Block - European Capitals: Zagreb

ZAGREB Zagreb’s history is shaped by the intersection of divergent influences. Situated between continental Europe and the Mediterranean, the Republic of Venice and the Habsburg Empire, the city served as a bulwark against invaders from the north, and thethe Ottoman advance from the east, eventually shed its fortifications and, in the wake of the revolutionary upsurge of 1848, embraced a modernity befitting its future as the Croatian capital—a transformation symbolized by the equestrian statue of Ban Jelačić. Zagreb is a city of duality, distinguishing between secular and religious powers—two well-defined urban entities on the slopes of Medvednica Mountain— with, on the one hand, Gradec, home to its parliament (Sabor) and St. Mark’s Church, where the governors (bans) came to take their oaths, and, on the other hand, the ecclesiastical city of Kaptol, consecrated by its cathedral. Although a bridge known as the “Bloody Bridge” (Krvavi most) once connected them, conflicts—like the river—eventually found a peaceful resolution that absorbed them into a string of cafés along Tkalčićeva Street. Today, a cable car connects this ancient upper town to the lower town, which has expanded according to a horseshoe-shaped urban layout, alternating public parks with scientific, artistic, and social institutions. Moreover, Zagreb embodies above all a network of connections—those that link Croatian culture to European history and, more broadly still, to a cosmopolitan history. Once situated along the route of the Orient Express, it is now illuminated by the lights of festivals, naïve art, and animated film, but also by universal emotions—such as the anonymous traces of broken romances collected since 2006 at the Museum of Broken Hearts, where the failure of a relationship becomes a human emotion worthy of remembrance. Arambasin Nella

Timbres et fond de bloc (héliogravure) : création et mise en page Noël Amélie d'ap.photos « pavillon du jardin botanique » © Alamy/Abacapress.com, « pont du jardin botanique » © Alamy/Abacapress.com, « Place du Ban Jelacic », © Dadfar/robertharding/Andia, « Église Saint-Marc » © Robert Harding/Coll.Christophel, « J.J. Strossmayer » © Sue Martin / Alamy Stock Photo, « Le funiculaire vers la ville haute » © Colin DUTTON-Sime / Onlyworld.net, « Porte principale de la cathédrale de l'Assomption » © Gavin GOUGH-Sime / Onlyworld.net, « La porte de pierre » © Hervé CHAMPOLLION / Onlyworld.net.