History of Zagreb

The region has been inhabited since the 8^th c BCE.  The Halstatt culture migrated here from Austria and lived in the region from the 8^th c. BCE to the 6^th c. BCE.  During an archaeological excavation on the northeast plateau, cobblestone floors, cooking and heating hearths and earthenware pots were uncovered from this period.  They were followed by the Celtic-based La Tène culture.  Archaeological excavations under the Zagreb Town Museum uncovered a metalworking workshop from this culture.  Much later, in the 7th c. CE, Romans settled the area and founded the town of Andautonia.  They were followed by the Slavs, who settled in the region after the 8th c. CE.  The Slavs built forts and churches in the region.

Founding of Kaptol
The most important event in the founding of Zagreb occurred in 1093, when King Laszlo (Ladislav I) established the Zagreb bishopric, Zagrebačke biskupije.  He attached the new bishopric to the see of Ostrogan (in Hungary) as opposed to the archdiocese in Spilt; linking the new diocese to the latter would have followed convention.  He associated the new diocese to the Ostrogan see in order to put the northern Croatian regions under tighter Hungarian control.  

The diocese was based in the ecclesiastical settlement known as Kaptol.  Derived from Latin Capitulum, Kaptol roughly translates to "cathedral chapter". A cathedral was consecrated in 1217 and a canonical settlement developed to the north of the church.  In the 12th c. CE, the settlement grew mainly through the influx of Latin immigrants, known as Vicas Latinorum.

Mongol Invasion
In the middle of the 13th c. CE, the Mongols invaded Europe from the East.  After the decimated the Hungarian army at Miskolc, King Bela IV and his court fled to Zagreb with the Mongols chasing them.  It became apparent that the royal court needed to continue its retreat and headed to the Dalmatian coast.  The Mongols arrived at Kaptol in 1242 and destroyed the young settlement.  Legend states that the eastern invaders stabled their horses in the cathedral before destroying it.  The Mongols left the settlement and eventually cornered the king at the coastal town of Trogir.  The Mongols retreated, after learning of the death of their leader; they would no longer be a threat to the region.

Kaptol and Gradec
Though it was an expensive endeavor that the town's citizens needed to fund themselves, rebuilding Kaptol was done quickly.  On the recommendation of Pope Innocent IV, Medvedgrad was constructed as a castle and fortification.  Completed in 1254, the fortifications included double walls, a moat, a residential palace, a chapel and cistern.  The two guard towers faced south so that the invasions by foreign forces could be seen before they arrived at the "front door".  It was considered one of the finest examples of early Gothic architecture in Croatia.  Unfortunately, it was destroyed during an earthquake on 15 September 1590.

A small settlement, initially known as Grič, formed on the west side of the Kaptol; the two settlements were separated by the Medveščak stream, also known as the Cirkvenik.  Its name later was changed to Gradec, which means "fortress", and it served as the civic settlement in the region.  In 1266, King Bela IV issued a Golden Bull proclaiming that neighboring Gradec was a royal free town.  This status meant that the town's residents were subject only to the king, rather than an intermediate layer of royalty.  Though this honor freed them from costly obligations, the citizens still were obliged to pay an annual tribute to the king, which included an ox, one thousand loaves of bred and a barrel of wine.  

The issuance of  the Golden Bull provided the catalyst for growth of Gradec.  It prospered as an important link in the trade routes between the Hungarian interior and the Adriatic coast.  This prosperity attracted a number of immigrants to the city, including Slavs, Hungarians, Germans and Italians.  By the end of the 13^th c. CE, the two settlements, Kaptol and Gradec, were the principal towns in Croatia and Slavonia.  In 1273, the first Slavonian assembly was held in Zagreb.  Known as the Congregatio Regni Totius Sclavoniae Generalis, the assembly proposed thirty-three articles for the ban, or viceroy, to approve; the articles focused in areas of property, judicial procedures and the payment of taxes.  The assembly was composed of bishops, magnates and representatives of the royal boroughs.

Prosperity and Dissent
Gradec and Kaptol thrived in the 13^th c CE and 14^th c CE.  In 1335, a royal palace was built in Gradec to house the royal family.  In 1355, the first pharmacy was opened, while the first salaried teacher was hired five years later.  The settlements also hosted a number of annual fairs; including Saint Mark's, which began in 1256 in the square in front of the church by the same name; and Saint Margaret's from 1372.  

This prosperity led to a deep division between the two hilltop settlements. Each town saw the other as a threat to its own economic and political power.  The communities would unite only three times a year for the two-week fairs that were hosted in the region: Kermin, Saint Mark's, Saint Margaret's.  Scholars have speculated on the real source of this division:

• There were a number of watermills on the aforementioned Medveščak stream.  The town that owned the mills had an economic advantage over the other, so control was vital to maintaining the level of prosperity.
  
• The bishops who resided in Kaptol became increasingly removed from the population, as they strived increase their worldly holdings.  The bishops controlled vast agricultural plots and the serfs that worked in these fields.  As the bishops became more obsessed with profiting from these endeavors, they cared less for their ecclesiastical duties.  The obligations of the serfs to the diocese were particularly harsh, including:
  
  • Plowing and sowing the church estates in the spring,
  • Delivering a piece of cheese, two flat cakes and ten eggs at Easter,
  • Tending and harvesting the church vineyards in the fall, 
  • Building fences, scything pastures and delivering firewood in the winter,
  • Providing a capon, two eggs and two flat cakes at Christmas.

  These tributes were exclusive of any punitive work that may have been levied against those that broke canon or secular laws. 

The rivalry between the two communities often would turn violent.  As an example, the bishops of Kaptol would excommunicate the entire population of Gradec.  As revenge, Gradec would loot and burn buildings in the Kaptol community.  This type of tit-for-tat would continue for several hundred years and grew more violent each century.

The worst violence occurred in 1527.  The successor to the Croatian throne was disputed between the Austrian Hapsburgs and the Hungarian royal family.  The Hapsburgs, supported by Gradec, asserted that Ferdinand II was the legitimate heir, while the Hungarians, supported by Kaptol, claimed that Ivan Zapolyai should ascend to the throne.  This dispute continued for several years, and culminated in the burning of Kaptol by Hapsburg troops.  At a joint session of the Slavonian and Croatia-Dalmatian sabors, Ferdinand II's ascension was affirmed, making him the king of all Croat lands.

The Ottoman Turks
In the 15^th c CE, the Turks started to conquer territory in the region.  Realizing the threat was severe when Bosnia fell to the Turks, Bishop Osvald Thuz ordered the construction of protective walls in 1478 around the town.  It took over forty years (1520) to complete the walls, which were constructed in the early Renaissance style.  The walls contained watch towers that were equipped with guns and cannons and staffed with Spanish mercenaries.

Because of its proximity to the Turkish threat, Pope Leo X described Croatia in 1519 as the Antemurale Christianitatis - the ramparts of Christianity.  By the mid 16^th c CE, the Turks controlled most of Croatia except the two hilltops towns of Gradec and Kaptol and a small strip around Karlovac and Varaždin.  Later in the same century, Petar Berislavič, bishop of Zagreb and ban of Croatia, united the Croatia's noble families to defend the realm.  In 1593, the reinvigorated Croatian army scored a major victory at Sisak, which halted further Turkish advances into southern Europe.

Zagreb, A Capital City
After the victory at Sisak, Zagreb became the capital of a largely-reduced Croatian state.  It was during this period that the term Zagreb, meaning "behind the hill", first started to be used.  In 1609, a new form of government was introduced in attempts of reducing the level of poverty in the city; the citizens of Gradec were able to elect the magistrate directly for the first time.  

The 17^th c. CE was not particularly kind to the new city of Zagreb.  There were three great fires - 1624, 1645 and 1674.  The fire of 1624 started when lightening struck the wooden roof of the town's principal church.  Reconstruction followed each fire, mainly in the Baroque style, which was vogue in the century.  The wooden houses were replaced with large brick mansions, monasteries and churches.  The plague struck twice, in 1647 and 1682.  And the Ottoman threat loomed - the armies had to be reassembled in 1639 to protect the city to protect the city against the Turks.  

The 17^th c. CE also brought religion to Zagreb.  Three major religious orders established presences in the city.  First the Jesuits arrived, taking up residence in the city's southeastern corner.  Next were the Capuchins, who settled in the southwestern corner, followed by the Poor Clare's, who build a convent in the northeastern quadrant.  In addition, Zagreb became a Marian city, which meant that it received patronage from the Virgin Mary and she was grand it that city.  In 1607, the Jesuits founded a grammar school that would become the forerunner to the city's university.  In fact, the Hungarian king Leopold I upgraded the academy to a university in 1669.  Its primary language of instruction was Latin.

By the beginning of the 18^th c. CE, however, Zagreb's luster began to fade.  Its political influence had diminished as it ceded most of its control and influence to the capitals of Budapest and Vienna.  It, therefore, became a provincial outpost for the Habsburg empire.

From Bad to Worse
In the 18^th c. CE, most of the merchant class were German-speaking Austrians, while the nobility were either Austrian or Hungarian.  A visitor walking the streets of Zagreb was more likely to hear German or Hungarian spoken than the native Croatian.   There were no regular newspapers in Zagreb, a fact that did not change until Ephemerides Zagrebienses was published in 1771 in Latin.  In 1742, the Croatian language was advanced with the publication of the first Latin-to-Croatian dictionary, but it would not become the predominant language in Zagreb for another one-hundred years.

Several events in the 18^th c. CE further reduced Zagreb's political influence.  In 1756, the capital of the Croatian lands was moved from Zagreb to Varaždin, which was located about thirty miles north of Zagreb.  When the latter was destroyed totally by fire twenty years later, the capital moved back to Zagreb.  Nine years later, in 1785, Croatia, as a country, was abolished and merged into the Austro-Hungarian empire.  The administration of the former Croatian lands was moved from Zagreb to Zala, in Hungary.  As a result, the Sabor ceded most its powers in 1790 to the Hungarian parliament.  The Croatian body retained control over judicial and education matters, while all other legislation became the jurisdiction of the combined parliament meeting in Pressburg (present-day Bratislava, Slovakia).

Zagreb also was affected by several large-scale changes in the religious landscape.  In 1762, Saint Francis Xavier was proclaimed the patron saint of Gradec.  In 1773, Joseph II abolished all religious orders from the empire, thus forcing the Jesuits and others to leave town.  Five years later, the emperor's Edict of Toleration prompted many Greeks to emigrate to Zagreb, where they became merchants and shop owners.  At the end of the century, the Bishop of Zagreb knocked down part of the protective wall that had divided Kaptol and Gradec for so many years.  This act was done to make room for a driveway in preparation for a royal visit that never took place.

By the end of the 18^th c. CE, the pace of life was very slow.  The diminished political importance of Zagreb greatly reduced the size of the court in the city.  The surviving smaller court consisted of the ban, the households of Kaptol's bishops and a few noble families.  The population of the city had shrunk, as well, to roughly 2800 citizens, who were mostly Germans and Hungarians. 

The Nationalist Movement
In the 19^th c. CE, nationalist movements started in many European countries; Zagreb became the center of the Croatian nationalist movement.  In 1794, the first of the Jacobian agitators appeared in Zagreb.  This group received its motivation from a similar group who attempted to control the proceedings of the French National Assembly during the 1789 revolution through violent means.  The Croatian group erected a "tree of liberty" in Croatia's central square to symbolize their desire for self-determination.  

The long struggle to make Croatian the official language helped to advance the nationalist movement.  In 1827, the Hungarian parliament legislated that Hungarian should be the official language of instruction in all Croatian schools.  This act catalyzed the radicals in the country who wanted to teach the country's youth in the vernacular.  Five years later, a fist fight erupted when a professor attempted to give a lecture in Croatian instead of the customary Latin.  During the same year, 1832, Ljudevit Gaj, an author and south Slav nationalist, applied to the Habsburg authorities to establish two Zagreb newspapers written in Croatian: Novine Horvatske (Croatian News) and Danica (Morning Star).  Permission was granted in July, 1834 and the first edition was printed on 6 January 1835 in the Zagreb dialect. (Croatian has three dialects: kajkavski, spoken in and around Zagreb; čakavski, spoken on the Istrian peninsula and štokavski, which is spoken in Dubrovnik.  The štokavski, known as što, is the dialect in which Croatian is written.)  Within a year, the second newpaper was printed in the što dialect and had changed its name to Ilirske Narodne Novine (Illyrian National News).  In 1847, the Sabor abolished Latin as the official language and replaced it with Croatian.

In the 19^th c. CE, Zagreb experienced a rapid population explosion.  The establishment of a textile industry fueled this growth, which necessitated the construction of a steam-mill and tannery.  As the population grew, new settlements were established on the lower plain below the older cities of Gradec and Kaptol.  In 1865, Donji Grad's (Lower Town) grid layout was established, with the characteristic horseshoe-shaped parks added fifteen years later.  In 1878, the practice of numbering houses (for address purposes) began.  Between 1860 and 1914, the population increased 400%, adding to the 600% growth that had been experienced in the previous sixty years.

In 1850, Gradec, Kaptol and the settlements of the Donji Grad were combined in the Zagreb administrative unit.  Zagreb's first mayor was Josip Kamauf, who previously had held the position of Gradec magistrate.  During this decade, the bishop of Zagreb was elevated to archbishop status.  By 1867,  Zagreb was named the capital of Croatia, which existed as an autonomous region within the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy.  Much of the city was destroyed by the 1180 earthquake, which spawned a construction boom, including the modernization of the many dilapidated neighborhoods and well and the erection of many prestigious public buildings. 

Cultural institutions also were established during this period, including the first public park (1774), the Music Institute (1826), the first theater (1834), the first Croatian opera - Ljubavi Zloba by Vatroslav Lisinski (28 March 1846) and the philharmonic orchestra (1871).

Transportation improved immensely in the 19th c. CE and early 20th c. CE.  In 1862, the first rail link between Zagreb and Vienna was established through Ljubljana.  Eight years later, in 1870, the first rail link with Budapest was established through Gyékényes.  The Austro-Hungarian authorities were reluctant to build east-west railroad to connect Croatian cities with each other, preferring rather to link cities individually with the capitals. This fact made Croatians feel like they lived in Austro-Hungarian colonies, rather than an independent Croatia, further fueling the nationalist movement.  

Zagreb received a horse-drawn public transit system in 1891, which was electrified nineteen years later.  The first automobile was driven on the streets of Zagreb in 1901.

Modern Zagreb
By 1910, more than one-hundred companies were based in Zagreb, in industries including machine-building, textiles, food processing and printing.  In October, 1918, Zagreb became capital of the independent state of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia.  This independence lasted only a short while, as the country joined the federation that would become Yugoslavia.  In 1926, the first radio station started broadcasting from the city.  

In April 1941, the Germans invaded Yugoslavia and entered Zagreb without much resistance.  Ante Pavelić and his Ustaše group established the Nezavisna Država Harvatska (NDH) - the Independent State of Croatia, which was a puppet for the Nazis.  The Ustaše was brutal to the citizens of Zagreb, who were loyal to Tito's Partisan movement.  The latter ultimately freed Zagreb from the clutches of the NDH in 1945.

Post-war Zagreb took a backseat to Belgrade in national and international political influence.  Zagreb became the industrial center for the new socialist republic, but stagnated when most of the industrial profits were transferred to the poorer south.  In the 1950s and 1960s, Novi Zagreb (New Zagreb) began to develop under the watchful eyes of visionary mayor Većeslav Holjevac.  This development occurred south of the Sava River and included the construction of new apartment blocks, the Pleso airport and the city's fairgrounds.  In 1956, Televizije Zagreb started broadcasting television shows to the city.

Moving Forward
On 30 May 1990, Croatia's first multiparty parliament met in Zagreb.  Over a year later, on 25 June 1991, this group proclaimed the sovereignty of Croatia, which drew a quick and decisive attack from the Yugoslav National Army.  On 7 October 1991, Zagreb was bombed by this army, which inflicted damage on Gradec, especially in the area around the Sabor.  This civil war would last for nearly four years, ending with a United Nations brokered peace in August, 1995 through the Dayton Peace Accords.

Zagreb now serves as the capital and principal city of the Croatian Republic. 

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