July 27, 2020 – OPINION: Marc Rowlands downplays the doom and gloom, claiming it will take even more than 2020's disasters to permanently damage Zagreb

International readers must think the city has fallen. After the triple hit of COVID-19, the strongest earthquake in a century, and last weekend's floods, they must imagine the people of Zagreb to be largely underwater, the tips of their toes resting on rubble, struggling to breathe above the waves through their surgical masks.

Their suspicions would only be justified if they're reading the comments sections of the coverage. “Oh, whatever next?”, “What will become of us?”, “May God save us!”, “First an earthquake, now snow! It's the end of the world!”, “It's because of global warming, I told you years ago. Now, not even my bitterness can save us”. Jadni smo (poor us).

That's because there are two types of people in this world; the doom-mongers - useless pessimists who sigh, tut, and briefly sympathise while reading the news, and then there are the positive thinkers who actually get up off their ass and help out. Sadly, the internet is full of the former. Thankfully, Zagreb is full of the latter.

Take for example Mirna Mrčela, who rescued a man from a sinking car on Friday night. Did she stop to worry about the implications for her or for the sunken city before diving into waters on Miramarska street to save him? She did not.

What about the young Zagreb residents who gave up their free time to help rebuild people's homes following this year's earthquakes? Or those who volunteered to help move children from the damaged wards of a hospital? What about the thousands of Croats who thought of innovative or compassionate schemes to raise money for those affected? Or the many more who donated? Or those who used their own drones to help assess damage to buildings? Was their assistance delayed by worry and self-pity? No.


Thousands of young people have been gathering outside the Croatian National Theatre at weekends. The real picture in Zagreb © Marc Rowlands

Even aside those who actually helped out, the story of Zagreb in the wake of both the earthquake and the floods has been one of irrepressible resilience, optimism, and joy. Thousands of young people have gathered outside the Croatian National Theatre at weekends simply enjoying to be, and each other. In recent weeks, Ribnjak Park, Zrinjevac Park, and Strossmayer Promenade in the city have come alive with gastronomic events, music, and people enjoying themselves.

On Monday 27 July, as the sun shines brightly above Zagreb, the last remnants of the flood are all but gone. People are at work, as usual, and some tourists can be seen taking tours around Tkalčićeva and the cathedral. No matter what news story comment sections might tell you, this city is open for business. Zagreb has seen much worse than this. And it will take a lot more than rain, earthquakes or, yes, even snow to dampen its spirits.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 3rd of March, 2020, in addition to opening up lines to new destinations, additional flights are being introduced to many existing destinations to and from Zagreb Airport.

Zagreb Airport (Franjo Tudjman) has so far enjoyed a positive start to 2020. In January, passenger growth was 6.2 percent, while in February it increased by 2 percent, despite the impact on coronavirus-related traffic. This summer's flight schedule has thus seen flights to three new destinations and a dozen additional flights to existing destinations announced.

Domestic carrier Croatia Airlines has announced the introduction of flights to two new destinations, Sofia (Bulgaria) and Podgorica (Montenegro). Both destinations will be available through three flights per week starting in May. From June, Zagreb and Kiev (Ukraine) will be connected by direct flight with Windrose Airlines three times weekly.

Air France will be launching its second daily flight from Zagreb to Paris as of May. Along with Croatia Airlines' daily flights, Zagreb Airport and Paris will be connected with three routes daily. British Airways is adding another four weeks of flights from London (Heathrow) to Zagreb, which will ultimately add up to a total of eleven flights per week between the two European nations.

Croatia Airlines is adding another weekly flight from Amsterdam (Netherlands) to Zagreb Airport, offering passengers a total of eight flights a week from Zagreb to Amsterdam. Air Serbia will add two more weeks of flights from Belgrade, which will reach a total of thirteen flights a week between Belgrade and Zagreb.

Aegean is changing the type of aircraft it uses and will fly an Airbus A319 aircraft during the summer instead of a Q400 aircraft. It will also double its seating capacity on the route to Athens. Croatia Airlines will also increase the seating capacity of flights to Brussels (Belgium), Skopje (Macedonia) and Copenhagen (Denmark) using more A319 aircraft instead of the CRJ1000.

In addition to these scheduled flights, there are also talks going on with two new carriers from Africa and Asia for charter flights for Zagreb Airport's 2020 summer flight schedule.

The situation with coronavirus has a certain negative impact on the traffic in Zagreb, so the situation is being carefully monitored and regular contact is going on between all companies, who are all monitoring their timetable updates on individual direct routes to Zagreb Airport.

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Fancy a coffee in the basement of the fort and "stealing" a recipe from a medieval pantry, seeing three different museums, and visiting the top of the southern part of Medvednica and enjoying a breathtaking view of the Croatian metropolis, Zagreb? At the end of this year, visitors to the legendary Medvedgrad fortress will be able to enjoy all of the above. The beautiful Medvedgrad fortress was built in the 13th century to defend against Tatar attacks, and has never been conquered.

As Vecernji list/Mateja Jezovita writes on the 15th of February, 2020, construction work on the Medvedgrad fortress' third refurbishment, which has been going on since back in November 2018, is currently in its completion phase and in three weeks, everything will be ready for the application for an operational permit. After that, work on landscaping and the museum exhibits will begin, which will run through November. If everything goes according to plan, the official opening of the Medvedgrad fortress will be in December 2020.

The southern tower will house a permanent exhibition called: "In the Kingdom of the Ancient Forests" through which visitors will be able to find out what plant and animal species can be found on Medvednica, such as lynx, deer, wild cats and oak trees. The star will be a small palace where a second exhibition will be housed: ''The Secret of the Ancient Mountain.''

That exhibition will portray the myths and legends of Medvednica through motifs from the forest, such as fairies. In addition, installations called the "Shadow Theatre" will be installed. With a combination of sound, light and shadows, as well as a smoky effect in the room, a costumed guide will introduce visitors to folk tales, such as the one about the so-called Black Queen. The whole experience will be complemented by a pantry where you can see medieval objects and recipes, as well as smell them as if they came directly into the present day from the 13th century. The Grand Palace, however, will have its own "Enchanted History" which will be a time machine through the past of the mountains and Medvedgrad, which has been ruled by more than 150 different masters.

''This part of the Medvedgrad fortress will also include a restaurant, an administrative office and a hall that can be used to hold professional meetings, presentations and educational workshops. Old tiles were specially commissioned 35 years ago, so the requirement was that the same ones should be placed again despite the fact that they are no longer on the market.

''In the end, we found some that are very similar,'' explained the director of Medvednica Nature Park, Marina Popijac.

''Since Medvedgrad is not connected to the water supply, rainwater will be used. That's why we've installed a flushing system,'' said Josip Kujek, the construction manager. They had a big problem, he added, with waterproofing the wall in that room because they couldn't dig outside without damaging the archaeological site. A solution was found in injection, which means that through the special openings on the inside, they released a resin that filled the holes on the outside. As for the smaller palace, that was also a particular challenge.

''The interior was in the worst condition possible, it was completely shabby. We removed the old ceiling panels and installed new ones, and painted and varnished the wooden structure. There used to be land here, and now we have put up panels that mimic the former "peasant" floor,'' said Kujek.

Any material used in the restoration had to be approved by the appropriate institution in order to maintain its original appearance.

''Everything should retain its original appearance. So we tried out dozens of different grout fillings that differed only in their hues until we found the most similar one, which was almost identical to the one of the past. All the walls have been restored, and so far 4,000 square metres have been "drained" explained Marina Popijac and Josip Kujek.

The construction part of the Medvedgrad fortress is now nearing completion, with minor repairs expected over the next few months, and a plan that will include, among other things, the introduction of new trails that will allow pedestrians to walk through and around the fortress. The list also includes the purchase of two electric cars to transport visitors from Zagreb to Medvednica, as well as eight electric bicycles that can be rented.

Video surveillance is yet to be installed, which, according to the director of the Nature Park, will be an important novelty in Medvedgrad.

"We could have used some cameras just a few weeks ago as some vandals broke in and smashed a forklift truck and glass. Fortunately, the Homeland Altar, as it isn't being restored, was protected by pallets and tarpaulins during the works, which now serve as a "defense" against devastation,'' said the director of the Medvednica Nature Park, Marina Popijac.

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In spite of the extremely high temperatures in June and now in early July, the streets of Zagreb are filled with tourists, zagreb.info writes, who are breaking the tourism records of the capital.

While the most oft-repeated cliche about the shortcoming of Croatian tourism is just selling "the sun and the sea", Zagreb is successful, and it doesn't have the sea as the selling point. Without the sea around, the sun can be more of a liability when it gets really hot!

So, what has Zagreb done to make up for its obvious lack of the seaside? They've created a bunch of events taking place during the summer, that the tourist agencies can use to attract the tourists. And while Advent in Zagreb still remains the biggest tourist event for the Croatian capital, other events have helped Zagreb outgrow many other towns in Croatia, some of them located on the seaside and with a much longer tourist tradition. Zagreb has managed to find its position on the long list of the European city-break destinations, in all seasons.

The recently reported numbers prove that trend: in April of 2019 more than 10.000 more arrivals have been recorded in Zagreb, compared to April 2018. In the same period, more than 24.000 more overnight stays have also been recorded! Most tourists come to Zagreb from Korea, which is not surprising if you've recently taken a walk around the city centre. In April alone this year, they accounted for more than ten thousand arrivals. Almost seven thousand tourists came to Zagreb from Italy this April, and Germany and China follow.

The number of arrivals is continuously growing in 2019, as well as the total yearly number of arrivals since 2014! It is to be expected that the trend will continue in the really hot months of the year, as last year over 160.000 arrivals were recorded in Zagreb. A lot of those tourists do make their way to the seaside, but the tourist workers of Zagreb have found the way to keep them in the city for a few days, which is what makes those numbers so impressive.

Once the hot days of summer are over, we'll start getting ready for the craziness of Advent in Zagreb in December, which can be expected to break more tourism records.

Read more about Zagreb on our dedicated Zagreb page!

December the 5th, 2018 - Advent in Zagreb is well and truly bringing the Croatian capital into the joyous atmosphere of the festive season, and the three time winner of the best advent destination in Europe is offering what it usually does at this time of year, once again - free public transport use at weekends.

As studentski.hr writes, the City of Zagreb has provided Zagreb's residents and tourists alike with the free use of the city's public transport every weekend for the duration of Advent in Zagreb, which will last until January the 6th, 2019.

Zagreb's long standing mayor Milan Bandić confirmed for a previous HRT radio show that the capital's trams and buses operating in zone 1 will not charge for their services on weekends during the period of the current advent festivities in the Croatian capital. The move comes as no surprise and has been the norm during advent.

Nevertheless, a small change is that one of Zagreb's most popular attractions, the Zagreb funicular (Uspinjača), which will be transporting passengers to midnight, has to be paid for as normal for the entire duration of Advent in Zagreb, which has otherwise not been the case over the past few years.

To be more specific, Zagreb's public transport will be free during the period from Friday at 12:00 (midday) to Sunday at midnight. It should be noted that during this period, traffic will be prohibited in certain otherwise busy areas, those areas are Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square (Zrinjevac), Strossmayer Square, and King Tomislav Square, where only public transport vehicles may be used during the aforementioned periods.

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Click here for the original article by Anton Smrekar for studentski.hr

Source: HRT

While Zagreb out-shined its coastal rivals by far, the post-August drop is still steep.

Wine roads, bike routes, numerous events and a rich gastronomical offer, coupled with the immediate vicinity of the City of Zagreb and the opening of several new hotels have transformed Zagreb County into a year-round destination. A 34 percent increase in tourism confirms that fact.

The fair has been moved from December this year, to May next year.

EU funds help Zagreb's tourism take on a new perspective.

A face lift for Zagreb Fair?