Croatia

Zagreb (the capital of Croatia) was unfortunately just a 24-hour stop for us on our journey to Chamonix, France. We had just enough time for a walking tour and a few bites to eat (what more does anyone need?).

Most of our photos from Zagreb look like the one below. In 2020, Zagreb suffered a 5.3 magnitude earthquake which damaged many of its historic buildings. More than 1900 structures were damaged to the point of being uninhabitable. As such, we saw many buildings like the cathedral shown below covered in scaffolding and undergoing gradual repairs.

The gold spire with a cross can be seen in the lower left of the picture. Two of these used to top the two towers of the cathedral. One was removed after the earthquake due to instability. The other evidently fell off during the earthquake and landed next to an archbishop sleeping in a building next door!

Zagreb is made up of two historic villages, Gradec and Kaptol. Not far from the modern-day city center, there is a historic ‘Stone Gate’ that leads to the village of Gradec. According to legend, a great fire broke out in 1731 and destroyed most of the wooden gate except a painting of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. The site was rebuilt and the painting was returned. The gate now serves as a chapel and is visited by many folks in the city. In the predominantly Catholic Zagreb, some believe in miraculous powers at this shrine and come to pray. The photo of the tiles are replete with ‘Hvala’ meaning ‘thank you-’ to the Virgin Mary for answered prayers.

The photo below is of St. Marks Church (complete with scaffolding of course). The building is from the 13th century and is one of the oldest architectural monuments in Zagreb. The roof contains two coats of arms, one of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia and the other of the City of Zagreb.

Our tour guide pointed out the “lions” on the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia coat of arms. He guessed that the artist had never really seen what a lion looked like…

We also stopped at the Dolac Market- an open-air farmer’s market. This market has been in operation since the 1930s. A staple of this historic spot has been the ‘Kumica’- a woman coming from rural areas outside Zagreb to sell fresh produce, dairy products, eggs, etc. from their home. The kumica historically carried products in a basket balanced on her head. Local shoppers would develop mutually beneficial long-term and sometimes multigenerational relationships with kumica’s.

Like the surrounding areas, Croatia comes with millennia of history. It is united with surrounding Balkan countries in having an Illyrian ancestry dating back to 1000 BC. Later the region succumbed to Roman rule. Later still, the Slavs (including tribes called Croats and Serbs) inhabited the region. Croats settled in what is present-day Croatia. Of course, specific borders have been altered by subsequent wars and treaties. Hundreds more years of history brought Catholicism…the Venetians, Hungarians, Ottomans…Hapsburgs…Napoleon and the French… etc-all the buzz-names of the region influencing and altering language, religion, culture, architecture, borders, and national identity in varying degrees. Most recently Croatia was part of Yugoslavia until its demise. With a complicated backdrop, Croatia declared independence in 1991 but violence ensued. Croatia has since stabilized, joined the EU and NATO, and had its first female president! (Somewhere in there they also invented the necktie!)

That sums up several thousand years clearly right?

All we know is we didn’t have nearly enough štrukli (see below) and there is much yet to be explored in this city and country in return visits!

And what could possibly lie ahead but another very long overnight Flix bus ride… but finally onto Chamonix, France for the start of the Tour du Mont Blanc!

Scraggly and focused!

Important Croatian words:

Hvala (colloquially ‘fala’)- Thank you (this is as far as we got in 24 hours!)