Zagreb [antikvár]

THE TOWN (extract) A city set between the lakes of Maksimir And quietly sleeping marble Mirogoj, Pulsing with machines, barges, factories. The arteries of its life-blood Branching out to the banks of the Sava And the meadows of Dubrava. Its old name glistens proudly in the sunshine And the yellow headlights of its traffic From the pennons of the fingerposts. A city carrying in its breast the grey heart Of the capital of the Croats And the kind soul of the Southern Slavs. Miroslav Slavko Maáer A CITY WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CITY The slte of modern Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and the second largest town in Yugoslavia, was occupied in Román times by a major settlement called Andautonia, which probably continued in existence even after the Croats had settled in these parts in the 8th c. A. D. But there are no historical records of Zagreb until 1094 when it became the seat of a newly founded bishopric. But as episcopal sees were never set up in an uninhabited area, it is most likely that a major settlement had existed there for somé time before. Equally, we may well suppose that the neighbouring Gradec hill was already inhabited at that time, although the settlement was not recorded in history until 1242. In that year the Croato-Hungarian king Bela IV, fleeing before the Tartars, found refuge in Gradec. In return for the cordial hospitality accorded to him, the king presented the city with a Golden Bull, letters patent which proclaimed it a "free royal city". It is to these two events — the foundation of a bishopric and the presentation of the Golden Bull — that Zagreb owes its subsequent development and importance. Kaptol, the seat of the bishop, soon became not only the religious but alsó economic and political centre of a large diocese. Its bishops were not only spiritual but alsó temporal dignitaries, members of the Sabor (National Assembly) and