The Lower Town & the Green Horseshoe: the back story

About The Lower Town & the Green Horseshoe: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Zagreb Editorial Team

Below the old hilltop towns, 19th-century Zagreb planned a new city on a grid of streets, the Lower Town, Donji Grad. Its crown is the Green Horseshoe, Lenuci’s Horseshoe, a U-shaped chain of seven squares and parks lined with the museums, theatres and palaces of a growing capital.

A planned city

In the second half of the 19th century, Zagreb grew quickly, and the city planned a new district on the plain below the hills, with straight streets, apartment buildings and grand public buildings in the styles of Vienna and Budapest.

The Green Horseshoe

The engineer Milan Lenuci is remembered as the man behind the Green Horseshoe, a U of seven squares and parks running from Zrinjevac to King Tomislav Square and the Botanical Garden, then back up past the Croatian National Theatre. Along it stand the Art Pavilion, the Academy of Sciences, the Archaeological Museum, the Mimara Museum, the Museum of Arts and Crafts and the National Theatre.

Seen from above, the Lower Town’s parks form a giant green U.

Secession and modernism

Around 1900, Zagreb’s architects embraced the Secession, the Central European Art Nouveau, and the Lower Town is full of its curving facades, mosaics and ironwork. Look up as you walk along Masarykova, Preradovićeva and around Flower Square.

The Lower Town today

Today the Lower Town is Zagreb’s living room: the café terraces of the špica, shops on Ilica and Flower Square, the theatres and the museums, with trams gliding past the parks.

Our advice: walk the Horseshoe in a loop from Zrinjevac to the Botanical Garden and back past the National Theatre, stopping at one museum; in December, the parks host the city’s Advent celebrations.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Lower Town & the Green Horseshoe: the back story before you go.