Europe 2019 - Day 45 (Part 1)

20 June 2019, Thursday 

Our hostel is unfortunately not the cleanest or most comfortable, though the location was good and the staff were very accommodating and pleasant. I didn’t sleep that well but had to wake up at about 7.45 a.m. as my friend was already ready to go 🙄. 

First to the nearest shop for coffee and a cheese burek (a local favourite here) for breakfast, and then off to explore Zagreb. It is really actually a very small town, so that we finished sightseeing by 3.30 p.m. and thereafter joined a free walking tour to get some information and go around the city again. So once again, there is an overlap of the places we saw so I will arrange it in the best way possible. 

First, the Ban Jelačić Square or the Main Square. There is a statue here of a man named Josip Jelačić on a horse, from 1848. ‘Ban’ is merely a title, it means Governor. In the 19th century, Croatia was still a feudalistic society with the bishops and other religious people considered as upper class, while the peasants and other working class people were the lower class. In 1848, this man, who was the Governor of Croatia at that time, abolished this practice of serfdom, made everyone equal under the law, and organised the first parliamentary elections. The Square was named after him in his honour, while he was still alive. So he got to walk in his own square!

Nearby there is a fountain called the Manduševac Fountain. It was built above a natural spring that provided Zagreb with drinking water right up until the end of the 19th century. There is also a legend connecting the spring with the name of the city. Namely, one sunny day an old Croatian war leader was returning from battle tired and thirsty, and asked a beautiful girl Manda to scoop up some water from the spring for him. The Croatian word for “to scoop up water”is “zagrabiti”. So the spring got the name Manduševac, after the girl, and the town got the name Zagreb after the scoop of water. Of course, this is just a story; no one knows for certain where the name ‘Zagreb’ comes from. 

Next, what was for me the most beautiful building in Zagreb - the Zagreb Cathedral, or the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first diocese dates back to 1094. It has twin towers, and is surrounded by ramparts and towers or fortifications built during the 15th century against Ottoman attacks. Over the years it has undergone many reconstructions that transformed it into a neo-gothic monument. 

In particular, on 9 November 1880 a devastating earthquake occurred in Zagreb which destroyed many buildings and stopped many clocks. At that time, the Church had a clock which stopped at 7.03 a.m. (the time of the earthquake). This clock survived, and we saw it on the wall next to one of the fortifications which also survived. Unfortunately the Church did not survive and had to be rebuilt. It is the largest Church and the tallest building in Croatia. Inside, there was a sermon going on and I heard the choir sing, it was quite soothing and delightful. The inside looked very holy and religious. What I didn’t know at the time and therefore didn’t look out for were the 3 chandeliers in the church which were donated to the Church by a man who bought it from a casino in Las Vegas 😬.