Things to do in Zagreb

Landmark · Upper Town, central

The mediaeval hilltop core — St Mark's tiled roof, the cathedral, the funicular and the noon cannon from the Lotrščak tower.

Local tip: The cathedral's spires came down in the 2020 earthquake and its reconstruction is the most visible ongoing project in the city. The Grič cannon has been fired at noon every day since 1877, and the crowd for it is a fraction of what it should be.

Nightlife · Between the Upper and Lower Towns

The pedestrian street of bars and terraces running along a filled-in stream bed, and the centre of Zagreb's Saturday coffee ritual.

Local tip: Špica is a genuine institution: Saturday mid-morning, everyone dresses up, occupies a terrace and stays for two hours. Doing it wrong means arriving at eleven and leaving at half past. Sit down properly.

Food · Directly above Ban Jelačić square

The red-umbrella open market on a terrace above the main square, with a covered hall of butchers and fishmongers below it.

Local tip: The upper terrace is produce and the covered level below is meat, fish and dairy — most visitors never find the lower hall. Go before ten; by noon the good stalls are packing up.

Nature · East of the centre

A large English-style landscape park from 1794, with lakes, meadows, woodland and the city zoo inside it.

Local tip: It was one of the first public parks in this part of Europe, laid out before most Western capitals had theirs. The eastern half beyond the lakes is proper woodland and is empty on a weekday morning.

Nature · North of the city, on the mountain

The 1,033-metre peak above Zagreb, with a cable car, ski runs in winter and marked hiking trails the rest of the year.

Local tip: The cable car cuts the climb dramatically, but the classic approach is on foot from Šestine and takes about two hours through beech forest. The mediaeval Medvedgrad fortress halfway up has the best view of the city and almost no visitors.

Culture · Upper Town

A museum of objects donated by people after a relationship ended, each with the donor's own account of what it meant.

Local tip: It started as a travelling art project by two Zagreb artists and won a European museum award. It sounds like a gimmick and is in fact the most affecting hour available in the city — a genuinely original idea that Zagreb exported to the world rather than imported.