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| Zagreb's colorful Church of St. Mark. |
Most of the cities travelers visit in Croatia are pretty, historic
seaside towns. But Croatia has a big
city too, and that is the capital city Zagreb.
The only reason we visited Zagreb was because we needed to end our
travels through Croatia and Slovenia in Croatia because it was cheaper to
return our rental car in Croatia. But in
the end we found a city that we fell in love with and wished we had more time
to explore.
One of our first stops during our brief tour of Zagreb was
at the Cathedral of the Assumption of
the Virgin Mary. The current
cathedral is over a hundred years old and is an impressive Gothic-style church
with tall pointy spires and an ornately carved doorway. At the front of the cathedral is the
sarcophagus of the controversial martyr Alojzije Viktor Stepinac.
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| Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary |
Just behind the Church of St. Mark is Ivan Meštrović Atelier,
the house of Croatia’s most famous artist Ivan Meštrović. Ivan Meštrović’s house has been converted
into a gallery displaying many of his works.
A few blocks away is the Croatian Museum of Naive Art. This small museum houses colorful works of
art created by untrained peasant artists.
There are a number of pieces by Croatia’s naive art masters Ivan
Generalić and Ivan Lacković.
Zagreb is a very colorful city, with bright pastel colored
buildings everywhere you turn. It is a
very pretty city to just walk through, with green parks, statues, and shopping
streets with outdoor cafes where you can sit outside, have a drink, and watch
the world pass by.
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| Croatian National Theatre |
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| Regent Esplanade |
I planned our Croatia travels using Rick Steves' Croatia & Slovenia and Frommer's Croatia. This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase or book through them you pay nothing extra and they help fund our travels so we can bring you more travel stories.
