The Spirit of Old Zagreb

The host of its restaurants, coffee bars and boutiques, which continue the tradition of Zagreb's craftsmen and merchants, reflect the spirit of old Zagreb which pervades through Tkalčićeva Street, a street which is a magnet for tourists who can be seen there throughout the year.

The colorful Tkalčićeva Street, in the very heart of the city, still reflects the spirit of old Zagreb. The street is lined with restaurants, cafés and boutiques which continue the tradition of Zagreb's craftsmen and merchants. The numerous events that are staged there almost throughout the whole year attract many tourists and give a special charm and vivacity to the street.

Tkalčićeva Street used to be called Potok /brook/ after a brook that existed there before the street was constructed and during the Middle Ages flowed through the valley between the old Zagreb settlements of Gradec and Kaptol. The water in the brook was used to power the mills on its banks which supplied the citizens of Zagreb with flour up to the second half of the 19th century. In the 18th century, the brook valley was also the place where the first of Zagreb's factories were built – the manufactures of cloth, soap, paper, liqueurs and stonemasonry. The leather factory, constructed in 1864, developed into the largest industrial plant at the time in Zagreb. 

As a result of industrial development the water became polluted. The brook had to be covered and its waters diverted into the Ribnjak valley, and later on, all the way to the Sava River. This was done in 1898 within the framework of the biggest contemporary communal project – the construction of the city sewage. At that time, the name of the new street was Potok, and in 1913, it was renamed Tkalčićeva Street after the great historian Ivan the Baptist Tkalčić who had dedicated his whole life to the study of the history of the Zagreb Diocese and the City of Zagreb.

Today, Tkalčićeva Street is one of Zagreb's most attractive streets, a place where life throbs in front of cafes and restaurants which remain open until the small hours of the night. The street is also the seat of the Society of the Naive Artists of Croatia, and its central part is proudly dominated by a statue of the great Croatian female writer and the first Croatian female journalist, Marija Jurić – Zagorka