After a great trip to Opatija on Croatia’s Istrian Coast, we’re headed to Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb. We didn’t know much about Zagreb before our visit, but we quickly realized how charming it truly is.  Check out our video below, or keep reading to learn more about this quirky capital city.

Zagreb is the capital of Croatia and is located in the northwestern part of the country.  The city has been through a lot in the past few decades, including a large earthquake in 2020. The earthquake damaged a number of the city’s historic buildings, and many are still under construction today.  However, the city’s charm and personality definitely still shines through.

Walking through the city you’ll encounter plenty of beautiful historic buildings, green parks, colorful street art and plenty of spots for an al fresco meal or coffee. We didn’t know much about the history of Zagreb, or Croatia as a whole before visiting, so we took a walking tour to learn more about the city’s history and its most important sites.  Croatia has only been an independent country since the early 1990s, when the former Yugoslavia broke up.  In recent decades, tourism has boomed in the country, especially along its famous Dalmatian Coast, but the capital city also has plenty to explore.

Zagreb is split into the upper and lower towns.  The upper town houses some of the city’s oldest sights. One of the most iconic buildings in Zagreb’s upper town is the Church of St. Mark.  This church, with its uniquely tiled roof, is a must-see in Zagreb.  The church dates back to the 13th century and the bright tiles portray two coats of arms.  The area around the church is marked by beautiful gas lamps which are hand lit each night.  Zagreb is one of the only cities in Europe still using traditional gas lamps and they definitely add to the city’s charm.

Walking through Zagreb’s upper town you’ll also encounter the city’s cathedral and the famous stone gate.  The stone gate was formerly an entrance to the old medieval city, but today is a shrine that attracts visitors from all over the world.  Many believe that coming to pray at the stone gate will be healing, and the underpass is decorated with plaques from those who visited and had their prayers answered. 

Next, we went to check out Zagreb’s bustling Dolac Market.  This daily market features tons of local produce, and inside there are additional stalls selling cheese, meats, and other goods.  We learned that 90% of what is sold in this market is local to Croatia. The quality of the fruits and vegetables looked beautiful and fresh.

A must-stop at the market is the burek shop.  Burek is a well-known Turkish dish that has a special place in Croatia, in fact, our walking tour guide told us that he knows plenty of Croatian people who eat burek on a daily basis!  We had a couple of bureks during our trip, but the shop at the market is definitely the best place to try it.  A plate of cheese burek only costs about 2 euros, and it was a huge portion.  This cheesy, crunchy plate of goodness was the perfect thing to keep us energized for the rest of the day.  Check out our upcoming video to watch us attempt to recreate this burek on our own!

Of course, there’s more to eat in Zagreb than just burek.  There are plenty of restaurants where  you can find both traditional local and international dishes.  We had some delicious traditional dishes such as roast beef and venison with potato dumplings.  We even found a great Japanese restaurant which we definitely were not expecting. 

We quickly discovered that Zagreb is full of unique and often quirky attractions.  One of these is the Gric Tunnel which connects the upper and lower towns.  The tunnel was built as a bomb shelter during world war two, but is now used by locals as a shortcut to get across town.  

Another quirky, unique feature of Zagreb is its funicular, and at only 66 meters long, it is in fact the world’s shortest funicular. Though it might actually be faster to walk up the adjacent steps, the funicular is definitely an interesting and quirky part of Zagreb’s charm.

Speaking of quirkiness, Zagreb is home to what is probably one of the world’s quirkiest museums, the Museum of Broken Relationships.  This museum began as a traveling exhibit before it landed in its permanent home in Zagreb in 2010.  The museum showcases objects and stories to memorialize relationships that are no longer intact.

We weren’t quite sure how we felt before going into the museum, we actually thought it might be depressing to read stories of breakups and failed relationships.  However, we were quickly drawn into the museum’s storytelling and charm.  It’s really interesting that the museum does not only focus on romantic relationships but all kinds of personal loss. There was even a dedication to someone’s long-lost relationship with pizza after they had to go gluten-free.

Another unexpected museum find was the Museum of Chocolate.  This was actually one of the most interesting and well-designed museums we’ve been to in a while.  This museum experience is really cool, your ticket to the museum is a box of chocolate that you eat along the way as you learn about the history of chocolate from its discovery by the Aztecs, to it becoming a luxurious liquid drink only for the rich and royals, to the marketing and inventions that made chocolate the widely loved and eaten treat it is today.  

We actually learned about and got to try a type of chocolate that we had never heard of before, called ruby chocolate.  Only introduced to the market in 2017, ruby chocolate is the latest invention in chocolate making.  The pink color is not from a dye, it actually occurs naturally because the cocoa is harvested from ruby-colored cocoa beans.  We had a great time tasting our chocolate and learning about the process at this museum and  we highly recommend it if you’re in Zagreb.

Zagreb’s unique quirkiness doesn’t end with its museums, if you look closely, you might just notice a planet from the city’s solar system.  Zagreb’s solar system is an art installation spread across the city.  It is accurate to the real solar system at a scale of 1: 680,000,000.  Unfortunately, the sun, which is the most prominent piece, was under construction while we were there, but we were able to track down a few other nearby planets.

Croatia is also well known for its prominent coffee culture.  Long, leisurely coffees are standard practice here.  Walking around the city in the mid-afternoon you will see cafes full of people catching up over a cup of coffee.  As coffee lovers, of course, we had to take part in this.  We enjoyed a number of great coffees, including one alongside a nice piece of cake at Kras, Croatia’s most famous chocolatier. 

We found Zagreb to be pretty dog-friendly, with a few exceptions.  The city is proud of its green spaces, there are several purposefully designed parks surrounding the city, called the green horseshoe, so there is plenty of space for dogs to wander and sniff.  The parks are filled with important historical statues and structures making them very interesting for humans as well.  We only had one problem entering a restaurant with Bindi, when we arrived they told us they don’t allow dogs, but they ended up seating us anyway and were very friendly to Bindi. 

In most cities, dogs aren’t allowed in museums, but there are actually a few museums in Zagreb that allow dogs, including the Museum of Broken Relationships.  One other place Bindi was not allowed was on the funicular.  It wasn’t entirely clear, but I think she might have been able to go on it if she was wearing a muzzle, but we didn’t have one with us at the time so one of us walked down with her while the other rode the funicular.

We definitely recommend visiting Zagreb to discover all of its quirky charm.  Also keep an eye out for our recreation of Croatian burek!