Zagreb Travel guide

In the area of collective sports, basketball is very popular. The best players have been: Kresimir Cosic (1948-1995; he spent last years of his life in the USA as the Croatian diplomat); became only the third international player ever elected to the world's Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of basketball; Drazen Petrovic (you can see his beautiful monument in the Olympic park in Lausanne, Switzerland); Toni Kukoc; and Dino Radja. Two best basketball teams are: Cibona (Zagreb) and the former Jugoplastika (Split), which were several times European champions.

After the morning rush, the city softens its business profile with the laughter of youth, the songs of street buskers, and bright faces behind the glass windows of its many cafés. The diversity, sprit and vision are those of modern capital but, at the same time, some of the idyll of the past has been preserved. The colour of the Cvjetni (Flower) Square overflowing with flowers, the serenity of its Upper Town, the Cannon on Lotrscak Tower that has been fired every day at noon for more than a century... really, the city has something for everyone. It is big enough to have everything a capital needs, yet small enough for its streets and squares to be remembered. Indeed, do you remember ever sipping your first morning coffee on a square full of flowers and then felt the urge, without rhyme or reason, to buy a freshly picked bouquet?

And when at last your morning at a business meeting or convention has concluded, you can become acquainted with a new side of Zagreb - it’s laid back mood and beauty, its restaurants and stores. Art and decorative items, including crystal, paintings by world famous Croatian masters of the naive art form, designs straight from international catwalks or by local designers are waiting for you. And then there are authentic souvenirs, a truly unique way of showing you have not forgotten - you were probably not aware that Croatia is the birthplace of the necktie, nor that the first ball-point pen was invented in Zagreb by Slavoljub Penkala.

At the close of the day, when you want to sit down in one of Zagreb's restaurants, here is a real gastronomic Mecca. You will have a truly remarkable choice from seafood, vegetarian and classical restaurants to snack bars or real gastronomic shrines. But words are insufficient you must taste the food. Try local specialties perhaps - we can recommend the Zagrebacki odrezak (veal cutlet filled with ham and cheese and then fried), Turkey with Mlinci (thinly-rolled pastry baked at high temperature and then boiled), and the original Zagorski Strukli, a continental specialty made from local pastry and cheese.

And when the city lights are dimmed, a different Zagreb will emerge before your eyes, a city which moves to the rhythm of modern and classical dance mingled with the romantic sounds of a piano from a bar. You could even try your luck in one of the casinos. Different and with more dazzle, it still remains the same old Zagreb that you know - serene and safe, charming and friendly.

The famous wine trails are equally enjoyable for lovers of good wine, good food and the beauty of nature. Here at a small inn you can enjoy extremely tasty specialties of the region or try the wine that your hosts, proud of their vineyards and wine cellars, will gladly offer you. Past has been frozen here ... tomorrow is heralded by a rooster, not an alarm clock!

The area boasts millennia of history. Remains of Paleolithic man were discovered on Husnjakovo Mountain near Krapina and many other discoveries from the Stone and Bronze Age confirm that this region was inhabited in prehistoric times. Time has stood still in the unspoiled village of Kumrovec, the only original Ethno Village in the world, where you have the opportunity to enjoy the demonstration of old handicrafts.

You could wander off through history; become a researcher putting together a mosaic from secrets of shrouded castles or museums. Hrvatsko Zagorje has more monuments than any other area of Croatia with the exception of the Adriatic region. It has around 275 protected cultural monuments, of which some twenty are castles and manors. You could spend an enchanted evening in a castle, allowing yourself to live briefly in the past and learn about customs. You will return to the present richer with the feeling that this, however, is your time.

Building castles in this area began at the end of 16th century, relatively early even by European standards. Most, however, were built in the second half of the 17th century and in the 18th century under the direct influence of central European and Austrian styles of construction. The mould is obvious - what other than the baroque model of a feudal castle, Versailles. It is difficult to set apart any one of these castles for they are all beautiful and historically significant. The one in Gornja Bistra, an impeccable architectural achievement, is an example of grand baroque, built to suit the tastes of the 18th century high society. Among the most beautiful certainly is that of Gornja Bedekovcina, which marks the starting point and culmination of the development of single-winged castle. Visitors will also be attracted to the beautiful Miljana, Bezanec and Veliki Tabor castles, as well as Trakoscan, one of the stateliest.

Festivities, which your hosts organise in celebration of holidays, will be adorned by gingerbread deftly decorated with vivid colours, mead and carousels, customary Zagorje caps and delightful songs of people happy to welcome and entertain their guests. No doubt, you will receive the same welcome.


Zagreb history

Croatian Origins: The documented history of Croatia begins with Greek colonies established along the Dalmatian coast after 600 B.C. Migration of the Croats (Chrobati, Hrvati) is said to have occurred during the early the 6th century A.D. from white Croatia, a region which is now Ukraine between the Southern Bug and Dnieper rivers, to the lower Danube valley. They continued toward the Adriatic, where they conquered the Roman stronghold Salona in 614. After settling in the former Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia where they spent approximately 10 years, between 626 and 635, to completely defeat the Avars, pushing them to the north of the river Danube. After the defeat of the Avars, Emperor Heraclius enacted a law (Keleusis, iussio), giving the conquered lands to the Croats and under the sovereignty of the Byzantine Empire. The Croats then began to develop independently. The farming Croats continued their former way of life under their zupani or tribal chiefs, who performed administrative, judicial and military functions.

In the 7th century, when they were converted to Christianity. Shortly afterwards they received the privilege of using their national language in church services. Under pressure from the neighbouring Frankish and Byzantine empires, the tribal organization of the Croats gradually gave way to larger units, and there existed two Croatian duchies, one in Dalmatia along the Adriatic coast, the other in Pannonia. After the Frankish-Byzantine peace of 812, Pannonian Croatia became a part of the Frankish empire and the Dalmatian duchy recognized nominal Byzantine supremacy. In the middle of the 9th century the Pannonian Croats liberated themselves and joined the Dalmatian duchy, which also shook off foreign domination. By 880 Branislav (879-892) became the first independent dux Croatorum.

The Croatian Kingdom: Tomislav (910 - 928) was the first ruler of a unified Croatia. During the next 180 years, Croatia enjoyed strength and prosperity under its own kings. Tomislav, one of Branislav's successors, annexed the Dalmatian cities and in 925 received the royal crown from Pope John X. Tomislav and his heirs made strenuous efforts to defend their kingdom both from the Bulgarian empire in Pannoia and from Venice, which was spreading its power along the Dalmatian coast. After Tomislav's death, a series of civil wars weakened central authority and lost peripheral territories including Bosnia. The Byzantines helped Stjepan Drzislav (969-997) to liberate the coastal towns from Venice but succeeded in re-establishing their own influence on the Adriatic. Peter Kresimir changed this situation, by breaking off relations with Byzntium, strengthening Croatia's ties with the papacy and enlarged the state boundaries. Croatia then reached the peak of its power. It spread southwards along the Adriatic coast from the river Rasa in Istria to the rivers Tara and Piva in Montenegro, eastward to the Drina and northward to the Drava and to the Danube. Kresimir's policy divided the nation into a Latin group, which upheld the king, and a national group, which enjoyed popular support in opposing the king's policy. This division became fatal during the reign of Dimitrije Zvonimir, who was crowned in Split by the legate of Pope Gregory VII. Zvonimir was invited by the pope to participate in a war against the Seljuk Turks, and convened a great assembly to win his subjects over the campaign. The people accused him of being a papal vassal and killed him. Anarchy and civil war followed, and with it the decline of the Croatian Kingdom. The death of King Zvonimir in 1089 or 1090 without heirs evidently led a group of Croatian nobles in 1091 to conclude the Pacta Conventa with Hungarian King Ladislaus, conceding him the Croatian crown in exchange for Croatian autonomy. Another group of Croatians opposed the Hungarian king, but were defeated by Ladislaus successor Kalman.

Ladislaus' deputy Almos founded a bishopric at Zagreb in 1094, and this soon became the centre of ecclesiastical power. The Dalmatian Croats proclaimed Petar Svacic king in 1093, but the pope considered him a rebel and invited King Kalman of Hungary to unseat him. King Kalman invaded Croatia, and Svacic fell in 1097 in the defence of his country. He was the last king of Croatian blood.

The Pacta Conventa became the basis for a Croatian struggle of centuries, with varying success, to maintain its autonomy first under the Hungarian crown, and later under the Habsburg emperors.

The people elected Kalman and he pledged himself to respect Croatian state rights. In 1102 Kalman swore that Croatia and Hungary would remain two independent kingdoms under St. Stephen's crown and that the king would personify this union. Only Bosnia, a part of the Croatian kingdom, refused to submit to a foreign monarch.

The Yugoslav Union: Serbian and Montengrin victories over the Turks in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 encouraged the Croats to envisage freedom in an independent Yugoslav union that would include Serbia and Montenegro, but in 1914, when the arch-duke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated at Sarajevo, relations between the Croats and the Hungarians appeared to be calm, thanks to the policy of compromise pursued by the Croatian-Serbian coalition, which in 1913 became the government party in Croatia. With the outbreak of World War I the Austro-Hungarian authorities introduced measures of extreme severity throughout their South Slav provinces. The emperor Charles made clear in his coronation speech in 1916 that he recognised Croatian integrity in relation to Hungary, thereby establishing the equality of both countries under St. Stephen's crown. On Oct. 29, 1918, the Croatian diet broke off all ties with Hungary and Austria and proclaimed an independent Croatia, which entered into a state union with other South Slav provinces of the empire, to be governed by a national council. On the request of council's emissaries, on Dec. 1, 1918, the Serbian prince regent Alexander proclaimed the union of this state with Serbia and Montenegro. Yugoslavia came into being. After the election of 1920 the Peasant party (HSS) under Stjepan Radic led Croatian opposition.

The assassination of Radic and some of his political collaborators in the Belgrade parliament on June 20, 1928, produced serious crisis, but the HSS continued its activism under Vlatko Macek. Finally, as conflict between Serbs and Croats was preventing the consolidation of Yugoslavia, the Belgrade government had to give in.

The Independent State of Croatia: Croatian nationalists who aimed at complete independence remained dissatisfied with the sporazum. In World War II, after Yugoslavia had been occupied and dismembered by the Axis powers, an Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed in Zagreb on April 10, 1941, and recognised four days later by Hitler and Mussolini. Since Vladimir (Vladko) Macek, the leader of the Peasant party, refused the German offer to head the new state, it was entrusted to Ante Pavelic (1889-1959), head of the Fascist terrorist organisation Ustaša. A nationalist fanatic, Pavelic re-entered Croatia from Italy, where he had spent 12 years of exile plotting revolution. He introduced a dictatorial regime characterised by methods of extreme brutality and violence. An attempt was made in 1944 to bring Croatia over to the side of the Allies, but it was mismanaged; its leaders, Ante Vokic and Mladen Lorkovic, were arrested and shot by Pavelic's henchmen. The Independent State of Croatia survived the capitulation of Germany for a few days only. Pavelic fled to Austria in May 1945 and later to Argentina. The puppet state gave place to the people's republic of Croatia within Communist Yugoslavia.

With the collapse of Nazi Germany, and the approach of communist forces toward Zagreb in 1945, most Ustaša leaders, as well as Macek and many other Croatians, fled toward areas occupied by American and British units. A contingent of the Ustaša military and home defence also fled into Austria, but were captured by the Allies at Bleiburg, then returned to Yugoslavia where most evidently were executed by Tito’s forces.

At the end of the war, Tito (A Croatian Communist who fought against the Italian-back Ustaša regime) reconciled all the various parts of Yugoslavia and created a Yugoslav federation with Croatia

as one of the constituent republics. By the terms of the peace treaty with Italy in 1947, most of Istria, formerly part of Italy, was included in Croatia.

Tito's new authoritarian government ruthlessly suppressed any sign of ethnic nationalism, with all power given to the multi-ethnic (in theory, non-ethnic) communist party.

During the 1960s and 1970s Croatia's beautiful Adriatic coastline attracted tourism, which contributed to Yugoslavia's economy. Croatians began to agitate for greater autonomy as they saw their tourist revenues being used to stamp out Croatian nationalism.

Constant attention was required to maintain the suppression of nationalist expression. Croatia was an area of special concern, as the centre of the strongest nationalist movement in pre-war Yugoslavia. The most serious challenge to the system during Tito's lifetime was probably the Croatian Spring or Mass Movement of the late 1960s, which was ended by the removal by Tito of most of the Croatian leadership in late 1971, and a parallel removal of accused nationalists in Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia. (One of those jailed in Croatia during this period was the former partisan General Franjo Tudjman.) However, the system of control began to break down after Tito's death.

Following Tito's death in 1980, tensions between Croatia and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav government worsened.

When nationalist Croat politicians, notably Franjo Tudjman, advocated a reduction in ethnic Serb representation in the Croatian police, or argued that the number of victims at Jasenovac had been inflated, the Serbian press repeated and embellished such positions to prove to Serbs that Croatia was returning to the days of the Ustaše, and that Serbs had to take up arms to defend themselves. The fact that some of the new political figures did, in fact, advocate a positive view of the Ustaša movement made still easier the job of the Serb nationalists. By the time of Franjo Tudjman's 1990 election victory, most Serbs in rural areas appear to have been convinced that their lives were in danger.

With continuing stalemate, word spread that Serbias government was printing a massive amount of Yugoslav banknotes, without central government authorization. In this manner, Serbia was moving to undermine the economic program of the Federal Premier. There were other factors as well, but this may have been critical in Slovenia's decision unilaterally to declare independence on 25 June 1991. Once Slovenia left, the other opponents of Serbia would find themselves in a minority on the collective Presidency. If Tudjman had not in any case preferred independence, this incentive well might have moved him. In May, Croats voted by referendum in favour of independence and on 25 June 1991 Croatia declared its independence (as did Slovenia).

On April 13, 1997, elections were held in east Slavonia (Vukovar area); these elections should conclude the reintegration of this part of Croatia (but still occupied by Serbian militias) into the republic.

Eastern Slavonia back to Croatia's control - January 15, 1998. For the first time in more than six years, Croatia has control over all of its territory, after Eastern Slavonia was formally returned Thursday (15 Jan 1998) by the United Nations. The Croatian government estimates that it will cost $2.5 billion to reconstruct Eastern Slavonia. It is seeking much of that money from international sources, including the European Union.