ZAGREB, November 5, 2018 - Canada's Cirque du Soleil and the film "Avatar" have joined forces for a multisensory spectacle called "Toruk - The First Flight", which will be performed in Zagreb on December 7-9.

"Toruk - The First Flight", which premiered in 2015, has been seen by almost 1.5 million people and performed over 350 times in some 50 cities around the world. It was inspired by James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster "Avatar".

"Installations such as the impressive 13-metre-high Dream Catcher, a 20-square metre kite, Toruk, with a 12-metre wing span, a six-legged mythical creature, numerous costumes, puppets, visual effects and amazing animation will certainly leave Croatian audiences breathless too," according to an announcement of the two-hour performance.

The story takes the audience back 3,000 years before the events depicted in "Avatar", bringing to life on stage the mythical world of Pandora and the Na'vi people.

According to the show’s description on the Cirque du Soleil’s website, “in a stunning light inspired by James Cameron’s Avatar, Cirque du Soleil transports you to the world of Pandora in a visually stunning live setting.”

Cirque du Soleil productions have been seen by more than 180 million people in over 420 cities on all six continents. The company has sold more than 10 million tickets and employs nearly 4,000 people, including 1,300 performers from 50 countries.

To read more lifestyle stories about Croatia, click here.

ZAGREB, November 4, 2018 - The Russian Federation's President Vladimir Putin on Sunday awarded a decoration to the mayor of the Croatian capital city of Zagreb, Milan Bandić, for his efforts in strengthening friendship between the nations, according to a press release issued by the Office of the Zagreb Mayor.

During the ceremony, Bandić said that he expected the continuation of the enhancement of cooperation between the Croatian and the Russian people.

President Putin thanked the recipients of the Order of Friendship for their contribution to the promotion of the relations with Russia and its culture.

To read more about Zagreb’s Mayor Milan Bandić, click here.

The association ‘Dinamo, That’s Us’ announced on Sunday morning that Zdravko Mamić had been removed from Dinamo; deleted from the club’s Membership Registry. GNK Dinamo, on the other hand, quickly denounced the claim to say that Zdravko Mamić is still very much a part of the Zagreb club. 

The PGT Škunca company has prepared a study for the development of traffic in the Zagreb city centre, and comments on the study, which can be found on the city’s official website, can be sent until the end of this month. The main idea of the proposal is to turn the centre into a “sharing zone” for cars and bicycles, reports Večernji List on November 4, 2018.

Even if everything goes according to the plans, the new system will take five years to be fully implemented.

The plans include changes in the parking areas as well as the removal of bike paths from the sidewalks. Bikes will be moved to the streets themselves where they supposedly will be equal to cars in most of the Lower Town area. The plan drafted for the city administration is based on the so-called “sharrow” principle, which includes the joint development of vehicle and bicycle traffic. The public consultation period will last until December 3.

That means that in the whole wider city centre, the recommended speed for cars will be 30 kilometres per hour, as it already is in Gajeva, Primorska, Kranjčevićeva and Preradovićeva streets which have been repaved in the last two years. Street markings there already warn drivers about the presence of cyclists, as well as the fact that they are supposed to give them enough room at the traffic light stops.

“Red boxes” will not appear in all the streets, while in the streets where the traffic is faster, such as Branimirova and Heinzelova streets, bicycles will remain on the sidewalks where they are now.

Although the study covers the whole of Lower Town, there are some areas where traffic lane sharing is impossible, for example in Klaićeva Street. “We retain the current state of affairs, noting that the entire south side of the street is not in line with the rules, while the northern side is problematic as well at the children’s hospital, where the lane is narrow,” the document says.

Savska Street will also not see the shared traffic approach. It will have a two-way bicycle path that will be connected to another one, coming from Gjure Deželića Drive.

The Victims of Fascism Square will get a circular one-way bicycle path, wide about a metre, where traffic is supposed to run in the counter-clockwise direction.

Interestingly, there are several areas of the city centre which the study admits are too complicated for the proper solution to be found at this time.

If you want to read more local news about Zagreb, click here.

Translated from Večernji List (reported by Mateja Šobak).

Advent in Zagreb has seen Croatia's capital go from strength to strength in terms of tourism over the last few years.

Attracting visitors from all over the world and gaining the title of the Best European Advent Destination for three years running, Advent in Zagreb isn't messing around when it comes to turning the city into a winter wonderland to get you ready for the most wonderful time of the year. Scrooge or not, it's hard to resist Zagreb at this time of year.

As 24sata writes on the 3rd of November, 2018, Zagreb's tourist board has its fingers crossed that this year will also be a great one, with the aim of attracting a record number of arrivals and overnight stays. 

This year, the much loved Advent in Zagreb will begin on December the 1st, and as Martina Bienenfeld, the director of the Zagreb Tourist Board told RTL, the christmas spirit and cheer is spreading out over the city much more, and advent will also take to some new locations across the capital.

Advent in Zagreb's organisers are already claiming that this year will be the most beautiful to date, and things have already got started.

There are already decorations being readily put up along the streets of Zagreb, given the fact that, as previously mentioned, this year things kick off as early as December the 1st with a little warm up taking place just a few days earlier.

As Bienenfeld stated, Advent in Zagreb will take to some brand new locations in the city, and owing to that some of the locations people have frequented in the past few years will naturally be overlooked, therefore they will be shut down.

To briefly recall Advent in Zagreb's incredible rise to fame and recognition, Zagreb's advent has been proclaimed to be the most beautiful in Europe for three years running and continues to attract very high numbers to Croatia's previously very much overlooked capital city. The Christmas spirit will stay in the capital in the form of advent for five weeks.

Want to stay up to date with Advent in Zagreb and what's going on in the capital? Make sure to follow Total Zagreb and keep yourself in the loop.

ZAGREB, November 4, 2018 – The University of Zagreb Day and the beginning of the 350th academic year was celebrated at the Croatian National Theatre on Saturday at a ceremony which heard that this university is one of the oldest Croatian institutions which has been continuously contributing to the preservation of Croatian science, tradition and culture.

On 23 September 1669, under a decree by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Croatia, the Jesuit Academy in the royal free city of Zagreb was given the status and privileges of a university, which the legislature of the Kingdom of Croatia adopted on 3 November 1671. Therefore, the University of Zagreb accepts 1669 as the year of its foundation and November 3 as its day.

Rector Damir Boras said the University was one of the oldest institutions in Croatia and that autonomy was one its most important features.

It has 34 components and about 70,000 students, it is one of Europe's 15 biggest universities, and since 1874, when the modern University of Zagreb was opened, more than five million students have graduated from it.

The University's task is to implement programmes of strategic importance for Croatia, Boras said, adding that this year there were 149 undergraduate, 33 integrated and 163 graduate study programmes.

The University of Zagreb is highly desirable for studies and 100,000 students who participated in a poll gave its teachers a grade of four on a scale of one to five, Boras said. The University has the leading role in research and innovation the region, having won 98 awards at innovation fairs, which makes it the most awarded institution in the field of innovation, and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing leads in the number of patents, he added.

It has six centres of excellence and is successfully absorbing European funds for regional development.

Boras underlined the importance of financing science and education in line with GDP growth so as to meet the target of 1.4 to 2% in line with strategic documents adopted by parliament. He noted that the current outlays for that were below the European Union average.

Curricula and study programmes should be aligned with social and labour market needs and the University, having a prominent role in the schooling of socially responsible persons, should be a partner and not a service to employers, said Boras.

Read more about Croatia's education system here.

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić has published the lineup of the Croatia national football team for the upcoming games against Spain and England in the UEFA Nations League. 

Property prices in Croatia are a popular talking point, and just as with everything else in the country, there are usually huge variations depending upon the area of the country you choose.

Dubrovnik is well known for its extortionate property prices, with Split also quickly following suit, with Zagreb and the capital city's surroundings not yet in the same range, but being quickly on the rise.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 1st of November, 2018, despite the country's ever-concerning demographic crisis and the steady flow of emigration of Croatia's often very talented youth, coupled with more stringent lending standards, the general demand for apartments and other types of homes isn't decreasing, yet. For example, apartment prices in Zagreb are already close to the formerly historically high levels they were at around ten years ago when it was far from abnormal to pay over 2,000 euros per square metre for a relatively average apartment in an older building in the city.

While real estate prices continue to rise only very slightly throughout the European Union as a whole, the increase in property prices in Croatia compared to the EU average is, probably surprisingly to some, rather striking. Property prices in Croatia rose by an impressive 8.5 percent in the first quarter of this year when compared to the growth seen during the same period last year. In the last quarter of 2017, prices rose by 7.6 percent, according to a report by tportal.

Njuškalo conducted its monthly survey back in September this year, and the results quite clearly show that apartment prices in Croatia rose by 7.13 percent year-on-year, and house prices grew slightly more than four percent.

The most expensive apartments can be found, rather unsurprisingly, in Croatia's southernmost city, Dubrovnik, where the average market price is about 3,811 euros per square metre, in Split, prices stand at 2,744 euros per square metre, while the average in the capital city of Zagreb, while steadily on the up, remains significantly lower, at 1,917 euros per square metre.

The popular Dalmatian city of Zadar stands out in terms of growth, and the average square metre in an apartment increased by 12 percent, and is now generally sold at 2,075 euros.

Want to find out more about property prices in Croatia, business, investments and the general state of play of Croatia's domestic economy? Make sure to follow our business page.

“Not in your house but still at home” is an old Viennese saying about cafes which sums up in one sentence the true meaning of this Central European, and thus the Croatian institution. The home away from home for many residents of Zagreb for years was the Kavkaz (Kazališna Kavana) cafe, which was closed for a long time. On Monday, October 29, 2018, it opened its doors to journalists and presented its updated and renovated interiors.

The legendary “Kavez”, as the cafe is often informally known, owes its reputation as a cultural oasis to renowned writers and artists who enjoyed spending time there: from Matoš and Ujević to Šimić and Krleža, but also to the fact that it is located in the very city centre opposite the Croatian National Theatre building. Kavkaz had an important place in the more recent history as well, as part of the Kavkaz-Zvečka-Blato trio. The cafe’s popularity reached its peak just during the New Wave period in the 1980s.

However, the cafe lost its former glory in recent years but the new owner, entrepreneur Tomislav Rajić from Zagreb, decided to change that, in cooperation with the designer and architect Mirta Mujačić Đaković. “Creating the new-old Kavkaz was a challenge, primarily because of the state it was in. Many doorways were walled up, basement and stairs were out of use... We decided to go in the direction of returning some of the architectural details from the past, opening all three floors using natural materials, with the aim of emphasizing the elegance of the entire space. We wanted to return the culture to the city, re-link the cafe with the theater and give it the significance it deserves. We also hope to encourage more similar projects throughout the city,” said Mirta Mujačić Đaković, who worked on the project together with her colleague Nika Fatović.

The strong connection with the theatre can be seen in every corner of the newly-renovated cafe – from the original Vatroslav Lisinski’s handwriting applied to the ceiling above the entrance to numerous posters from the history of the Croatian National Theatre (HNK), historical photos and original designs which decorate the walls.

The design of visual identity and the collection of historical material from the archives of HNK and the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAZU) were done by the expert team from theKuharić Matoš agency, which also designed the new cafe logo. “Kavkaz is one of the most important venues in the historical centre of Zagreb. Although it changed several styles in its 120-year history, it has remained carved into the cultural heritage of Zagreb as a well-known gathering place for intellectuals, artists and bohemians. Therefore, our goal was to create a visual identity that will communicate the historical legacy and connectivity with the Croatian theatre, reminding us of the golden age of Kavkaz, and recreate it into a venue that is currently the only real cafe in the city,” said Luka Kuharić, Pavao Kuharić and Bojan Matoš.

The internal and external transformation is not the only novelty in the Kavkaz concept, which has now received several new features. The 500-square-metre Kavkaz now includes a restaurant/wine bar, and the venue will host various exhibitions related to the theatre, under the leadership of renowned costume designer Dženisa Pecotić. “In addition to exhibited artifacts, such as costumes, sketches and scene models, the new features include a newly-developed area in the cellar section of the cafe called Theatrical Route, which will be used to announce opening nights at the theatre, evoke memories of some of the great performances and their authors with costume and scene elements, and welcome various artists. We have paid particular attention to waiters' dresses, which have been designed with details from the theatre curtain that means so much for all artists,” said Dženisa Pecotić.

Visit the cafe at the corner of Masarykova Street and the Republic of Croatia Square and re-discover the legendary attraction of Kavkaz.

For more news on Zagreb, visit our dedicated section.

October 29, 2018 - The Croatian medical tourism story continues with one of the leading global health travel experts Ilan Geva visiting Zagreb and Crikvenica next week.  

I am quite new to the Croatian medical tourism scene, despite having covered tourism in Croatia for a number of years, and the more I investigate, the more excited about the possibilities. I will confess that it was a surprise to find the level of excellence on offer in a number of medical fields when I did my initial research for Health Tourism is Coming Home: Why Zagreb is the Next Health Tourism Hot Spot. 

The one big difference between health tourism and mainstream tourism in Croatia is that the majority of players are in the private sector, and as such, tend to be more driven and progressive. After just a few months of watching the Croatian health tourism sector from distance, I am a little breathless after years of the slow pace of progress of tourism in Croatia. 

Next week is another big week for the industry, with the Crikvenica International Health Conference the main event, which will have several keynote speakers, including medical travel expert, Ilan Geva, who will be combining his trip with an invitation-only workshop in Zagreb hosted by one of the pioneers of medical tourism in Croatia, Bagatin Clinic.  

Ilan Geva is a global Medical Travel expert, specializing in branding and consumer behavior who provides consulting, teaching, training and help in practicing and implementing all brand touchpoints. He develops and creates Brand platforms including brand vision, brand strategy & brand personality, using strategic business solutions for multinational, national and regional entities. His work has won over 100 industry awards around the world. Ilan assisted health ministries, medical tourism councils, destinations, hospitals clinics and doctors. Ilan Geva is a global Medical Travel expert, specializing in branding and consumer behavior who provides consulting, teaching, training and help in practicing and implementing all brand touchpoints. He develops and creates Brand platforms including brand vision, brand strategy & brand personality, using strategic business solutions for multinational, national and regional entities. His work has won over 100 industry awards around the world. Ilan assisted health ministries, medical tourism councils, destinations, hospitals clinics and doctors.

After his workshop at Bagatin Clinic in Zagreb, Ilan Geva will be heading to the Crikvenica on the Adriatic coast as a keynote speaker at the Crikvenica International Health Tourism Conference on November 8-9, with a presentation title: “How to use TRUST in building the brand of your country, hospital, and people” For more information on Ilan Geva and the rest of the conference in Crikvenica, visit the official conference website. 

To follow the latest in the Croatian medical tourism story, follow the dedicated TCN medical tourism channel.