Zagreb Cultural District

The picture above is one of the best shots I got of the park that rings the cultural district of the south downtown. This shot is on the Eastern side. If you can tell from the scale of the cars on the left side of the shot, you can get a bit of a sense that this strip of flowers is between fifteen and twenty feet wide. On the right, you can see a picture of Zagreb's largest museum, which we did not get a chance to go into since we only spent two full days in the city before going to Zadar.

The park you see runs around circles the south downtown in a horseshoe shape like so: _. Along the southern edge there is Croatia's largest National Park/wildlife sanctuary, full of walking paths and home to all sorts of animals. Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of said animals, and if I had they would have looked much like most of the animals indigenous to North America. Although I did take a few pictures of local non-human life, they tend to resemble the Croatian slug pictured on Fish Head Alchemy because most of the unique animals/insects I saw were of the stinging and biting variety and it did not seem to be the wisest of choices to get close enough to take a good picture.

The picture to the bottom left is of what I believe to be one of the government building. I particularly like the lamp post you see on the right side of the picture, and it is the type of lamp post you see althroughout the Zagreb downtown. Another thing you might notice from the picture on the left is how blue most of the sky is over Croatia, something you'll see again and again when we get to pictures that are in either smaller cities or on the countryside.

Also, for the envirnomentalist in you, you might want to check out the differences of the skies between the government building picture and the picture of the park. The picture of the government building is taken facing North towards the hilly shopping and cafe area of the downtown where our hotel was while the flower picture was taken facing south towards the industrial district. Gotta love the white sky of man, boy howdy.

A Fire-side Chat in Zagreb

Aside from the beautiful cathedrals and the quaint, narrow streets of Northern Zagreb, there is a major road that divides the hilly North end of the city from the flat, grid-planned south end. After we went to the cathedral of Zagreb, had lunch, and did a little shopping, we ventured to this south side.

On the bottom right you see one of the first major streets which is named, curiously enough, F. Roosevelt Ave. The yellow bulding you see is one rather typical of this section of the down town as will be apparent in later pictures. The trees on the right and left side of the picture are also trees in the enormous square of park that surrounds the downtown. To see a picture taken of this park, see the first entry - the long building that spans the entire horizontal of that one picture- that is at the far south end of the southern downtown - right before you get intro the industrialized sections of town marked by that Easteran Block architecture we've been reading so much about in the books.

One of the more intriguing aspects of southern downtown, an aspect of which I do not have pictures but wherefrom came several of the disposal cameras used to take these pictures, is the underground mall. There is an enormous underground complex complete with bars, restaurants, outlets, and even movie theaters and arcades, all of it entirely underground. It felt like going into a subway except that you had to pay to use the toilets and instead of signs that took you to the next landing, you simply found signs that took you to deeper levels of mall stores, confusingly twisting corridors, and a growing sense of claustrophobia that stems from the fact that you might not be used to spending so much time in the realm of the moles.

But Alas- I would post further pictures right now, yet for some reason Blogger is not allowing me to include further photos in this post. I will assure you though, they would have been quite lovely. And of course they will be included on this page with the aide of a better connection during the week. Until then, vaya con patos.

Born in Arizona, moved to Babylona- no Croatia

I had pictures of the interior meant to show the fancy scroll work of the alter, the scope of the vaulted cielings, the enormous stained glass windows, and the numerous and massively gorgeous paintings that covered the walls, but alas, disposal cameras lack the strength of flash in order to properly capture such scope, regardless of how well lit the church seemed to be. What you see on the left is a picture from the interior of the Zagreb cathedral. Isn't there a disturbing resemblence between the gold plated mask of the founding Bishop on the left and the masks unearthed in Egyptian tombs?

However, the camera did pick up some of the lovely detail of the gold work, as well as the donation alter in front of the mask. The principle is this: you slip 5 kuna (about 1 american dollar) into a slot in the little table and you say a prayer to the Bishop. If you look closely at the silver placard - and I do think it's real silver, you'll notice an inscription. If you were to blow this up large enough to read it, you still wouldn't be able to read it if you don't read cyrillic (sp?). As a result I can't actually tell you what the Bishop's name was, but I gather he was pretty important. Especially since they have a life-size model dummy of his body laid out in a glass case as you see on the bottom right.

I could be mistake, but I think he's made of wax. I toyed with the notion that the pastiness of the skin was a result of him being a vampire, placed there to be contained by the crosses and holy water for the protection of others and himself, but the donation alter throws that theory all out of whack. However, one thing you can see in the picture that I wish came out a little better is the elaborate metal relief sculpture that forms the bottom part of the display. It depicted a beautifully rendered scene of the Bishop leading a congregation, with a bunch of crosses and a really tall hat on his head. Not as tall as the pope's hat, mind you, but a solid eight inches nonetheless.

There you have it folks. A lifesize wax sculpture hermetically sealed in glass. Really though, I must say, the interior of that church was quite striking and impressive.

Come back soon for the next installation of pictures.

Cathedral in Zagreb Part II

This shot shows the exterior of te great cathedral in Zagreb. As you all can see, it is undergoing an extensive process of renovation, but the right hand spire is quite finished. I think it'd be sweet to be one of the dudes working on the top of the scaffolding. Sweet view.

That aside however, this is one of the oldest formal cathedrals in Europe. When I say cathedral, I refer to the cathedral style of building with the flying buttresses and the archways (I'll be posting some other style of church architecture later). The project of building this cathedral was a multi-generational project, spanning something like 80 years. This cathedral is likely one of the main reasons that Zagreb exists.

Of course, this was before real construction equipment, but the time commitment allowed for more than just the structural construction; it allowed that attention to detail that you simply don't see in any modern architecture anymore. This project took such an investment that people worked their entire lives on it and never saw its completion. Some of those same people raised their children to be able to complete specific aspects of its construction, design, or detailing. People literally gave their lives to its completion. No matter what the says about faith, there is something to be respected about this as a work of art.

The Cathedral in Zagreb - Part I

After a long hiatus from entries on this blog, I have finally settled at a computer with a mind to type up the new one. During our adventures through the city of Zagreb, one thing we had to stop and see was the beautiful churches and cathedrals. Zagreb is home to some of the most spectacular churches I have ever seen with intricately designed architecture, elaborately etched gildwork all around the alters, and some magnificent paintings dating back centuries.

On a covered bend of one of the narrowed streets we found a beautiful shrine built to the Virgin Mary where old women in black robes (not nun habits) sold candles for people light when they said their prayers.

The picture you see on the right is the rampart and North wall of a castle that was converted into the housing of the Bishops and clergy and an enormous open courtyard for the great cathedral. The wall surrounds the cathedral on three sides, with turrets like the one you see here on each corner. The south wall is coated in ivy vines and small brick apartments were annexed to the wall bit by bit as the city grew and the demands for clergy increased.

And...unfortunately I have run out of time. I must get to class, but I will finished this post over the weekend so everyone can see some pretty pretty pictures. You vain, hollow monsters.