Zagreb Local Customs

One more thing I like about Zagreb is that there are always little things that amaze you in a good way... For example, Kvaternikov trg (or Kvatric as we call it) is being rebuilt & reorganized, but (as everything here) it takes time. First they moved the whole market just along the Subiceva street, but now nobody knows what they’re planning to do. In the meantime they put these boards that Zagreb’s b-boys painted with graffiti & I gotta say it looks really cool. It’s a nice way of expressing creativity without destroying private property or anything else. I mean, they could’ve made a temporary parking or something out of the square, so I think this is definitely a smart way of making something out of it. And it’s funny to see old grannies carrying zillions of bags, looking at the graffiti all in wonder. :)

A similar things is the old Branimirova street (going from the Central station to the Central bus station) whose walls are covered in graffiti. That was a nice cooperation between the city & the artists indeed. I remember there were some talks about giving them some more space to paint, but I believe the City denied their wish. That's why you'll still see a lot of graffiti & tags all around the city, on walls, buildings, trains aso.

Anyway, after surfing the Net a bit, I found all the data about it. Davor Preis (born in 1966, graduated from the Design Faculty in Zagreb, a member of the Croatian Association of Artists) had a wish to combine the 'Sun' with the rest of the planets. The interesting part is that he decided to make it as a game called Nine Views, putting the planets in the strangest locations in the city (which a person would usually ignore) & taking 9 people who would take the task of looking for the planets that he put around Zagreb. In the end, they were supposed to discuss the game & talk about what they've discovered.

Luckily, I've been saved the trouble of walking around the city with a map & a globe in my hand. All of the planets have been discovered already! It looks like there really are people who took the city map & took long bus rides to the suburbs to clear this all up... (Thanx to the Zagreb Physics students!) :) Nevertheless, I'm gonna try to locate some of them, since I'm not sure how long they're gonna stay there.

It seems so strange - and it feels that way - that someone just decided to make something like that & even just came up with an idea like that! But it's like someone just put me in a computer game or a fiction book & I'm supposed to go around the place as the main character, detective, scientist or something looking for these clues that are about to reveal something or I-don't-know...

polar* finally has a mission, LOL!

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The exibits of Museum include a collection of Grecian urns, rare flaxen scrolls with the longest known Etruscan text and a numismatic collection which is the largest and best-known in Europe.

This fine neo-classical building is coloquialy called "Sveucilišna knjižnica", although it was trransfered to a new location few years ago. In front of the building stands the massive monument to Marko Marulic, one of the greatest Croatian poet of all times, known as a first one to wrotte poems in Croatian language.
Nowadays the building houses National Archive of Croatia.

Hrvatska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti, Croatian Academy of Science and Art is impressive neo-classical building situated in the central position of so-called "Lenuci green horseshoe", which is made of three parks in a row. It houses the most valuable collection of paintings made by Croatian artists.

The statue of Ban Josip Jelacic, "dressed" in snow, the picture was taken in the first week of anuary 2003. After couple of winters without the snow, this one have coloured Zagreb in white. Btw, nick name of Zagreb is "beli Zagreb grad" - the White Town of Zagreb.

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The Tower of Lotrscak marks the beginning of Strossmayer Promenade, which is situated under the southern wall of Gradec and offers a magnificient view to the Lower Town. Strossmayer Promenade is favourite walking path of youngs, especially those in love.
Here you can see also the banch where Croatian poet Gustav Matos used to spend every evening expecting twilight to come, his bench is trurned into the monument.

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Hrvatsko Narodno Kazalište, the Croatian National Theatre, was built in 1894/1895, according to the designs of Hellmer and Fellner, wide world famous Viennese architectors. It is situated on Marshal Tito Square, which is the most beautiful square of the town.
It's huge and representative construction dominates the whole square and is probably the most beautiful building in Zagreb.