Zagreb
Restaurants and bars, museums and galleries, clubs, music, shopping and more...
Half-price dining returns with Restaurant Week
October brings even more excuses to eat out with the return of Restaurant Week. The week (which actually lasts for ten days, 4 - 14 October) sees top-drawer restaurants slash their menu prices by half. Each restaurant offers 3-course meals plus a glass of wine for a bargain 100 kn, which is always at least 50 percent less than the meal's regular price. Booking opens today, so snag your favourite table with a reservation. Check here to find the full list of all the restaurants taking part.
Sixteenth Zagreb Film Festival will take place across Croatia, for the first time
Zagreb Film Festival returns this week for its sixteenth annual occurrence. But this year they're doing this rather differently. The festival has grown significantly in size and stature over the last decade and a half; instead of inhabiting the single venue in which it started off, the Zagreb program will take place in Kino Europa, Tuškanac cinema, the Museum of Contemporary Art, F22 – New Academy Scene and Müller Hall. Not only that, for the first time ever the festival program is being rolled out across the lengths and breadths of the country. Zagreb Film Festival will in 2018 have screenings in 15 different locations outside Zagreb including Velika Gorica, Samobor, Pula, Rijeka, Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik, Varaždin, Ivanec, Koprivnica, Bjelovar, Daruvar, Slatina and Đakovo. As always, the main competition provides an overview of the most interesting recent debut or second features by directors from all over the world. Croatian short film is represented in the competition section Checkers, and the Industry program engages with professionals. The My First Film side program will screen debut features of acknowledged filmmakers with, this year, a focus on Czech directors, while the new section Cinema at the Cinema presents a tribute to the charm of the venues in which we traditionally would visit in order to watch movies. This latter program will include a screening of the classic Wim Wenders movie Kings Of The Road (pictured). The festival takes place between 11 and 18 November
Johnny Marr
Former Smiths founder, composer and current alt-rock guitar god Johnny Marr has worked with a who’s who of musicians throughout his magnificent career. Since The Smiths’ disbanding he’s spent every year as a fully-fledged member of at least one band, from The Pretenders to Modest Mouse and The Cribs, as well as serving as Noel Gallagher’s mentor and even helping Hans Zimmer score Christopher Nolan’s “Inception.” He makes his debut in Croatia as a guest of Yammat FM and Cockta.
Cirque Du Soleil: Toruk
There’s nothing on the stage quite like Cirque du Soleil. The Canadian company is loved for its breathtaking arena shows, which blend world-class acrobatics, cutting-edge visuals, puppetry and cinematic scores. Each new Cirque du Soleil is inspired by a different theme – and this time, Toruk: The First Flight will transport audiences to the world of Pandora from James Cameron’s record-breaking film Avatar. In this visually stunning, immersive production, Cirque du Soleil will bring Pandora to life, telling a story set thousands of years before the events in the film, before humans set foot on the country. The story will focus on the Na’vi’s close relationship to nature, and will feature visuals by multimedia innovators Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon.
The best sushi in Zagreb
Sushi has set Zagreb on wasabi-flavoured fire. The raw Japanese dish is fast becoming the city's favourite world food, and with sushi restaurants springing up all over the place, you can find some exquisite offerings. From 5-star sashimi spots to quick nigiri joints, here are the best sushi restaurants in Zagreb. Feeling hungry? Feast your eyes on our guide to the best Asian restaurants in Zagreb
What's on in Zagreb
The best of Zagreb
20 great things to do in Zagreb
There are countless cultural things to do in Zagreb, and its compact size makes it easy for first time visitors to navigate. Attractions range from historic sights and fascinating galleries, complemented by destination restaurants, clusters of busy bars and numerous live music venues. Discover the very best things to do in Zagreb with our list of unmissable activities.
The best Zagreb restaurants
This ultimate guide to Zagreb restaurants covers it all: from splash-out fine dining to street food, bistros and east-west fusion. Our critics are constantly on the look-out for brilliant new restaurants (which we visit anonymously, of course) to bring you this list of our favourite tables in town. A few words on the selection criteria: our choice doesn't reflect only the expensive, upmarket restaurants that Zagreb has to offer. We're looking for originality over exclusivity; value for money over fancy frippery. Our pick is a mix of daring, cool, cosy and downright tasty eateries to satisfy every spectrum of diner. Dobar tek! RECOMMENDED: our guide to restaurants in Croatia.
Zagreb nightlife guide
Vienna? Budapest? Ljubljana? Zagreb nightlife is matched by few places owing to the range of regular live music on offer – and for the sheer number of venues to stage it. Zagreb is also known for its music bars – places such as SPUNK transform into small clubs as the night wears on, with occasional live acts too. Read on for our list of the best places to dance the night away.
The best Zagreb bars
People in Croatia's capital city always give themselves time to linger and socialise over drinks. Whatever the time of year, new Zagreb bars are always raising and lowering their banners across the city centre and beyond, while traditional landmarks stay firm. Time Out's experts discover the best places to sip across town.
LGBT+ guide to Zagreb
The rainbow flag doesn't flutter quite as brilliantly in Zagreb as in nearby European capitals, but that's not to say Croatia's capital hasn't got a characterful queer scene of its own. Although compact, a range of organisations and queer-friendly venues work hard to make sure the city's LGBT+ scene is as inclusive and buzzing as possible. Read on for the best gay bars and queer spaces in Zagreb.
More great things to do in Zagreb
Vintage Zagreb
Cross Mladost Bridge southbound on a Sunday morning and the first thing you see will be an ant-like procession of human forms moving purposefully along the River Sava embankment. It’s the weekly pilgrimage to Hrelić, a vast outdoor market that spreads itself across a gravelly lot, some 2km east of the bridge. Here a grid-plan mini-city of stalls sells everything from cheap jeans and T-shirts to footwear, no-longer-fashionable toys, second-hand sunglasses, and spare parts for machines you never knew existed. Some sellers only deal in specialised items (one offers fishing rods, another accordions); others simply set their junk out on the gravel in a disorderly pile. If you enjoy rummaging for used clothes, or dream of finding that offbeat fashion accessory that you never even knew you wanted until you saw it gleaming up at you from a dusty car-park floor, then Hrelić is most definitely for you. For a rather more genteel take on the same experience, the Sunday antiques and bric-a-brac market on Britanski trg provides the chance to browse the kind of junk that has been elevated to collectable status – old postcards, vintage magazines, second-hand books, and the kind of kitchenware your parents threw out years ago and now wish they hadn’t. Prints, militaria, old coins, folk costumes, retro furniture and genuine antiques also turn up, making Britanski trg a crucial stop-off for the determined curiosity hunter. It’s also an important Sunday social ritual, with the square’s café te
Zagreb shopping guide
In Zagreb, shopping has undergone a makeover. From being a staid and rather quaint shopping backwater, the Croatian capital can now justifiably claim to be a hub of contemporary design. But for all these recent developments, Zagreb has not lost its traditional charm. The Dolac market behind the main square is still everyone's first port of call for fresh fruit and vegetables, and second-hand record stores abound. Read on to find out where to go shopping in Zagreb.
Essential Zagreb attractions
Zagreb attractions number plenty of stately icons among their ranks, owing to the city's status as a former Habsburg hub and capital of a new nation. Towering cathedrals, a venerable zoo and a stately cemetery all provide plenty of things to do in Zagreb. Our experts pick out the best.
Latest news
Sixteenth Zagreb Film Festival will take place across Croatia, for the first time
Zagreb Film Festival returns this week for its sixteenth annual occurrence. But this year they're doing this rather differently. The festival has grown significantly in size and stature over the last decade and a half; instead of inhabiting the single venue in which it started off, the Zagreb program will take place in Kino Europa, Tuškanac cinema, the Museum of Contemporary Art, F22 – New Academy Scene and Müller Hall. Not only that, for the first time ever the festival program is being rolled out across the lengths and breadths of the country. Zagreb Film Festival will in 2018 have screenings in 15 different locations outside Zagreb including Velika Gorica, Samobor, Pula, Rijeka, Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik, Varaždin, Ivanec, Koprivnica, Bjelovar, Daruvar, Slatina and Đakovo. As always, the main competition provides an overview of the most interesting recent debut or second features by directors from all over the world. Croatian short film is represented in the competition section Checkers, and the Industry program engages with professionals. The My First Film side program will screen debut features of acknowledged filmmakers with, this year, a focus on Czech directors, while the new section Cinema at the Cinema presents a tribute to the charm of the venues in which we traditionally would visit in order to watch movies. This latter program will include a screening of the classic Wim Wenders movie Kings Of The Road (pictured). The festival takes place between 11 and 18 November
Unveiled: the Burek Burger!
Some people don't get long for their lunch break. It can be a tough call to decide what to eat when you don't have much time; should you go for the classic American-influenced cheeseburger? Or should you choose the local option (and permanent reminder of the Turkish footprint left in the Balkans) of burek? Now that that tough choice has been made easier, saving you time and worry on your lunch break. You can have both! A new burek burger has been unveiled at this week's Zagreb Burger Festival. The burger is a beef patty sandwiched between two mini bureks. The burger is Bosnian-friendly; both bureks are made of meat, because, as the famous saying from across the border goes burek je samo s mesom – burek is only with meat! A Frankenstein foodstuff or a Balkan meat lover's manna from Heaven? You decide.
Fancy a break up dinner? The Museum of Broken Relationships has opened a new bistro in Zagreb
Zagreb’s Museum of Broken Relationships, dedicated to mementoes of lost loves, has opened a swanky new bistro in the Upper Town. The world-famous exhibition is now laying on lunch and dinner – sweet relief, perhaps, to many of its visitors who might need a sit down after experiencing the museum's bittersweet journey through human emotions. And, if you’re recently heartbroken, you can cheer yourself up with delectable dishes prepared by one of Croatia’s most famous chefs Tvrtko Šakota. The former Rougemarin and Xató chef has styled the menu around traditional, seasonal Croatian food – using only local ingredients available from the nearby market. Known for its eccentric brilliance, you can expect a Broken Relationships spin on the traditional bistro format. The new bistro is located around the corner, just a few tear-filled steps from the museum, on Katarinski trg 3. The bistro's pastel-themed interior can accommodate 28 diners while its terrace can hold a further 40. The Museum of Broken Relationships started in 2006 as an exhibition of artefacts documenting failed relationships, donated by the public and curated by Zagreb-based artists (and former lovers), Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić. The exhibition visited Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Macedonia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. It found a permanent home in Zagreb's Upper Town in 2010, becoming the city's first privately owned museum. It has s
Ten photos from Croatia's War of Independence
A new exhibition of war photography in Zagreb holds more than 100 images taken during Croatia's War Of Independence 1991 – 1995. Up Close and Personal: War in Croatia is the first official exhibition at the new Image Of War Photography Museum. The exhibition's official opening is at 8pm on Wednesday 19 September.The Image Of War Photography Museum opened in August and has since received hundreds of visitors. It is Croatia's first crowdfunded museum. Its exhibitions will hold not only the work of professional Croatian, Serb and world-renowned photographers, but also photos donated by the public during the museum's crowdfunding appeal. The exhibition is presented over two floors of the museum and will contain the work of well known photographers such as Peter Turnley, Dragoljub Zamurović, Ron Haviv, Christopher Morris, Romeo Ibrišević and Matko Biljak. The shots were taken across the length of Croatia from Dubrovnik in the south, to the capital city of Zagreb and to Borovo near Vukovar in the east. Alongside the photographs are the testimonies of those who were caught up in the conflict.The exhibition depicts not only the actual conflict and those who took part, but also the aftermath and the people who existed within that environment. Photographs of disturbed and injured participants in the war stand next to those of the distraught and grieving, plus those of children who make a playground in the scorched earth, destruction and rubble.Admission price for the exhibition is 50 k
Incredible pictures from a new exhibition by Zagreb street artist Lonac
Zagreb-born Lonac is a recognised name on the art scene of his hometown. Since 2013, he has been a member of the P_3 platform, and since 2016 a member of HDLU. But Lonac's work is known far from the boundaries of his immediate locale. Best known for the huge murals he paints on the side of buildings, his grandiose paintings and the characters he depicts in them (usually based on people he knows) can be seen on walls in Grenoble, France, New York and Nanxian in China. A post shared by Lonac (@lonacpot) on Feb 24, 2018 at 4:22am PST But in his new exhibition, opening at 7pm in the Zilik Gallery, Karlovac on Thursday 13 September, we see a wholly different side to the artist. His recently completed 'Summer In The City' project is a series of line drawings.The drawings he has submitted for the exhibition depict snapshots of the lives of people in his hometown, observed by the artist over the course of this summer. As usual, this summer in Zagreb was marked for its heat, its loss of pace compared to other times of year and the absence of many residents who escape the scorched concrete and head for the coast. It was also marked by Croatia's participation and success in the World Cup. Lonac manages to document the essence of summer 2018 in this series.While other people were swimming in the Adriatic, Lonac remained in Zagreb for much of the summer, coursing around his city on a bicycle and taking photographs. The line drawing
The best bars and restaurants in Zagreb
Vegetarian restaurants in Zagreb
Croatian cuisine is famously meat-heavy, but that doesn't mean veggies will go hungry in the capital. A small crop of eateries are providing wholesome, delicious and cheap alternatives to meat - making limp tomato and lettuce salads a thing of the past. Do you agree with the choices? Use the comments box below or tweet or Facebook your suggestions. RECOMMENDED: More great restaurants in Zagreb.
The best Asian restaurants in Zagreb
Looking for Asian food in Zagreb? A decade ago, there wasn't a stir-fry in sight, but that's all changed in recent years. The 'Asian food' umbrella is, of course, a wide one, especially when you consider the delicious tapestry of ethnic cuisines that make up the eats of the East. Truth is, Zagreb has been slow on the uptake - but what the city lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for in quality. These days, Cro-Asian gastronomy packs real culinary clout. Swanky fusion joints like Tekka specialise in destination dining, while more specialized restaurants serve up Japanese dumplings and Korean kimchi. Chopsticks at the ready - here's our list of the best Asian restaurants in town. RECOMMENDED: More great restaurants in Zagreb
Craft beer bars in Zagreb
The popularity of craft beer - progressive beers produced by small-scale breweries - has well and truly exploded in Zagreb. Fans of bold, flavorsome beers are rejoicing. After years of market dominance from behemoth brewers Ožujsko and Karlovačko, the craft beer revolution has taken hold, and Zagreb's bars and restaurants are fully waking up to the trend. Craft aficionados have even more reasons to be be beerful with this year's arrival of The Garden Brewery, and dedicated tap-rooms Hop In and Craft Room, which have bubbled in popularity since their recent inception. Happy drinking!
The best bistros in Zagreb
Once, eating out in Zagreb meant choosing from a slew of local restaurants with menus featuring meat, pastry, and more meat. But the capital's recent gastro-revolution has changed that. A wave of recently-opened bistros are making lunch a more exciting prospect in the capital, and most of them are the projects of passionate entrepeneurs - which means that these independent little places offer top-quality food and hand-selected decor. Like a traditional French bistro, those in Zagreb master breezy, intimate atmosphere, but their menus - often based around global 'street food' - are a welcome update. Here's our batch of the best bistros in Zagreb. RECOMMENDED: more great restaurants in Zagreb.
Best galleries in Zagreb
Moderna Galerija
Housed in the impressively renovated Vraniczany palace on Zrinjevac, the Modern Gallery is home to the national collection of 19th- and 20th-century art. It kicks off in spectacular fashion with huge canvases by late-19th-century painters Vlaho Bukovac and Celestin Medović dominating the sublimely proportioned hexagonal entrance hall. From here the collection works its way chronologically through the history of Croatian painting, taking in Ljubo Babić's entrancing 1920s landscapes and Edo Murtić's jazzy exercises in 1950's abstract art. Several contemporary artists are featured here too - sufficient to whet your appetite before hopping over the river to the Museum of Contemporary Art to see some more. The Moderna Galerija's most innovative feature is the tactile gallery, a room containing versions of famous paintings in relief form (together with Braille captions) for unsighted visitors to explore.
Museum of Contemporary Art
Costing some €60 million and covering 14,500 square metres, the MCA – MSU in Croatian – is the most significant museum to open in Zagreb for more than a century. Its collection includes pieces from the 1920s and gathered since 1954 when Zagreb's original MCA (in Upper Town) was founded. Of particular note are Carsten Höller's slides, similar to the 'Test Site' installation he built for Tate Modern's Turbine Hall but custom-made and site specific for Zagreb – pieces of art patrons can ride to the parking lot. Croatia's outstanding 1950s generation of abstract-geometric artists (Ivan Picelj, Aleksandar Srnec, Vjenceslav Richter, Vlado Kristl) play a starring role in the collection, alongside photographs and films documenting the more outlandish antics of legendary performance artists like Tom Gotovac and Vlasta Delimar. The new-media and computer-art works produced by the Zagreb-based New Tendencies movement in the late '60s and early 70s reveals just how ahead-of-its-time much of Croatian art really was.
Mimara Museum
When it comes to historical art collections, the Mimara is certainly Zagreb's biggest in terms of quantity. Donated to the city by wealthy patron Ante Topić Mimara, the collection includes paintings, statues and archaeological finds, organised chronologically and thematically but with little by way of English explanation. Highlights on the ground floor include oriental carpets, south-east Asian sculpture and Chinese porcelain, while the picture galleries upstairs display works from every era from the Gothic period onwards, with artists like Velázquez, Rubens, Rembrandt and Manet each putting in an appearance. It's also an important venue for temporary exhibitions with an art or archeological theme.
Greta Gallery
Zagreb has always lacked the kind of small-scale independent galleries that occupy the fertile spawning grounds in-between public art institutions and private dealers. Which is why Greta, a gallery in a former clothes shop that opens a new exhibition every Monday night, has proved such an instant hit. Greta doesn’t follow too strict a curatorial framework, ensuring the widest possible variety of artistic approaches. The gallery’s location, at the apex of a bohemian Bermuda Triangle formed by the Fine Arts Academy, the Architecture Faculty and the Sedmica bar, ensures a knowledgeable and enthusiastic public. Indeed Greta regularly receives more visitors than many of the more established galleries, with opening-night celebrants spilling out onto the pavement outside.
Lauba House
Lurking mysteriously in a little-visited area 4km west of the centre is this brand-new private art gallery, occupying a century-old barrack block painted in alluring matt black by modern restorers. Displaying the collection of businessman Tomislav Kličko, Lauba includes major works by virtually everyone who is anyone in Croatian art from about 1950 onwards. If you've already visited the Museum of Contemporary Art, then Lauba will provide you with a refreshingly alternative take on the local art establishment, concentrating on visually appealing works as well as more conceptual exercises. Figurative paintings by Lovro Artuković and disarmingly bling sculptures by Kristian Kožul are among the highlights.
Day trips from Zagreb
Zagreb day trips
If you're looking for Zagreb day trips, you're spoilt for choice. Natural beauty spots surround the capital, ranging from the majestic waterfalls of Plitvice Lakes National Park to the marshy wetlands of Lonjsko Polje. If your city break has left you gasping for rural greenery and fresh air, these wonderful day trips are exactly what the doctor ordered. RECOMMENDED: More great travel destinations in Croatia
Plitvice travel guide
Plitvice Lakes is one of Croatia's most alluring attractions. Just a few hours from capital city Zagreb, and easily reached by road, this remarkable feat of nature is very accessible. Visitors flock here in summer months to gaze at the 16 startlingly clear lakes and heavenly cascades spread over its lush terrain. Carefully protected by the government, Plitvice is not overrun with eateries and hotels, but you can easily find places to dine and doze around the fringes of this natural wonderland. RECOMMENDED: more great travel destinations in Croatia
Varaždin
Varaždin is one of the true Baroque jewels of Central Europe, with a parade of fine palaces and churches presiding over a calm, pedestrianised centre. It is also home to the country’s one unmissable non-Adriatic summer festival, the Špancirfest, a week-long series of parades, outdoor concerts and club events that takes over the town at the end of every August. With the Trash Film Festival in September and the highbrow Baroque Music Evenings soon afterwards, there’s enough going on in Varaždin to warrant the two-hour journey from Zagreb. Historically, Varaždin was a fortress town, and flourished as a strategically important Habsburg stronghold against the incursions of the Ottoman Turks. Croatian aristocrats who prospered from these border wars built their townhouses in Varaždin, turning it into a lively centre of society and culture. Meetings of the Croatian parliament were held here from 1756 onwards, and the town may well have become the long-term capital of Croatia were it not for the great Varaždin fire of 1776. It’s an easy town to explore, with a compact centre bordered by strips of park that follow the lines of the former fortress moat. Presiding over grassy embankments at the north-western corner of the centre is the resplendently whitewashed Castle, with a beautiful Renaissance courtyard girdled by earlier, 15th-century towers. Inside the castle is the City Museum (042 658 754; 9am-5pm Tue-Fri, 9am-1pm Sat & Sun; admission 25kn), with displays of arms, lo
Samobor
Samobor is an easy hop, only 20km west of Zagreb near the Slovene border. A cantonal centre under Napoleon, Samobor has always been an important stop between Zagreb and the sea. Many travellers alighted at the hotel K Gradu Trstu on their way to or from Trieste. It was also at the hub of the 19th-century Illyrian movement and attracted many a Croatian poet, writer and politician whose works called for independence. A tradition of folk carnivals and balls is maintained to this day. This dovetails nicely with Samobor’s penchant for leisure and relaxation. The first spa, Šmidhen, was opened in 1868, the first public park, Anindol, in 1883, and locals flocked here from Zagreb every weekend. By 1914, Samobor could boast three hotels, a boarding house, a restaurant, a coffeehouse and 50 pubs. Until 1979, the narrow-gauge Samoborček slowly shuttled between the capital and Samobor; today it’s a quicker but perhaps less bucolic journey by car or bus (from Črnomerec or the main bus station). Visitors still come in numbers for relaxation, around Samobor’s main square of Trg kralja Tomislava, through its narrow streets, along the Gradna creek, and in the parks of Vugrinščak and Anindol. Well-preserved sights include the churches of Sv Anastazije and Sv Mihalja, and the chapel of Sv Ana. The Town Museum contains a small but delightful display of local ethnography. Samobor’s other great asset is its proximity to a wealth of easy hiking opportunities. Šoićeva kuća, a rust
More things to do in Zagreb
Botanical Gardens
Just west of the train station and forming the east-west arm of the Green Horseshoe, these lovely gardens were founded in 1889. The first plantings took place in 1892. Since, the 4.7 hectares (11.6 acres), dominated by an English-style arboretum, and containing rock gardens, lily-pad-covered ponds, symmetrical French-inspired flowerbeds and ten glasshouses (closed to the public) have been an island of tranquillity in the city centre. It's an idyllic spot to grab a shaded bench in summer. About 10,000 plant species come mainly from Croatia, some from as far as Asia.
Maksimir Park & Zoo
A ten-minute tram ride from the main square heading east of the centre, these attractive 18 hectares (45 acres) of welcome greenery were opened to an appreciative public in 1794, the many woods, meadows and lakes landscaped in what was then considered the English style. Rolling hills cradle footpaths and cafés, providing ample room for jogging, romancing and relaxation. At one end you'll find the City Zoo, with the daily feeding times posted up for the seals, sea lions and otters, so that you can time a family visit around them. On the other side of the road stands Croatia's national football stadium, also called the Maksimir, base of home-town club Dinamo Zagreb.
Zagreb Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary (Katedrala Uznesenja Blažene Djevice Marije) is Zagreb's principal landmark. And though much of the exterior has long been veiled behind construction sheathing, its neo-Gothic twin towers, visible over the city, are as close as Zagreb gets to a visual identity worthy of calling-card status. The first church was destroyed by the Tatars in 1242 and later reconstructions were damaged by fire. After an earthquake in 1880 the city hired architect Hermann Bollé, who added a monumental pair of 105m-high bell towers. The interior remains austere: neo-gothic altars, 19th-century stained glass, and an Ivan Meštrović relief that marks the resting place of controversial Croatian Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac. An effigy of the archbishop rests on a raised platform behind the main altar.
Mirogoj
It's a pity more don't make it to this attractive cemetery. Mirogoj is widely regarded as one of the city's architectural gems. Behind a series of green, onion-shaped cupolas that cap ivy-covered brick walls, are tiled arcades, monuments to Croatia's most prominent citizens and the final resting place of 300,000 souls of various religious backgrounds. Stejepan Radić, who was shot in the Yugoslav Parliament in 1928, is buried here; so are Croatian literary giants Petar Preradović and Tin Ujević. Designed by Hermann Bollé of Cathedral fame, Mirogoj opened in 1876. As the rolling landscape continues to gain residents, it also gathers more museum-worthy sculptures, headstones and memorials. Renowned 20th-century Croatian sculptors Ivan Meštrović and Ivan Rendić are responsible for some of them. Of special note: Franjo Tudjman's modern, black-marble monument, worthy of an independent nation's first president. The grave of basketball legend Dražen Petrović, who died in a car accident at 28, is one of the most visited sites. Mirogoj comes into its own on All Souls' Day, November 1, when Croatian families visit loved ones equipped with thousands of flickering candles – a moving experience.
St Mark's Church
Two coats of arms grace the red-white-and-blue chequered roof of this emblematic church: Zagreb's and Croatia's. Since the 1200s when the Romanesque original was built, the church has gone through many architectural styles – note the Gothic south portal and baroque, copper-covered belltower. Inside are hand-painted walls by Jozo Kljaković and a crucifix by Meštrović. The square outside, housing the Ban's Palace and the Croatian Parliament, has been the hub of political activity since the 1500s.