Museum of Broken Relationships (Council of Europe Museum Prize 2011), St. Mark's Church Tiled Roof, Mirogoj Cemetery (Hermann Bollé, 1876), Croatian Naive Art on Glass (Hlebine School), Lenuci Horseshoe Parks & Štrukli
📍 Zagreb, Croatia📅 3-day itinerary
The capital of Croatia (1.14 million) is a dual medieval city: the episcopal Kaptol (founded 1094 by Hungarian King Ladislaus I) and the civic Gradec (free royal city by Golden Bull of Béla IV, 1242) separated by the Medvešćak stream (now Tkalčićeva Street — Zagreb's most lively café street) for 600 years before unification in 1851. Today: the Museum of Broken Relationships (Council of Europe Museum Prize 2011 — 4,000+ objects donated from failed relationships worldwide), St. Mark's Church tiled roof (the coats of arms of medieval Croatia-Dalmatia-Slavonia in terracotta tiles, 1880), and Mirogoj Cemetery (Hermann Bollé, 1876 — 3 km of arcaded ivy-covered walls, non-denominational from the start: Catholics, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims buried without segregation).
The Museum of Broken Relationships (the Axe Donated with the Note: "When I Found Out He Had Been Cheating on Me, I Axed All His Furniture Room by Room During the Night. The Damage Amounted to 5,000 Euros. Unbelievably, I Felt Completely Calm and Satisfied After That." — and 4,000+ Other Objects from Failed Relationships Worldwide)
Mirogoj Cemetery (Hermann Bollé, 1876: the 3 km of Ivy-Covered Arcaded Gallery Walls with 96 Alternating Romanesque and Gothic Arches, Non-Denominational Since the Beginning — Catholics, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims Buried in Adjacent Plots Without Segregation in an 1876 Statement of Austro-Hungarian Civic Equality)
Maksimir Park (1794: the Oldest Public Park in Croatia and Southeast Europe, Founded by Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovac — the Name Combining His Name with the Croatian Word "Mir" (Peace) — Containing the Oldest Zoo in Southeast Europe (1925) and Five Artificial Lakes)