Zagreb of today is buiness and political center of Croatia, a university, a city of culture, art and entertainment. Although Zagreb has experienced a sudden growth and development (counting today a little less than one million people), it has managed to keep its beatuy and a spirit of ease. Even a short stroll through the city center can tell you what its people already know - Zagreb is a town that would suit a man.
The story of Zagreb begins as a story of two settlements living on two neighbouring hills - the church town of Kaptol where the bishopry was founded in 1094 and the profane town of Gradec, a free royal town as of 1242. For a long period of time, due to different invaders and a moddy river Sava, the two towns lived atop their hils, surrounded by strong walls. The final phase of their development begun in 1700 and 1800s, when old wooden houses were taken down and replaced by baroque palaces, monasteries and churches.
In the XIXth century a railroad bank was constructed, taming the flood waters of Sava, allowing Zagreb to grow outside its medieval boundaries. This was the making of the Lower town - a regular lattice of parks, gardens, squares and palaces. In the XXth centruy Zagreb lives with the spirit of sessesion, the new interwines with the old and a new buiness and residential part of town grows on the vast plains on the both sides of Sava.
Every visitor of Zagreb can be sure he will not be bored in a capital of a quickly growing contry. However, Zagreb can offer you much more. Join your hosts in a social ritual of coffee drinking in one of the numerous bars or terraces, restaurants with traiditional cuisine, visit the city markets in the open or enjoy a night on the town in numerous bars and clubs.
With the largest number of museums and galleries per square mile in the world the cultural needs will not be left unsatisfied. And the whole city is one big museum itself - stone paved streets and squares of the Upper town, lit by gas lanterns ignited manually every evening; gardens and fountains of the Lower town, park forest of Maksimir, the lakes Jarun and Budnek, churches of Kaptol, arcades of the Mirogoj cemetary, botanical gardens or the ZOO - everyone should find a place in Zagreb to enjoy oneself.
