Europe 2019 - Day 45 (Part 3)

20 June 2019, Thursday 

At St Mark’s Square there was also the Parliament, the constitutional court, and other government offices including the office of the Prime Minister. The President’s office is somewhere else. In Croatia, the President’s role is more for maintaining diplomatic and international ties; whereas the Prime Minister’s role is for governance within Croatia. 

We then passed by the Croatian History Museum and ended up at St Catherine’s Square, with St Catherine’s church which was built in the 17th century in baroque style architecture. We didn’t get the chance to see the inside of the church as it was closed when we were there, but we were told that the interior of the church is all pink, which made it a popular wedding venue.

And then when things go sour, the  once happily married couple could always donate their things and their stories to the Museum of Broken Relationships which was just around the corner. This is a unique museum started by a couple who were once engaged but broke up, and were deciding what to do with their joint possessions so they started this museum. It is now doing very well. It is a museum with things donated by people from around the world with an accompanying break up story on the significance of that thing; some are funny stories and some, like mine, are just heart breaking.

Anyway, there was another smaller church here known as the St Cyril and St Methodius Greek Catholic Concathedral, and the Croatian Museum of Naive Art. 

Next, to the Stone Gate which is one of 5 of the original gates that led to Gradec or Upper Town. In 1242 King Bela IV of Hungary and Croatia proclaimed Gradec a free royal city allowing its citizens a higher degree of autonomy. In return, they delivered on the promise to fortify Gradec with walls and towers. The 13th century layout included about 5 city gates, but only 1 gate survived which is the Stone Gate. In those days, everything was made out of wood, including the city gates. On 30 May 1731 a fire destroyed everything including the gate, which was subsequently rebuilt. But 1 wooden painting survived - a painting of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus. Since then, 31 May is celebrated as Zagreb City Day, and the Virgin Mary of the Stone Gate was adopted as the patron saint of the city. 

As this was considered a miracle, a chapel was built inside of the Stone Gate where it still stands (named "The Virgin and Child"), guarded by an impressive baroque fence, built in 1778. A long time ago, the Virgin Mary of Stone Gate became the most significant oath site, where the pious find comfort and hope, and light candles as a token of gratitude or a prayer. Many citizens of Zagreb got their prayers answered - they pray for mostly health, but also fo happiness, good luck and love - and plates with engravings of gratitude stand as a testimony of this. Indeed, there were many plates here with the word ‘Hvala’ which means thank you in Croatian.