THE CLASSIC RIVALRY OF OLD ZAGREB

We stood there absorbing the beautiful sunset that Old Zagreb, locally known as Gornji Grad, offered. The February evening was delightfully clear and presented a view to remember. In front of us,  mingling with the red tiled roofs, dominated majestically the two famous monuments - the Zagreb Cathedral of Kaptol and the St. Mark's Church of Gradec...along with the bits and the pieces of the historic panorama of a thousand years. 

Few centuries back, during the medieval period, when the region was not known as Zagreb, existed two hill top settlements - the Kaptol and the Gradec, separated by the then existing rivulet Medvescak. The Kaptol housed the Cathedral and was the religious center while the Gradec was home to the merchants and the craftsmen. It took the two settlements centuries of bitter rivalry before prudence took over and they decided to unify during the nineteenth century, thus together becoming Zagreb. The reasons for this bitterness were many ranging from simple ideological dislike for each other to more complex geo-political issues including trade and water-sharing of the Medvescak. Skirmishes were almost regular but once, during the fourteenth century, a serious fight ensued by the streams of the Medvescak and ever since the region of the fight has been known as the Bloody Bridge (Krvavi Most). The rivulet doesn't exist today and the bridge has been reshaped into a street with time.

A few hours back we had walked through the Kaptol Square and  had spent some time in the famous Cathedral of Zagreb. With a long history of almost eight centuries, this Cathedral has seen destruction of severe magnitude...first during the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century and then during the great Zagreb earthquake of the nineteenth century. Both times, the Cathedral witnessed renovations and reshaped back to glory, though with alterations and additions. Protective fortifications were built around the Cathedral during the period of Ottoman wars and the Cathedral served the additional purpose of an observation tower during the period. The Cathedral is indeed beautiful and it's glorious and ornately decorated spires speak volumes of Zagreb's history. In front of the Cathedral is a tall, ornately decorated pillar known as the Monument of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

  

The entry to Gradec was just a few steps away as we walked on the plateauing cobbled streets. On the way, we saw the Dolac market getting ready to close down for the day. This lovely quaint district is beautiful to explore on the foot with legends and stories of a thousand years embedded within the remnants of its fortified walls. We entered through the Stone Gate (Kamenita Vrata), the last survivor of the originally built five city gates built during the thirteenth century. As we walked through the gate we bowed a silent prayer at the grilled chapel inside with the famous painting of Mary and Jesus which once survived a destructive fire in the eighteenth century.  Out of the Stone Gate and into the Gradec, we were soon at the St. Mark's Square. Centered around this Square, which was the location of Declaration of Croatian independence, there are many interesting places in all directions. Located right here, from which the Square got its name, is the famous St. Mark's Church, with it's bright colored tiled roofs bearing the coats of arms of Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia and Zagreb. As we peeped through the doors of this Church we briefly witnessed a wedding in progress and decided not to disturb the people inside. This Church also preserves some of the decorated statues of the celebrated Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic.

Some of the important landmarks of the Gradec are the City Assembly, the Lotrscak Tower with its canon story, and a host of museums including  the Museum of Broken Relationship, Museum of Croatian Natural History and Croatian Museum of Naive Art. We walked past all of these and finally reached an open space which offered a panoramic view of the sunset.

The most delightful part of our experience was yet to come though...after it got dark and the numerous lanterns of the alleyways got lighted. We continued to walk on the streets of Gradec by the shops and then walked back to the Kaptol Square to see the lighted version of the beautiful Cathedral before returning back to the hotel near the Jelacic Square. Gradec and Kaptol are two gems of medieval Zagreb and its difficult to believe that once there was such a bitter rivalry between them.

Zagreb is a lovely city and the Gornji Grad is just one facet of the city. A younger version of Zagreb, named Donji Grad offers an experience no less exciting. From the Jelacic square, where it ends for the Gornji Grad...it starts for the Donji Grad....a subject for a different post.

This post is for alphabet ‘Z' of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2020 challenge:

Z for Zagreb