Tour Audio a Zagreb

Zagreb was two towns for most of its history and never let you forget it. Kaptol, on the eastern hill, was the church and the cathedral, its power rooted in the diocese established in 1094. Gradec, on the western hill, was the merchants and craftspeople, protected by the Golden Bull of 1242 after the Mongol invasion forced the Hungarian king to grant it civic autonomy. The two communities, separated by a stream called the Medveščak and connected by a staircase called the Blood Bridge because of the fights that broke out along it, were not united until 1850 under the city's first mayor. Walking the Upper Town today you can still read both settlements in the street patterns, the cathedral on Kaptol's hill and St Mark's Church with its mosaic-tiled roof of Croatian heraldry on Gradec's.

The Lotrščak Tower has fired a cannon at noon every day since 1877, and you can watch it from the Strossmayer Promenade, which offers what the locals call the best view in Zagreb: a panorama of the red-roofed Lower Town below and the green slope of Medvednica mountain behind.

The Ban Jelačić Square at the foot of the funicular connecting the two towns is the commercial and social center, named for the 19th-century governor who, among other things, abolished serfdom in Croatia. The Dolac market above the square has sold fresh produce since 1930 and remains the best place in the city to watch locals shop.