundred years, a cannon has been fired from the top of Lotrscak Tower exactly at noon, giving the people of Zagreb the chance to check their watches.

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Favorite thing: Here stands the statue to King Tomislav, the first King of the medieval state of Croatia, after whom the square is named. King Tomislav Square is a large park with a fountain in the middle and the Art Pavillion on its northern side. It is a part of so-called "Lenuci's horseshoe".
The sculpture is work of Robert Franges-Mihanovic 1927-1934.

Fondest memory: Just a few words about the history, King Tomislav was crowned as a king in 925 AD and disappeared in 928 AD. Sounds alike incredible story that one king could disappearing and yet so it happened. It is not known to this day where King Tomislav was buried or how he died, he just disappeared as if never excisted.
Tomislav founded mighty kingdom that excisted between 923 - 1102 AD and yet very little if nothing is mentioned in world's history books about this knigdom which in times of its excistance was mightier then England.
King Tomislav is historical fact, no dounts about it, by decree of the Holy Catholic Church in Rome he was crowned first Croatian king. His disappearing, however, and the fact that his tomb was never found created many legends about him.

Favorite thing: Explore the Upper Town which includes Banski Dvori (the Presidential Palace) with its colourful guards, Sabor (the parliament), St. Mark's Church (with the works of Ivan Mestrovic, Croatia's most famous sculptor) and note its beautifully tiled roof. There are also several museums and galleries nearby. See Lotrscak Tower (Kula) before returning to the hustle and bustle of modern Zagreb either via the pedestrian walkway or the hundred-year-old funicular railway (uspinjaca).

Favorite thing: Be on the Upper town (Gornji grad) at noon- every day a CANNON shoots exactly at NOON- don't worry, everything that comes out of the cannon is paper ;)
This tradition is very very old and Zagreb is famous by it.

Fondest memory: This is not exactly the 'fondest' memory, but i remember, shortly after the war, me and my friends walked through ILICA (longest street in Zagreb) when the cannon shot at noon. It was at the same time scary and funny to see some of the people bent down, scared to death because they thought that another attack is following!
And yes, i was among them, although i'm listening to this cannon all my life- it was a logical reaction though- once you experience the war, cannons somehow loose their 'virginity'. Even this one.

Favorite thing: In Zagreb there'are soma beatiful church, here I'd like to advice you of my preferred: The Cathedral and The St. Marko. The first one is the most important and big religious center of Croatia, but unfortunally I have no photo of it, because there were some maintenance works on it. The second one is a very beautiful church, it isn't very big but very nice. I'd like very much the roof of it becouse is plenty of mosaics, how you can see in the photo.