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Interesting Facts
- The thousand-year story of Zagreb stretches all the way to 1094, the year Hungarian King Ladislas founded a diocese in its place. The canonical settlement of Kaptol was soon followed by Gradec on a neighbouring hillside. Historical rivalries (Kaptol bishops were prone to occasional en-masse excommunication of the entire Gradec population) and political differences were settled from the vantage point of Pisani Bridge over the brook which divided the two – thus it become evocatively known as Krvavi Most, or Bloody Bridge.
- The year 1242 saw Gradec, now the Upper Town, awarded the status of a free royal city, and something of a tax haven, by King Bela IV. This gesture was a royal thank-you for sheltering him from an onslaught of Mongol Tatars in the times when shelters were few and those willing to provide them even fewer. Privileges thus gained by the newly fortified Gradec much benefited the community which quickly developed into a busy artisan and trade town, much to chagrin of the Kaptol bishop, who (what else?) excommunicated the lot.
- One of several in those highly flammable times, the great fire of 1731 ravaged much of 18th-century Zagreb. Legend says that in cinders of burned-down remnants of St. Mary's shrine within the Stone Gate, only her picture survived unharmed. Many people have since prayed for her protection, and marble plaques with their vows, hopes and prayers now line its ancient, almost mystical stone alcove.
- Was it upon a request of King Bela IV so the cannon would not rust? Or was it to line the city coffers, with each midday cannon that signalled Zagreb churches the time to chime their bells costing 100 Forints? The intrepid Zagreb citizens shooting the cannon in the direction of a Turkish camp across the river, hitting the Pasha's rooster and thus scaring the Turks into retreat? Legends are many, but the fact is you can still set your watch each day by the twelve noon roar of the Grič Cannon. Oh, and did we mention that the cannon was shifted from the ship of legendary naval commander, Horatio Nelson?
- The 13th-century Lotrščak Tower housing the aforementioned cannon got its name following the instalment of the bell 'campana latruncolorum', or 'the thieves' bell'. Its evening peal signalled the closure of the city gates, presumably informing the thieves to exit city in orderly manner. Its many incarnations also saw it hosting the town's first pool hall (much, much later).
- Zagreb's funicular, all 66 meters of it, is one of the world's shortest. Its 55-second ride, connecting the Lower and the Upper Towns, began bringing unimaginable excitement into the hearts of local five-year-olds in 1890, making it the community's oldest form of organised public transport. Catch it at the top of Tomićeva Street and enter the ethereal beauty of Strossmayer Promenade, overlooking the playful rooftops of downtown Zagreb.
- Croatian master supreme, sculptor Ivan Meštrović's work will surprise, touch and inspire on every turn. You'll see the unmissable Well of Life on Maršal Tito Square, the History of Croats in front of Zagreb University, and rotund Meštrović Pavilion on your stroll through town. Visit Meštrović Atelier, his former home, now a gallery housing works he bestowed to Croatia after his death in 1962. And after this little exercise, when you next pass the towering statue of Gregory of Nin in Split, or two magnificent equestrian statues of American Indians, the Bowman and the Spearman in Chicago Grant Park, you are sure to recognise his masterful touch.
- Flora and fauna of Croatian money: Croatian currency 'kuna' takes its name from martens, whose valuable pelts were used first in Roman times as payment for taxes. So much so, that old Croatian word for taxes 'marturina' derives from the Latin 'martus' – Croatian 'kuna'. 'Lipa', Croatian coinage, means a linden tree.
- Mechanical pencil, screw propeller and first working parachute. Who invented these? Well, Croats, of course: Slavoljub Penkala, Josip Ressel and Faust Vrančić, respectively, were all born or lived in what is now Croatia.
- No compilation of Croatian facts and fables can be complete without the ubiquitous story of how ties came to hang around the world's neck. So impressed were the French when Croatian mercenary soldiers rode into Paris during the Thirty Years War, they copied the Croat's flamboyantly tied scarves calling it style 'a la Croate' and it rose to high fashion at the court of Louis XIV. As they say, the rest is history. Hrvat, Croat, Cravat, Tie!
