St Mark's Square, Lotrščak Tower, Strossmayer Promenade, Stone Gate
- Strossmayer Promenade Stone Gate, St Mark's Church, Croatian Museum of Naive Art, Croatian Parliament, Banski dvori, Radiceva ulica, Co-cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius
This is the most part of the Old Town of Gradec in the Upper Town. It is filled with historical buildings, cobbed streets and squares and some points offers views over Zagreb. On St Mark’s Square (Markov trg) you find St Mark’s Church (Crkva sv. Marka), a medieval late gothic church with coats of arms on its roof that is one of the oldest buildings in Zagreb, the Croatian Parliament, the Government of Croatia (Banski dvori), the Constitutional Court of Croatia and the Old City Hall. The square was cordoned off during our visit, at first we thought it was because of danger due to damage from earthquakes, and probably also because of the pandemic, since most of Zagreb's churches are closed. But the reason was that in 2020 there was an attack called the 2020 Zagreb shooting, where a man wounded a policeman outside the parliament and then shot himself! Other churches in Upper Town are the baroque Church of St Catherine, the Greek Orthodox Co-cathedral and St Mary’s Church. The world’s shortest funiculare, hilly streets or stairways take you up to the historical buildings and pedestrian streets of Upper Town from Lower Town. There is a famous promenade, Strossmayer Promenade, that goes down from Upper to Lower Town, and along hills, with sculptures, old fashioned streetlights and trees. Park Bele IV is part of it. Before the Strossmayer ends in Lower Town at the hilly and beautiful Radiceva Street, it changes character to a walled promenade surrounded by modern graffiti. Since the 2020 earthquakes many pavements surrounding old buildings are cordoned off by the police due to danger.
Lotrščak Tower is a 13th century tower that stands on a hill on Gradec (Upper Town) and was originally part of the city wall. Since 1877, a cannon has been fired every day at 12 o’clock…until recently. Since the 2020 earthquakes it has been silent. The tower is really a hidden gem, few people know about it but if you climb the stairs the views of the city are amazing, 360 degrees. During our visit no other tourists were visiting. There are also views from the foot of Lotrščak Tower.
Stone Gate (Kamenita vrata) is another landmark and surviving part of the wall. During our visit an outdoor funeral was taking place, right in public, with pedestrians and delivery bikes passing right through!
We visited the Croatian Museum of Naive Art, a small but really interesting arts museum in an old building near St Mark's Square. Nearby is the Museum of Broken Relationship, that is one of Zagreb's most popular museums, we didn't visit it though. A vintage Mercedes is parked outside the museum to advertize. This part of Upper Town is by far the nicest area of Zagreb, quite calm and not so crowded.
