This trip to Croatia was not only special due to realizing an all time dream of mine, but it also proved to me again something else. Although it is a very small country we discuss here, at the same time, it is extremely rich and diverse in terms of nature, landscape and culture, and the forested area of Plitvice is just one face of this incredible part of Europe. 

For instance, on our way to Rakovica (the village where we settled near the lakes, a beautiful countryside full of hills and farms) we had decided to see Zagreb (in Hungarian: Zágráb), which is not so famous or popular for the people when they think about Croatia. However, it’s still the capital, and if one is just about to cross it anyway, why not to check it?

I have to be honest as always, and although my readers can usually find plenty of appreciation, adoration and praise in my articles about any city I visit, this time I admit that Zagreb is not really going to take a place in my heart.

I had already heard it before that I should not have great expectations, but if one knows me, they also know that I can find the treasure everywhere - so did I in the Croatian capital, but apart from some historical town houses, monuments, castles, the colors and flowers I saw everywhere, the city’s overall picture did not convince me to return, although the surroundings of Zagreb would still keep some other surprises for me in that case.

Partly this average experience was not the city’s fault, but actually it was about bad timing: unfortunately (and from the other hand, regarding the future also fortunately) most of the city was under renovation meaning that we could not see the enormous hall of the Zagreb Cathedral and its towers in their entire beauty, which could have been very interesting also due to the representations of iconic Hungarian kings St.Stephen and St. Ladislaus. 

Neither could we visit the famous St. Mark’s Church (Crkva sv. Marko) which has become famous for its roof, since its red and white tiles borrow the building the pattern of šahovnica ('chessboard'): the Croatian squares many people know at least due to the football fans, but you can also notice this very old historical symbol in the coat-of-arms of the country.

There are many theories how these motives were developed: those being less romantic and looking always for scientific explanations state that it comes from a type of swamp lily, kockavica (‘little squared’), because its looks like having petals with red and white squares. I have checked photos of it, and although it is more like purple than red for me, actually that's true!

However, the most fascinating legend on šahovnica is a famous alleged chess party between the king of Croatia and the doge of Venice: some say that the bet was the ownership of the Dalmatian cities, others state that the king was the doge’s hostage and was playing against him in order to retrieve his freedom.

Some versions say there was only one match, others state that there was a third and final round between the two players - anyhow it was, if this party was indeed played, the king won it over the doge and thus the squares represent the most glorious days of the country which later on became the part of the Kingdom of Hungary for 900 years.

If you have a look at the old coat-of-arms of the Kingdom of Hungary showing the so-called 'lands of the Holy Crown', you can recognize that three of those lands belong to Croatia today: apart from šahovnica (Croatia) you can see three crowned lion heads (Dalmatia) and a running marten (Slavonia), which is also interesting, because the old Croatian currency, kuna literally means marten (the animal's fur had an outstanding role in the local trade before).

During this long time the two nations spent together there were many Croatian rulers nowadays whom both people are proud of: they were traditionally called as bans (either from Avar name Bajan or from common Slavic word pan for ‘lord’) and their most notable representative was Miklós Zrínyi (Nikola Zrinski), hero of Szigetvár and his great-grandson bearing the same name, who was not just a military commander, but also an important poet of the Barocque era. 

Other Croatian bans though are rather respected as national heroes only in Croatia. Just like the namesake of the main square (trg) of Zagreb, Josip Jelačić, who is considered as a negative character for example in the history of Hungary due to its rule as a supporter of the Habsburg governance fighting against Hungarians in the war of independence of 1848-49.

The statue, which is an enormous and indeed wonderful work of a horseman, used to point with his sword towards Hungary, but later due to reestablishing the good relationship between the two countries (which apart from this episode covered most of our history together) and also due to the Yugoslav wars now the ban faces Krajina: a territory dwelled by Serbs.

This square was one of the few things that we could successfully visit, but to be honest, apart from the horseman’s statue there was almost nothing else we could see. Until we took the stairs to Dolac, the famous open air market of Zagreb, which was full of vendors, tourists, umbrellas, market stalls, and of course, a lot of local products like fruits, vegetables, honey, cheese, souvenirs and plenty of wine.

After the market, on our way to the Upper Town (Gornji Grad) we also passed by a kind of underpass or former city gate (Kamenita vrata, literally ‘stone gate’) where there is an open chapel with candles and marble plaquets on the hall. Catholicism is still very important even for younger Croats, and I could really notice that it is not just an urban legend at all.

This way we also entered an area full of various and interesting statues including a saleswoman, a bearded scientist, St. George with the dragon and Petrica Kerempuh: a Coraitan folklore hero, bard and mysterious rover whose character is somewhat like Till Eulenspiegel in Germany or the various types of garabonciás ('wandering wizard') in the Hungarian and Balkan folklore. 

The statue has a very strong symbolism with the guitar representing singing, art and music, while the rope representing execution and death - the only possible destiny of the brave ones for centuries who challenged the tyrants, stood up for the oppressed Croats and dared to say the truth out loud…

I also need to mention the two viewing spots of the city which somehow compensated the fact that we could not see a lot in terms of architecture: one of them was the terrace near Lotrščak tower that one can also approach by funiculars - similar vehicles to the ones at Buda and Ljubljana castles.

The tower’s name might sound familiar, since it comes from Latin word latro: therefore the name means more or less ‘tower of thieves’ (literally: 'tower of lators', but never used like that in English), and the reason beyond is its old bell called ‘bell of thieves’ (campana latrunculorum) which was rang before closing the city gates in the evening.

Although Zagreb’s river, Sava was not visible from this perspective, we could see and recognize almost all the most remarkable pieces of architecture including the National Theatre and some further palaces we did not have the time to visit. 

The other spot was next to the Zagreb castle (within the area of the castle hill called Gradec), which reminded me a little bit to the view of Tuscany I had in Palazzo Pitti in Florance: maybe it is a reckless association, but the green hills in the distance reminded me to something more Mediterranean than Central- or Eastern-European.

I wish I could have visited more of the green belts and parks of the city, but unfortunately we did not have time for everything - for example, it was not possible to visit Medvegrad (In Hungarian: Medvevár, meaning literally ‘Bear’s Castle’) either, which would have really been the experience of a real huge fortress on the top of the mountains, probably with a very amazing view.

Fortunately, the fate and my curiosity of examining the map all the time helped me with this special wish for authentic castles, and finally I found it out that there is also an fabulous stone castle called Dubovac (in Hungarian: Dombóc) in another important Croatian city nearby called Karlovac (Károlyváros).

Although it has always been an important city in the region, nowadays most of the Hungarians might have heard about it because the one and only imported and widespread Croatian beer in our country, Karlovačko comes from there (although I need to admit that I insisted to my nostalgia towards Laško aka Zlatorog from Slovenia). 

The bad news number one was that the other sights within the city centre of Karlovac were under renovation as well, and, additionally, a great summer storm was coming, but even this way we could have at least a short overview on Dubovac castle in the outskirts of the city, which lies along river Kupla.

It was not just the tiny stone building itself that reminded me to the finest castles of Slovenia, Poland and Czechia (Bohemia) but the woods and the nature all around also brought back the medieval Slavic vibes full of myths which I always admired, such as Będzin, Sevnica and Laško: so some of the most marvelous memories of castles came back for a few seconds. Just before it began to rain…

I also had the opportunity to visit a similar castle in a completely different place, and it is just the top of everything that I also did it in the very last moment, just before another summer shower.

This other destination was Drežnik Grad not so far from our accommodation in Rakovica, basically on the half way towards Plitvice lakes and it laid on a very picturesque, romantic high plain, just on the top of some rocks, surrounded by an abyss, while river Korana (which is actually being ‘born’ at the lakes) was flowing beneath. 

This miraculous castle, although it was mostly in ruins, showed the point of the constant renovation projects in Croatia: namely, the wooden top and the upper part of the watch tower was completely reconstructed and visitable for free, accompanied by a small exhibition of weapons.

Apparently my idea was not as crazy as I had thought, because I imagined Drežnik Grad as an extinct place, and although the wilderness around indeed suggested an eerie and abandoned area full of ghosts and fairies, by the time when we got to the castle, there was a sort of medieval festival and there was some life going on among the former walls.

These were my experiences and explorations on the continental lands, medieval castles and ancient forests of Croatia, but as the title of these new series of articles suggests, we have not finished our trip yet. Next time we are moving to a more typical, but not less interesting part of the country: the legendary Adriatic Sea...