Visiting
What to see
Central Zagreb can be walked in a day, and that is its great virtue. Everything important sits in three layers: the hill with the medieval town, the gridded Austro-Hungarian Lower Town, and the parks between them.
The Upper Town (Gornji grad)
Historically these were two separate settlements on neighbouring hills — Gradec and Kaptol, secular and ecclesiastical, at odds for centuries. Tkalčićeva street, now an unbroken line of bars and cafés, follows the bed of the stream that marked the boundary between them.
- St Mark's Church — that tiled roof with its two coats of arms, the city's most recognisable image.
- The Stone Gate — the only surviving city gate, with a working chapel inside. Quiet, and unexpectedly powerful.
- Lotrščak Tower — a cannon fires from it at noon, every day. There is a viewing platform at the top.
- The funicular — links Ilica to the Upper Town and is, formally, among the shortest in the world.
- The cathedral — the city's landmark; its spires have been under scaffolding since the 2020 earthquake, and restoration is a long project.
- The Museum of Broken Relationships — an idea that sounds like a joke and turns out to be one of the most affecting collections in the city.
The Lower Town (Donji grad)
Built to a single 19th-century plan, and it shows. The Green Horseshoe is a chain of parks and squares laid out as one continuous green line: Zrinjevac with its plane trees and pavilion, the squares in front of the Academy, and the Botanical Garden.
Ban Jelačić Square is the city's gathering point. If someone says "meet me at the clock" or "under the horse", this is where they mean.
The main museums are here too: Mimara, the Museum of Arts and Crafts, the Archaeological Museum, the Ethnographic Museum. Zagreb is more of a museum city than people expect.
Beyond the centre
Mirogoj
A cemetery designed as a single composition, with arcades and domes, by Hermann Bollé. One of the most beautiful places in the city and an open-air history lesson: the sections of different faiths sit side by side.
Maksimir
A large English-style park with lakes and a zoo. The city's woodland, where people go simply to walk.
Jarun
A lake in the south-west: paths, swimming in summer, boats, bars. On summer evenings the whole city is here.
Medvednica and Sljeme
The mountain above the city. A climb to the summit, forest trails, and in winter a small ski slope half an hour from the centre.
Bundek
A lakeside park across the Sava, calmer than Jarun and easier with small children.
Mirogoj and Dolac
Two places that say more about the city than a list of monuments: how it buries its dead and how it eats.