June 18 – Zagreb, Croatia. We have a pretty busy schedule today. We're starting off with a walking tour of the city and in the afternoon we're headed out of town to Kumrovec, the birthplace of Marshal Tito. Last night Diana was looking at the racks of tourist pamphlets in the lobby and discovered that the Zagreb Museum of Arts and Crafts has a Caravaggio on loan from the Brera Gallery in Milan, Italy. I looked on the map for the museum's location and it's only 2 blocks from the hotel. As you probably remember I'm a big fan of his so we're going to have to squeeze in a visit sometime today.
The city of Zagreb is traditionally thought of as having two sections, upper and lower town. As usual the upper town is older because higher ground was easier to defend and most of these cities started out in the days when things were not so stable. Also the streets in the old parts of town are unsuitable for busses so we were dropped off in lower town and walked up the hill to Cathedral Square in upper town.
As the name implies Zagreb Cathedral is located here. In the middle of the square is a tall granite column with a golden statue of Mary on the top. Four golden angels surround the base of the column, each carrying a symbolic message. One is holding a large quill pen representing the Scriptures, one is holding a cross representing salvation. Unfortunately I didn't get a look at the other two because before I could walk over to the monument the group started on the tour. The cathedral is definitely gothic in style and is the tallest building in Croatia. We're going to go inside later.
We walked a few minutes to the city's central market. Part of it is indoors and part in a large plaza. Our guide, told us that today is not a big market day, many more vendors would be here if it was Friday or Saturday. It must be a mess on those days because it looked pretty full to me today. The outdoor market sells produce, fruit, flowers and nuts. Everything looked very nice. They had baskets of the very small wild strawberries that used to grow wild in one field of my grandmother's farm. You could smell them from the farmhouse and these were just the same. We'd been walking by piles of regular strawberries in the market and never smelled them. I was tempted to buy a basket but didn't. They are truly delicious. When we smelled them we would immediately go up to pick them because they attract box turtles, who apparently love them too. So we'd pick the strawberries and also the turtles we would find. The turtles were put into the old pig pen and fed spoiled veggies and fruit to keep them happy and away from the strawberries. As soon as the strawberries stopped growing be stopped feeding them and one by one they would dig their way to freedom.
On the way up to the next level we passed an unusual statue of St. George and the dragon. Usually he is shown fighting the dragon in one way or another but in this one a bronze of St. George and his horse is atop a granite base into which the dragon has been carved. It's lying dead at the horse's feet and appears to have a Fu Manchu moustache. The dragon's head looks very much like a catfish. Never seen anything quite like it.
Just above St. George we arrived at the Stone Gate. This gate and the short section of wall attached to it are all that remains of the original city wall. Inside the gate, behind an ornate, wrought-iron screen is an icon of the Madonna and Child. From the quantity of flowers at the base of the altar this spot is revered by the local people. A lady was there praying so I didn't go up for a picture of the icon.
We stopped at a small plaza to see Saint Mark's Church. It's a small church but has a very nice roof. It's done in red, white, blue, gold and black ceramic tiles. There are two shields pictured on the roof, one is the coat of arms of Croatia and the other the coat of arms of Zagreb. The Croatian coat of arms has three small animal heads on it. They are kune (ku'-na) a member of the weasel family. It's also the name of their currency. "How much is that sandwich?" "Four weasels." Yikes!! Right now a kuna is worth about 20 cents so conversion is pretty easy, just divide by 5. The nation's administrative building is here on the same square as well as the parliament. Just down the street is the city hall. I guess this square is sort of Croatia's Washington DC.
Along a narrow street we came to the city hall. There's a plaque on the wall with Nikola Tesla bust on it. He and Thomas Edison were the fathers of electricity. Our guide told us that it commemorated the time when Tesla offered to build an alternating current generating station to electrify Zagreb. His offer was rejected.
Our next stop was Jesuit Square. The Society of Jesus brought the gospel to this area and established a church and monastery here as well. They must have done a good job because 90% of the churches here are Roman Catholic. There's a statue on the square that shows a fisherman wrestling with a snake. Someone asked about the symbolism of the statue and the guide said he had no idea. I'll have to talk to Nic later because I think I know what it means. It symbolizes the Church's struggle against evil. Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Meaning that they would bring people to a relationship with God. That's the fisherman. Satan and evil are often symbolized by a snake.
As the name might indicate, the Jesuit Church of Saint Catherine is also on the square. It's about as plain a façade as any Baroque church I've seen. The exterior is mostly white with some natural stone accents at the foundation and around the door. As we were leaving Jesuit Square we came upon a strange museum, The Museum of Broken Relationships. It actually displays items left after a broken relationship. For example, they have an axe that was used to chop an ex-lovers furniture to bits. When she came back for her furniture she was given the neatly packaged small pieces of wood they'd been reduced to. Amazing.
Then it was back to make our inside visit of the Zagreb Cathedral. It's a nice church with some interesting items. They have two sets of choir stalls, one from the 1400s and one from the 1700s. The older one is more ornate and finely carved. The most interesting thing for me was in one of the side chapels. It's a relief of the Last Supper that is behind the altar. It's a wonderfully expressive sculpture that captures the same moment as Da Vinci's famous painting, the disciples' reaction to Jesus' announcement that one of them would betray him.
After that it was back to the hotel to get ready for the afternoon trip to Kumrovec.
After resting up a bit and grabbing a quick sandwich for lunch we got on the bus and headed for the city of Marshal Tito's birth, Kumrovec. The city has been turned into an open air museum to life in the 1800s in Croatia.
The architecture is boxy as you would expect in a rural small village in the 1800s. Most of the inhabitants were farmers. Tito's home is larger than some but still quite small. It's whitewashed with a thatch roof. It has a small second story built into the gabled part of the roof. The village has displays on the various crafts of the area, blacksmith, candle maker, mill operator, weaver, etc. Some of them have an area where a docent would demonstrate the craft but none of them are here today. One house was set up to show how a traditional wedding would be done.
It was a nice place to visit but there wasn't much there a kid who grew up on a Pennsylvania Dutch farm hadn't seen or actually done. It's a travel day tomorrow and that means an early start and a long day.
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